15 Facts About Rajnarayan Basu

Rajnarayan Basu was an Indian writer and intellectual of the Bengal Renaissance.

Rajnarayan Basu was born in Boral in 24 Parganas and studied at the Hare School and Hindu College, in Kolkata, Bengal.

Rajnarayan Basu was one of the best known prose writers in Bengali in the nineteenth century, writing often for the Tattwabodhini Patrika, a premier Brahmo journal.

Rajnarayan Basu was born on 7 September 1826, in a Bengali Kayastha family of the present-day South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.

The ancestral seat of the Rajnarayan Basu family was Garh Gobindopur, Kolkata.

Rajnarayan Basu's father Nanda Kishore Basu was a disciple of a Raja Ram Mohan Roy and later one of his secretaries.

Rajnarayan Basu was a rival of Michael Madhusudan Dutta, a prominent poet of the time, and the introducer of free verse in Bengali.

Rajnarayan Basu briefly tutored Rabindranath Tagore and spent three years translating the Upanishads into English on the earnest request and co-operation of Devendranath Tagore.

Rajnarayan Basu served as the headmaster of Midnapore Zilla School which was the forerunner of Midnapore College.

Rajnarayan Basu had joined the school on 21 February 1851 preceded by Mr Sinclare, during whose time the school lost its glory and was in a deplorable condition.

Rajnarayan Basu established the first arch of women education in Midnapore, the first girls school and a night school for educating the illiterates.

Rajnarayan Basu established a public library that is still in use, although now it is known as the Rishi Rajnarayan Basu Smriti Pathagar which is the oldest public library in West Bengal.

Rajnarayan Basu was the first person to suggest using Bengali at meetings of the Vangiya Sahitya Parishad.

Rajnarayan Basu was a member of the Indian Association and a member of a political group called the Sanjibani Sabha.

Rajnarayan Basu lamented that there were no schools promoting the learning of Indian music among the middle-class and he himself started one in Midnapore.