Page:Nil Durpan.djvu/4



We have the pleasure of publishing the third Indian edition of Michael Madhusudan Dutt's English translation of the immemorable Bengali drama, NIL DARPAN, by Dinabandhu Mitra. This valuable translation has been lying hidden from the public gaze for the last 60 years, and we have reason to feel gratified that we have done our bit to re-discover it.

Nil Darpan, a drama depicting the pitiable condition of Bengal under the tyranny of Indigo planters, is too famous a work to need any words of introduction. Yet the readers will find exhaustive information about the drama, its social and political background etc., in the Editorial Note that follows. Let it suffice to say that Nil Darpan, apart from its dramatic quality, is a rare historical document worthy  to  be read by all.

As the father of the Bengali novel Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya pointed out, Nil Darpan was the first Bengali literary work to be translated into a number of European languages and to win laurels wherever it had been published.

We take this opportunity of extending our sincerest thankfulness and gratitude to Dr. Subodh C. Sen Gupta M.A., P.R.S., Ph.D., Principal of Presidency College, who is too well-known a figure in Bengal's literary world to need an introduction. He took the trouble of going through the English rendering of Bankimchandra's biographical sketch of Dinabandhu Mitra, and found it faithful and happy.