What followed next is
the breathtakingly stunning visual description, with a graphic delineation of
how the plan to derail a train carrying military officers can be executed in
the sublime valley of the mighty Brahmaputra river. The characters and the
scene come alive in the mind of the readers as one is drifted back to the days
of independence struggle in Assam.
Birendra Kumar
Bhattacharya (1924-1997) created his magnum opus Mrityunjay (Immortal) – one of
the greatest books ever written in Assamese language.
Assamese literature
has its own beauty and prominence in Indian literature. Mrityunjay is
definitely the best among the “great” books written in Assamese that can is
equivalent to the standard of the some great books in the world. . This
book helped Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya bagged him the prestigious Jnanpith
award in 1979. Till date, only two Assamese authors have won the Jnanpith
award which is the most prestigious literary award in India. In 2000, Indira
Goswami a.k.a Mamoni Roisom became the second Assamese author to win this
award.
The author Birendra
Kumar Bhattacharya himself had witnessed the Barapathar derailment that took
place in 1942. This inspired him to carve out Mrityunjay – a fascinating tale
of revolt against the British Raj. The book is said to be one of the few books
which have romanticized the Indian freedom struggle in such an apt manner.
Mrityunjay is often compared to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya’s masterpiece
Bengali novel Anandmath which is an extremely magnificent description of the
Indian angst against the nineteenth century British Raj.
The English version
of Mrityunjay is translated by D.N. Bezbaruah.
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