Mahabharat | Great Indian Epic | Classic Bengali Book | Krishnadwaipayan Vyas | Rajsekhar Basu | Bangla Saranubad

by Rajshekhar Basu

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Rajshekhar Basu (Bengali: রাজশেখর বসু), better known by the pen name Parashuram (পরশুরাম) (March 16, 1880 – April 27, 1960) was a Bengali writer, chemist and lexicographer. He was chiefly known for his comic and satirical short stories, and is considered the greatest Bengali humorist of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1956.Basu began his writing career in the 1920s. He adopted the pen name of Parashuram while writing humorous pieces for a monthly magazine. The name was not, apparently, an homage to the Parashurama of mythology. In fact, Basu simply borrowed the surname of someone at hand, the family goldsmith, Tarachand Parashuram. His first book of stories, Gaddalika, was published in 1924 and drew praise from such personalities as Rabindranath Tagore.

In 1937, when he published Chalantika, a monolingual Bengali dictionary, Rabindranath commented:

"At long last, we have a dictionary for Bengali. The concise grammar for Bengali that you have included in the appendix is also wonderful."

Chalantika also included Basu's first efforts to reform and rationalize Bengali orthography. A few years before its publication, in 1935, Calcutta University formed a committee, chaired by him, to formulate a set of guidelines governing the spelling of Bengali words. The recommendations of this committee were broadly accepted, and Chalantika is still in use today.

Reviews

[Reeme Mukherjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is recognized as one of the most popular epic in India. The values and beliefs, the societal structure and the ways of Indian sanatan life is very well depicted in Mahabharat. This has created the foundation for many Indian families to imbibe the different learnings in our lives that has been crafted in the form of story-telling by Mahabharat for decades.
I have read the bengali version of Mahabharat written by Rajsekhar Basu. It is easy to read due to his simple words and explanation of all the characters and the entire story of Mahabharat. It can be read and understood by all ages (teen to old). I would recommend this book by Rajsekhar Basu for every bengali, who wants to know the story of Mahabharat in a simple and in an easy understandable way.