I Have No Idea Where I’m Going With This Post But I Want To Say That Sourav Dutta Deserves More Credit

I have no idea where I’m going with this post but I want to say that Sourav Dutta deserves more credit for his research on some of the less researched Bengali books and authors. He had multiple blogs which are all absolute GEMS and if you are into Bengali literature you should totally check them out.

He restored and compiled many illustrations that are unavailable now, which is like really cool. Like original illustrations and headpieces from the magazines where those stories and novels were first published, or illustrations from those tiny hardcover anthologies that were popular before samagras were a thing, all that.

There’s also a lot of information on those books in his blogs, on both canon info and publication history and it’s like. Really interesting. I recently found out he died and I just wish I could have talked to him. I did talk to him in the comments of one of his blogs when I first discovered them a couple of years back, but still. I think he would have been great to cultivate, tbh.

I’ll link the blogs that I know of so everyone can pay a visit.

Blogus is a miscellaneous blog with pages on many books and series, including Ghanada, Tenida, Harshabardhan-Gobardhan, Kumar-Bimal, Mejokarta, several Bengali translations of Hound of the Baskervilles and many others, pages on authors, illustrations of books, comic adaptations including a comic of Charmurti that came out in Jugantor in the 1970s etc. There’s even a page on the song Bhajahari Manna. It’s super interesting.

Ghanada Gallery has illustrations and covers of the Ghanada stories, publication dates and information on the illustrators.

Tenida Treasury is the one I’ve frequented the most for obvious reasons, and it has a lot of good shit, but especially a chronological list of all the Tenida stories which I don’t think exists anywhere else. And all the illustrations and trivia are very cool too.

Manoranjan Museuem is about Manoranjan Bhattacharya, the author of Hukakashi. There’s not only illustrations but also ads and reviews of his books and a lot of general trivia.

Tagging some Bengali mutuals @travalerray @a-dragon-under-the-stars @your-favourite-skittles @slytherclaw-lair @half-assing-things101 @infp-denofdreams @grace-k-sterling @arachneofthoughts @goblinisjustahumanoidgremlin @carpeposterum @bongboyblog I’m really sorry to bother you and I’m not even sure if all of you are into this incredibly niche stuff, I just want people to see this. Feel free to ignore.