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In Hinduism, Bhadra (भद्र) is a goddess of the hunt and one of Shiva's servants.

v t e Hindu deities and texts Gods Deva Ganesha Brahma Vishnu Shiva Rama Krishna Murugan Hanuman Indra Surya more Goddesses Adi parashakti Devi Saraswati Lakshmi Sati Parvati Durga Shakti Kali Sita Radha Mahavidya Navadurga Matrikas more Texts Vedas Upanishads Puranas Ramayana Mahabharata Bhagavad Gita more Hinduism Hindu mythology

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Birendra Krishna Bhadra (Bengali: বীরেন্দ্রকৃষ্ণ ভদ্র) (1905–1991) was an Indian broadcaster, playwright, actor and theatre director from Kolkata, and a contemporary of Pankaj Mallick and Nazrul Hasan. He worked for the All India Radio, India's National Radio broadcaster for several years during its early, starting 1930s, and during this period he produced and adapted several plays.^[1][2]

Today, he is most known for his soaring Sanskrit recitation through a two hour audio program, Mahishashura Mardini (Annihilation of Mahisasura) (1931), a collection of shlokas and songs broadcast by All India Radio Calcutta (now Kolkata) at 4 am, in the dawn of Mahalaya.^[3][4] He also acted and directed several plays in Bengali theatre and even wrote screenplay for film, Nishiddha Phal (1955).^[5]

Early life and education[link]

Birendra Krishna Bhadra was born on August 4, 1905, to Roy Bahadur Kalikrishna and Sarala Bala Devi at a rented house in Ahiritola his maternal home, in north Kolkata. Later the family shifted to 7, Ramdhan Mitra Lane, the house bought by his grandmother Yogo Maya Devi. His father, Kali Krishna Bhadra was a linguist, fluent in 14 languages, and employed as an interpreter in a lower court and later became a known figure in the Bengali literary circles of the time. Kali Krishna married Sarala Bala Devi the second child of the then famous Police Court lawyer Kalicharan Ghosh, and in 1927 was awarded the title of Roy Bahadur. Roy Bahadur Kali Krishna had two sons, Bhupendra Krishna and Birendra Krishna.

In 1926, he passed Intermediate, and in 1928 graduated from Scottish Church College, Kolkata.

Career[link]

He adapted and restructured several classics to produce notable radio plays. In the 1930s All India Radio, Kolkata started broadcasting a two hour program called Mahishashura Mardini which describes the epic battle of goddess Durga with the demon king Mahishashura.^[6] The script of this program was written by Bani Kumar and the music was directed by Pankaj Kumar Mallik.^[6] Birendra Krishna Bhadra recited. In 2011 Durga Puja opens with the same recital by Birendra Krishna Bhadra.

Bhadra wrote some plays including Mess No. 49,^[7] and directed a theatre production Sahib Bibi Gulam, a stage adaptation of the celebrated novel of famous author, the Bimal Mitra.^[8] In 1952, he dramatized Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's Subarna Golak.^[9]

Legacy[link]

His rendition, Mahisasura Mardini, is still played by All India Radio, every Mahalaya, marking the beginning of Durga Puja festivities. So popular was his version of the recitation that when in 1976, the voice of noted Bengali actor, Uttam Kumar was employed for the programme, it didn't get favorable response from the audience and it was shifted back to the original version of Biren Bhadra.^[10]

On the Mahalaya day in 2006, Sujata Bhadra, daughter of the late Birendra Krishna Bhadra, got a cheque for Rs 50917 from music company, Saregama India Ltd as a royalty for her father's famous work.^[11]

Works[link]

• Hitopadesa, Publisher: Hanthawaddy publication, 1948.
• Bisvarūpa-darśana. Publisher: Kathakali, 1963.
• Rana-berana, Publisher: Bihar Sahitya Bhavan, 1965.
• Bratakathā samagra, Publisher: Mandala end Sansa, 1985.
• Śrīmadbhagabata: sampurna dvādaśa skandha, with Upendracandra Śāstri. Publisher: Mandala eyāṇḍa Sansa, 1990.

Plays[link]

• Blackout ^[12]
• Sat Tulsi 1940 ^[13]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Pragya Paramita. "Heralding The Goddess", expressindia.com, Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd, 15 September 2006. Retrieved on 6 May 2007.
• Indranil Chakraborty. "Saregama gets going on Bhadra royalty, expressindia.com, Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd, September 26, 2006. Retrieved on 6 May 2007.
• "Mahalaya in Bengal", Mahalaya - Its Relation with the Durga Puja, NetGlimse.com. Retrieved on 6 May 2007.
• "Mahalaya", bangalinet.com. Retrieved on 6 May 2007.
• Scottish Church College Magazine(Year - 1999,2000 and 2001.Volume - 87,88 and 89).

