The term for the cuckoo bird in Sanskrit poetry and literature, typically evoked as a symbol of yearning.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894) was a Bengali writer and Indian nationalist who was a key role in the nineteenth-century renaissance of Bengali literature and in turning the region into a hotbed of anti-British resistance.
Chatterjee saw as a young man how the English language and culture were beginning to supplant Indian culture among educated Indians.
Through his literature and political activity, he aimed to change this by urging Indian intellectuals to rediscover their ancient culture.
He paved the path for poet Rabindranath Tagore and political activists Aurobindo Ghose and Subhash Chandra Bose by becoming a pivotal figure in both literature and politics.
Anandamath, Chatterjee's most renowned book, was set during the late-eighteenth-century Sanyasi Rebellion, in which Hindu and Muslim militant ascetics battled the British East India Company for control of Bengal.
Although historical research links this battle to current social and economic problems in Bengal, Chatterjee depicts it allegorically as a struggle of Mother India's faithful children to drive out the British invaders.
Chatterjee also penned the lyrics of “Vande Mataram,” a patriotic song that is widely referred to as the unofficial Indian national anthem.