Staff Correspondent

The nation Thursday is observing the 184 birth anniversary of Michael Madhusudan Dutta, who introduced Bengali poetry to the 'blank verse'— a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme.

Organised jointly by the cultural affairs ministry and the Jessore district administration, a commemorative chain of festivities and a fair, 'Madhu Mela', marking the event was inaugurated by agriculture adviser CS Karim in the afternoon at the celebrated poet's homestead premises in Sagordanri village under Keshavpur upazila.

Born in Sagordanri in 1824 to his father Raj Narayan Dutta, a local zamindaar and an eminent lawyer, and mother Jahnnavi Devi, the legendary Dutta, better known by his first name Madhusudan, was educated by his mother as a minor.

Then the seven-year old was admitted to the junior section at the Hindu College in Calcutta, now Kolkata. Madhusudan's extraordinary brilliance and poetic endowments were soon evident when his Bangla and English poems started being published in classy contemporary literary magazines.

The poet embraced the Christian faith in 1843 and left college in 1848 on a sojourn to Madras, now Chennai, where he joined Madras University as a junior teacher.

Dutta married Rebecca in 1848. Subsequently, he fell for Henrietta, who stuck to him until his end.

The poet eventually returned to Kolkata and started writing in Bangla exclusively, turning out a number of plays and his masterpiece creation of epic dimensions—Meghnadbadh Kabbyo.

Living like a king, Dutta never counted his coins and so, penniless and untreated, died a tragic death on June 29, 1873.

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