External links[link]

• A Short Biography of Birendra Krishna Bhadra
• Birendra Krishna Bhadra Tribute

Rajendra Prasad
President of India
In office 26 January 1950 – 13 May 1962
Prime Minister	Jawaharlal Nehru
Vice President	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Preceded by	Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (as Governor General)
Succeeded by	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Personal details
Born	(1884-12-03)3 December 1884 Ziradei, Bihar, India
Died	28 February 1963(1963-02-28) (aged 78) Patna, Bihar
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Rajvanshi Devi
Alma mater	University of Calcutta

Rajendra Prasad ( pronunciation (help·info); 3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician and educator. He was one of the architects of the Indian Republic, having drafted its first constitution and serving as the first president of independent India (26 January 1950 – 13 May 1962). Rajendra Prasad is the only president in India to have been elected twice for the post.^[1]

During the independence movement, he left his law work and joined the Congress Party, playing a prominent role in the Indian Independence Movement. He served as the president of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the first constitution of the Republic, which lasted from 1948 to 1950. He also became the first Minister of Food and Agriculture in the year 1946 in the Interim national Government.

Early life[link]

Rajendra Prasad was born and brought up in Siwan, Bihar in East India. He was the youngest son of Mahavira Sahai, and born in a Kayastha family. He was known as "Rajen" to his family and friends. His father was a scholar of both the Persian and Sanskrit languages, while his mother, Kamleshwari Devi, was a religious woman.^[2]

Student life[link]

When Prasad was five years old, his parents placed him under the tutelage of a Moulavi, an accomplished Muslim scholar, to learn the Persian language, Hindi and arithmetic. After the completion of traditional elementary education, Prasad was sent to the Chapra District School and at a small age of 12, he was married to Rajavanshi Devi. He, along with his elder brother Mahendra Prasad, then went to study at T.K. Ghosh's Academy in Patna for a period of two years.He secured first in the entrance examination to the University of Calcutta and was awarded Rs.30 per month as a scholarship. He joined the Presidency College in 1902, initially as a science student. He passed Intermediate level classes then called as F. A. under Calcutta University in March 1904. Later he decided to focus on the arts and did his M.A. in Economics with First Division from Kolkata University in December 1907. There he lived with his brother in the Eden Hindu Hostel. A devoted student as well as a public activist, he was an active member of The Dawn Society.^[3] It was due to his sense of duty towards his family and education that he refused to join Servants of India Society. Prasad was instrumental in the formation of the Bihari Students Conference in 1906 in the hall of the Patna College.It was the first organization of its kind in India and produced some of the eminent leaders of Bihar like Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha and Sri Krishna Singh.

Career[link]

As a teacher[link]

Rajendra Prasad served in various educational institutions as a teacher. After completing his MA in economics, he became a professor of English at the Bhumihar Brahman College (Now Langat Singh College) in Muzaffarpur, Bihar and went on to become the principal. However later on he left the college for his legal studies. In 1909, while pursuing his law studies in Kolkata he also worked as Professor of Economics at Calcutta City College. In 1915, Prasad appeared in the examination of Masters in Law, passed the examination and won a gold medal. He then completed his Doctorate in Law.^{[citation needed]}

As a lawyer[link]

In the year 1916, he joined the High Court of Bihar and Orissa. Later in the year 1917, he was appointed as one of the first members of the Senate and Syndicate of the Patna University. He also used to practice law at Bhagalpur, the famous silk-town of Bihar.^{[citation needed]}

Role in the Independence Movement[link]

(Sitting L to R)Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha during Mahatama Gandhi's 1917 Champaran Satyagraha

Prasad had formally joined the Indian National Congress way back in the year 1911. During the Lucknow Session of Indian National Congress held in 1916, he met Mahatma Gandhi. During one of the fact-finding missions at Champaran, Mahatma Gandhi asked him to come with his volunteers. He was so greatly moved by the dedication, courage, and conviction of Mahatma Gandhi that as soon as the motion of Non-Cooperation was passed by Indian National Congress in 1920, he retired his lucrative career of lawyer as well as his duties in the university to aid the movement.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai, and Rajendra Prasad (Center) at the AICC Session, April 1939

