Chandrabati, the first female poet of Bengal, is a heartbreaking life story

Chandrabati is a sixteenth century poet and the first Bengali female poet in the history of Bengali literature This wise woman composed the Ramayana in Bengali at the behest of her father, among other poems.

Chandrabati, the daughter of Kishoreganj, is the first female poet of Bengal. According to Dinesh Chandra Sen, he was born in about 1550. He was born in Patuar or Patwari village of Kishoreganj district Lifespan The second half of the sixteenth century. Chandrabati introduces herself in the role of self-written Ramayana.

Chandrabati has become immortal in Bengali literature as the author of the immortal love story Malua, Dasyu Kenaram, Ramayana and innumerable folk songs of ‘Maimonsingh Geetika’.

The poet was born in the 16th century (1550 AD) in a village on the river Fuleshwari in the Maijkhapan union, five kilometers north of Kishoreganj district headquarters. Chandrabati's life story is heartbreaking and the consequences are tragic.

In the words of Mu'a Latif, a journalist and writer who seeks regional history and tradition,

While studying in his father's tol, he fell in love with his classmate Jayananda from the same village. Knowing the attitude of his daughter, Banshidas took the initiative to marry her to Jayananda.

The date of marriage is also fixed with the consent of both the parties. Just then the bad news came - Jayananda fell in love with a Muslim woman named Kamala from a nearby village and converted to Islam and married her.

Chandrabati's longing for her childhood sweetheart was shattered in an instant and her life was filled with sadness.

Banshidas tried his best to bring peace to the sad daughter's mind but failed.

In this situation Chandrabati prayed to her father for two grooms. One is to be a virgin and the other is to spend the rest of his life worshiping Shiva by establishing a Shiva temple in his house.

Helpless, Banshidas fulfilled his daughter's prayers and established a Shiva temple on the banks of the Fuleshwari river, giving her the opportunity to concentrate on Shiva's worship and poetry. Chandrabati, under the direction of her father, devoted herself to worshiping Shiva in the morning and evening and composing Ramayana.

But who will break the rules of destiny? So the last incident of life happened. The composition of the poet Ramayana was ruined. A tragic drama took place.

Chandrabati was sitting in the temple writing Ramayana like every day. At this time Jayananda came to Chandrabati to apologize. But Chandrabati rejects Jayananda and closes the doors of the temple.

Unable to win his heart despite hundreds of pleas, Jayananda committed suicide by jumping into the nearby Fuleshwari river, writing the last few farewell poems at the foot of Shiva temple. The steps are:

"You are the companion of childhood, you are the companion of youth

Forgive the crime, you Chandrabati.

Knowing the sinner, Moray did not agree

Farewell is like the birth of Magi Chandrabati. '"

After a long time, Chandrabati came out of the temple, saw some stanzas of poems written by Jayananda and went to the river bank to fetch water to remove its mark from the temple.

But when he saw the body of Jayananda, a classmate of Tol's, playing in the river floating in the river, he started thinking and his heart started bleeding. At one point, Chandrabati jumped into the Fuleshwari river and died.

As a result of Chandrabati's demise, the work of composing Ramayana remained unfinished. That unfinished Ramayana is still preserved in the library of Calcutta University, bearing the memory of Chandrabati, the first female poet of Bengal.

The novelty of Chandrabati's Ramayana composition is in his vision. She portrays Sita as a heroic woman in the Ramayana. In this, Sita has been made the main character with predominance over Ram. We see the expression of modern thought in this new style and construction of Sita character. Through this, Chandrabati has presented herself as a feminist.

Chandrabati has composed a new ‘Ramayana’ combining her personal life experience and life philosophy. Contemporary researchers have dubbed it 'Sitayan'.

We came to know Chandrabati, the daughter of Kishoreganj, the first female poet of Bengali literature, through Chandrakumar, the collector of Maimonsingh Geetika in Kedarnath Majumdar's 'Sourav'.

When the article titled 'Women Poet Chandrabati' was published in Sourav monthly from Mymensingh, it was Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen caught his eye. After that, he and Chandrakumar De Mille rescued many ballads written by Chandrabati which were spread among the people.

In one episode he says of himself:

The river Fuleshwari flows in a torrent.

Jadavananda settled there.

Anjana Gharani was born in Bhattacharya's house.

Palm leaf canopy on bamboo floor.

By setting the pot, he always intends to worship.

Lakshmi gets angry because of that.

Dwijbanshi Bara Hail Mansa Bare.

Bhasan Gaia who is famous in the world.

There is no Chandrabati. But in Kishoreganj, the love story of Jayananda and Chandrabati and their tragic consequences are still performed in songs and folk dramas. The Chandrabati Shiva Temple, situated on the banks of the Fuleshwari River, is now considered a place of interest for historians.

The description of this temple in the book 'History of Kishoreganj' states that the temple is octagonal in shape. Height 11 meters. The length of each of the eight corners is 1.6 m. Downstairs there is a room and a door to enter the room. Shiva Puja is held inside.

The part formed in the straight line below is constructed in two steps. Around the lower steps are wide niches built with the help of semi-circular arches. The height of the lower step up to the cornice is 2.60 m. Inside the room there are seven window-like niches which are 52 cm wide and 99 cm long. There are also some crafts. The diameter of the room is 2.35 meters. There is a low roof along the cornice.

The second step is also built in a straight line. At this stage also there is a wide niche built with the help of semicircular arches. Inside the niche was once the decoration of innumerable terracotta plaques which do not remain today. From the second step, it gradually became narrower and ended at the apex. At the end of the pinnacle there are grooved carvings at the edges and at the top of the pit-shaped pinnacle there is a ‘finial’ made in the shape of a thin stalk.

There is another Shiva temple near Chandrabati temple. It is also octagonal in shape. Many consider it to be the temple of Dwijbangshi Das. The style of construction suggests that it was probably built in the early eighteenth or early nineteenth century.

There is a building next to it. This is the house of local zamindar Nilkantha Roy. It is also thought that the house belonged to a bisexual slave. There is disagreement about this.