The pioneer of Assamese Romanticism

Chandra Kumar Agarwala, poet, writer and journalist from Assam, and a giant in bringing modern Assamese literature to the masses, passes away today, in 1938.

Ananda Chandra - The Pioneer; Source: Wikipedia

Languages often get sidelined due to a number of reasons - social, political, or simply demographic. To bring these languages back from the brink, and make them popular once again, often falls to the literati of the region - and in this case, three of them.

One of the ‘Trimurti of Assamese Literature’, Chandra Kumar Agarwala, passed away today in 1938 at his home in Guwahati, Assam. Before analysing his works, a small note is to be given to his life.

He was born in1867, in the Sonitpur District of Assam. Born to businessmen, he did not seem interested in college studies, and soon began a prolific writing career. Things were changing for the Assamese language in his time. In Kolkata, a group of students and scholars were actively trying to promote the Assamese language in order to develop an Assamese identity in the modern sense. Agarwala became a part of these organisations, which came to form the Oxomiya Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xobha in 1888 (or, the Assamese Language Development Society), a direct precursor to the Asam Sahitya Sabha of today. With an objective to develop Assamese language and literature, they began translating books from Sanskrit and other languages into Assamese, and trying to introduce a standardised grammar in the language for a common link.

Agarwala was one of the founders of the Xobha, and also edited the first few issues of its magazine, the Jonaki. Jonaki discussed the regular works of the society, and marked the start of Romanticist literature in the Assamese language. His siblings also became famous for their work in poetry and literature, and he himself authored several poetry books, like Pratima in 1914, and Bin-boragi in 1923. From what Agarwala and others created, a whole Language Movement was about to form, taking the Assamese demand for their representation, and giving it a concrete base to demand these from.