He also responded to the call by Gandhi to boycott Western educational establishments by asking his son, Mrityunjaya Prasad, to drop out of his studies and enroll himself in Bihar Vidyapeeth, an institution he along with his colleagues founded on the traditional Indian model.^[4]

During the course of the independent movement, he interacted with Dr Rahul Sankrityayan, a writer, and polymath. Rahul Sankrityayan was greatly influenced by Prasad's intellectual prowess, finding him to be a guide and guru. In many of his articles he mentioned about his meeting with Sankrityayan and narrated about their him. He wrote articles for the revolutionary publications Searchlight and the Desh and collected funds for these papers. He toured widely, explaining, lecturing, and exhorting the principles of the independence movement.^{[citation needed]}

He took an active role in helping the affected people during the 1914 floods that struck Bihar and Bengal. When an earthquake affected Bihar on 15 January 1934, Prasad was in jail. During that period, he passed on the relief work to his close colleague Anugrah Narayan Sinha.^[5] He was released two days later and set up Bihar Central Relief Committee on 17 January 1934, and took the task of raising funds to help the people himself. During the May 31, 1935 Quetta earthquake, when he was forbidden to leave the country due to government's order he set up Quetta Central Relief Committee in Sindh and Punjab under his own presidentship.

He was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress during the Bombay session in October 1934. He again became the president when Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose resigned in 1939. On 8 August 1942, Congress passed the Quit India Resolution in Bombay which led to the arrest of many Indian leaders. He was arrested from Sadaqat Ashram, Patna and sent to Bankipur Jail. After remaining incarcerated for nearly three years, he was released on 15 June 1945.^{[citation needed]}

After the formation of Interim Government of 12 nominated ministers under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru on Sep 2 1946, he got the Food and Agriculture department. Later, he was elected the President of Constituent Assembly on 11 December 1946. Again on 17 November 1947 he became Congress President for a third time after Jivatram Kripalani submitted resignation. Two and a half years after independence, on January 26, 1950, the Constitution of independent India was ratified and Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected the nation's first President.^{[citation needed]}

Prasad acted independently of politics, following the expected role of the president as per the constitution. Following the tussle over the enactment of the Hindu Code Bill, he took a more active role in state affairs. In 1962, after serving twelve years as the president, he announced his decision to retire. After relinquishing the office of the President of India on May 1962, he returned to Patna on 14 May 1962 and preferred to stay in the campus of Bihar Vidyapeeth.^[6] He was subsequently awarded the Bharat Ratna, the nation's highest civilian award.

He died on 28 February 1963.^[7]

Literary contributions[link]

• Satyagraha at Champaran (1922)
• India Divided (1946)
• Atmakatha (1946), his autobiography written during his 3-year prison term in Bankipur Jail
• Mahatma Gandhi and Bihar, Some Reminisences" (1949)
• Bapu ke Kadmon Mein (1954)
• Since Independence (published in 1960)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Rajendra Prasad, first President of India, by Kewalram Lalchand Panjabi. Published by Macmillan, 1960.
• Rajendra Prasad: twelve years of triumph and despair, by Rajendra Lal Handa. Published by Sterling Publishers, 1979.
• Dr Rajendra Prasad, Correspondence and Select Documents, by Rajendra Prasad, Valmiki Choudhary. Published by Allied Publishers, 1984. ISBN 81-7023-002-0. Excerpts (Vol. 1-Vol. 10)
• Dr Rajendra Prasad by India Parliament. Lok Sabha. Published by Lok Sabha Secretariat, 1990.
• Rajendra Prasad and the Indian freedom struggle, 1917-1947, by Nirmal Kumar. Published by Patriot Publishers, 1991. ISBN 81-7050-128-8.
• Dr Rajendra Prasad: Political Thinkers Of Modern India, by V. Grover. Published by Deep & Deep Publications, 1993.
• First Citizens of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad to Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma: Profile and Bibliography, by A. B. Kohli. Published by Reliance Pub. House, 1995. ISBN 81-85972-71-0.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rajendra Prasad

• Nation remembers Rajendra Prasad on 125th birth anniversary
• Tributes to first president on 124th birth anniversary
• Stamp Of Dr.Rajendra Prasad Released By India Post
• Works by or about Rajendra Prasad in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• [1]

v t e Presidents of India Prasad Radhakrishnan Hussain Giri Ahmed Reddy Singh Venkatraman Sharma Narayanan Kalam Patil

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