Lakshminath Bezbaruah

 

 

19th July 2011

 

 

 

Lakshminath Bezbaruah, was born on the year 1968 in a well-known family of Assam. He had his early education at Sibsagar and his higher education at Calcutta. He married a niece of Poet Rabindranath Tagore, an unusual inter-provincial alliance at that time.

 

He was a poet, playwright, an essayist and humorist. He was credited with laying the foundations of modern critical studies in Assam. Lakshminath Bezbaruah who pioneered the modern Assamese literature occupies a very high position in the field of Indian literature. He was a prolific and versatile writer of Assam. He particularly excelled in low humour and satire, and is regarded as the father of the Assamese short story.

 

He was popularly known as ‘Rasaraj’-the people's king of humour for his popular satirical writings. He is also known as ‘Sahityarathi’ which means expert in all branches of literature. He was the composer of the state anthem. He presided over the Gauhati session of the Assam Sahitya Sabha in 1924.


A many-sided personality- journalist, lecturer, poet and more especially writer- Lakshminath Bezbaruah set a high literary standard through the monthly periodical magazine "Banhi" which he edited and published. He wrote eight plays, four farces, three historical works, and a one act drama. He started his literary career with a farce, Litikai i.e. `Servant`, serialized from the first issue of Jonaki i.e. `Firefly`, the epoch-making Assamese journal established in 1889. All his farces were based on folk tales. Some of these can be mentioned as Nomal, Pachani i.e. the messenger of a head Vaishnava monk in 1913, and Chikarpati-Nikarpati i.e. `Chikarpati and Nikarpati` in 1913. His last play, Gadadhar Raja in 1918, was the first Assamese one-act. He called it chora gharia i.e. `drawing-room drama’. His autobigraphy "Mur Jiwon Xuworon" is considered to be the pioneer in this genre.

 

Bezbaroa published all his historical drama in 1915. The names are Jaymati Kunwari or `Princess Jaymati,` cinematized by Jyoti Prasad Agarwala as Jaymati in 1935, Chakradhivaj Singha i.e. a seventeenth-century Ahom king, and Belimar or `Sunset`. These plays were written with the purpose of infusing patriotism. Being the most vocal

 

 

 

spokesman of modern Assamese self-assertion, he applied the motive of instilling confidence and self-respect among the Assamese in everything he wrote, though this often detracted from the literary quality. This legendary writer died in his seventieth year in the year of 1938, only a few months after he went back to live in Assam permanently. Lakshminath Bezbaruah was not only a literary figure of outstanding eminence but a distinguished leader of modern Assam.

 

Works:

Poetry Collection:

Novel:

Short Story Collection:

Children's folk tales:

Collection of satire essays:

Comic Plays:

Plays

Biographies

Autobiographical

Others

Editor

·        Baahi