Chandra Kumar De

Chandra Kumar De (Chondrokumar De) (1889–1946) was a writer and collector of medieval folklore and folk ballads of East Bengal villages, mostly in Mymensingh now in Bangladesh. Today, he is an important folklore collector of Bengal, and his collected ballads are an important part of Bengali folk literature, they were published by University of Calcutta as Moimonshingho Gitika (1923) and Purbabanga Gitika (1923-1932), later published in English as Eastern Bengal Ballads.

De was born in village Aithor in Mymensingh district, his father was Ram Kumar De whose ancestral village was Raghabpur in Netrokona District. He lost both his parents early and had to start working young. Apart from a brief stint at a Sanskrit tol, Chandra Kumar had no formal schooling.

Chandra Kumar initially started working at a grocery shop, at a monthly salary of one rupee. But he was an indifferent worker and soon lost his job. He was later appointed tahsildar by Taranath Talukder on a monthly salary of two rupees. In 1912, Chandra Kumar published some essays on folklore in the Saurabh, a Bengali-magazine published from Mymensingh and edited by Kedarnath Majumder, who had discovered De, and also helped Chandra Kumar get a job at the zamindari of Gouripur. Chandra Kumar's work as gomastha, on a monthly salary of eight rupees, included visits to different villages to collect taxes. It was on these visits that he had occasion to hear kavigan and pala gan, which he started writing down.

Meanwhile, Dinesh Chandra Sen came across Chandra Kumar's essay, 'Mahila Kavi Chandravati' ('Chandravati, the Poetess') in the Falgun 1320 BS (1913 AD) issue of the Saurabh. Dinesh Chandra was impressed by the essay and appointed Chandra Kumar, who was again out of a job, as a folklore collector of Calcutta University at a monthly salary of 70 rupees, along with three other folklore collectors. This appointment freed Chandra Kumar to travel throughout Bengal collecting folklore and folk songs.

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