Pankajini Bose

Pankajini Bose

Pankajini Bose (nee Guha Mustafa) (Bengali: পঙ্কজিনী বসু) (1884 - 1900) was a 19th-century British Indian women poet.

Biography

Pankajini Guha Mustofi was born to Nibaranchandra Mustofi of Srinagar village, Bikrampur Pargana in Dhaka district, British India, now Bangladesh, Bangladesh. At the age of thirteen, Pankajini was married to Ashutosh Basu, the eldest son of Kumudbandhu Basu, of village of Vajrayogini. After the marriage, Pankajini started writing poems. But Pankajini died within four years of marriage. After her death, the poems written by Pankajini were published in 1901 by Anand Chandra Mitra, the poet of the book of poetry "Helena", with his introduction, under the name "Smriti Kona". After the publication of Smriti-Kona, some of Pankajini's poems were translated into English. The poem titled “Suryamukhi” was translated into English by the polyglot Khatnama Professor Harinath De. When the second edition of “Smritikanā” was published fifteen years later in 1916, Harinath Dey’s English translation of “Suryamukhi” was included. Two poems titled “Basanta Panchami” and “Jivanta Putul” were translated into English by Miss Whitehouse as “Basanta Panchami” and “The Living Doll” respectively. The poems were published in the book “Poems by Indian Women” in the “The Heritage of India” series.

Pankajini died at age 16 in 1900

See more

• "The Heritage of India - Poems by Indian Women" (PDF).