454. Bipin Behari Mandal (1910-1942), 455. Bipin Behari Sen.

Bipin Behari Mandal was born in Midnapore in 1910. Police organised a  loot in  his house on the pleea of Quit India movement in 1942. While he was addressing a meeting in his village he was shot dead by the police.

Bipin Behari Sen was born in Barisal.He went to Mymensing in 1901 and joined in antipartition of Bengal movement in 1905. He was a director in Bengal for some time during Non-Cooperation movement in 1921.he was in the the fore front of the formation of Swarajya dal in Bengal of C.R.Das.. Pulin Behari Sen was his able son.

Pulinbihari Sen

Bibliographer, editor and annotator to the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Pulinbihari Sen (1908-1984) was an institution by himself. Every worthwhile research on Rabindranath’s works will be directly or indirectly indebted to Pulinbihari’s compilations. That his works should reach such a standard of excellence was inevitable. Opportunities and personalities that came into his life and career could not make it otherwise for someone of his calibre.

 Pulinbihari Sen was born in Mymensingh on 11 August 1908. His father Bipinbihari Sen was a well-known physician and had joined active politics in association with Chittaranjan Das.

 In 1925, Pulinbihari came to Santiniketan to study. He was a brilliant student and could master any subject he wanted to. He excelled in languages in school but studied Logic and Botany for his Intermediate course and later went over to Economics.

 On completing his M.A. from Calcutta University he had been offered a lucrative job in an Insurance Company which he declined and joined Prabasi as an assistant editor in 1935. Working under the capable guidance of Ramananda Chattopadhyay, he absorbed from him the best in editorship.

 While in Santiniketan Pulinbihari had shown an unusual flair for recording entire discourses given by Rabindranath out of memory. This had given him an opportunity of coming close to Rabindranath which Ramananda further cultivated by sending young Pulinbihari to the poet every month to collect his writings forPrabasi.

 Another great opportunity came his way when he had as colleagues such personalities as Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Sajanikanta Das and Jogeshchandra Bagal. It was Brajendranath who initiated him to the art of bibliography, and Pulinbihari could not have had a better guide.

 After the untimely death of Kishorimohan Santra, Rabindranath requested Ramananda to release Pulinbihari for the publishing department of Visva-Bharati. At Visva-Bharati Granthana-Vibhaga, he worked with Charuchandra Bhattacharya, and together they raised book publishing in Bengal to a height unequalled for many years. It was at Granthana-Vibhaga that Pulinbihari was able to give the best of what he had absorbed all these years. The publication of Rabindra-Rachanavaliwith its ‘Granthaparichay’ or bibliographic notes, editing of the poet’s correspondence with annotations, the publication of Rabindranath’s musical notations, the Visva-Vidya series, and other similar works reflect the high standard of editorship that Pulinbihari strove for. After the death of Rabindranath, Pulinbihari, with his trained team put together the poet’s writings scattered in different periodicals. These compilations, thematically arranged, have been of immense use to readers and scholars. Particular mention may be made of Atma-Parichay, Mahatma Gandhi, Sphulinga, Samabaya-niti, Sangit Chinta and the poet’s travel literature.

 Although Pulinbihari Sen’s scholarship was in diverse areas, bibliography was his forte. His bibliographical and editorial work has made research easier for Tagore scholars. For this, he had over the years, built up an invaluable collection of books, journals and other papers. A large part of this collection he gave to Rabindra-Bhavana in 1981. After his death in 1984, in accordance to his wishes, his collection was brought over to Rabindra-Bhavana.