Ishwar Chandra Gupta

Ishwar Chandra Gupta (Bengali: ঈশ্বরচন্দ্র গুপ্ত; 6 March 1812 – 23 January 1859) was a famous Indian Bengali poet and writer. Gupta was born in Kanchrapara, in Bengal. Ishwar Chandra Gupta was born in a Baidya family. He was brought up in his uncle's house after the death of his mother. Gupta spent most of his childhood in Kolkata. At that time, poets were named Kobiwala and the kobiwalas were not so civilized in language. Sexual words and clashes were common. But Ishwar Chandra Gupta created a different style of poetry. He started the newspaper Sambad Prabhakar with Jogendra Mohan Tagore on January 28, 1831, which finally became a daily on June 4, 1839. Many Bengali writers of the 19th century started their careers with that magazine. He reintroduced into Bengali poetry the mediaeval style with double meaning (already seen in Sandhyakaranandi and Bharatchandra): 'Ishwar' means God, 'Gupta' means hidden and 'Prabhakar' is the sun. So a translation runs: