চন্দ্রকুমার দে : মৈমনসিংহ-গীতিকার অমর সংগ্রাহক | Chandrakumar De: A Great Collector of Mymensingh-Geetika

Abstract

Chandrakumar De was hom in a village named Aithor in the then astrict of Mymensingh (now Netrokona), Bangladesh in February 1889. His father Ramkumar De was not economically well-of to meet his son's educational expenses. So, Chandrakumar ended his formal education in his village primary school at an early age and joined a grocery shop in the village on a paltry salary of rupee one only to support the family. But the owner of the shop found his new recruit absence minded and unworthy for the job and turned him away. He got another job at the local Kalipur Extate of a Tahasildar-rent collector on a salary of rupees rwo per month. A passionate lover of folk culture and rich folksong narratives or palagans (ballada) of Mymensingh district, Chandrakumar found his new job very suitable for his mental Pabulum. As a rent collector he would travel from village to village to collect rent from the tenants During his Peripatetic duty he would regularly and intimately met with the peasants of the surrounding villages who would sing Baromasi songs and palagan (ballads) which have never been collected. In the process he not only developed a habit of collecting folk literary jems but tried his hand at writing and sent an article on folksong for publication in Saurab a famous literary and socio-cultural journal of Mymensingh. The piece was not up to the mark for publication. Kedarnath Majumder, the editor of Saurab invited him to stay with him for some days at his residence and trained and guided him to write articles for journals and news papers. A collector of great merir Charidrakumar gradually became an astute writer and contributed articles on folk literature of Mymensingh. Chandrakumar's first collection, a page titled Možna, which he collected from a muslim pestant was published in Saurah, a famous early 20 century literary and socio-cultural journal of Mymensingh. Later prestigious Calcutta journalt also published his articles on Mymensingh's rural literary treasure. Illustrious historian of Bangla Literature and Patron of folk literary tradition saw these wonderful creation of rural bards and contacted Chandrakumat and encouraged him for such an accomplishment with such unexpected encouragement from an authority of the literary world Dey devoted his whole energy to collect palagan and other items of folk literary repertoire from the performers of different areas of Mymensingh. In fact, the local mentor Kedarnath Majumdar and great national literary giant D.C Sen's Patronization helped him collect world famous Mymensingh Gitikas (ballad) methodically and published them in Saurab and other prestigious literary journal of Calcutta. Under the influence of Dr. Sen Calcutta University appointed him a collector of folksong and other folk genres of Mymensingh. In recognition of his highly acclaimed work he was accorded a civic reception in Calcutta on 5 September, 1938 under the Presidency of famous physician Dr. Nilratan Sarkar. The following ballads were collected from villages of Mymensingh district (now is East Pakistan) by Chandrakumar De.