ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Bharat Chandra and his magnum opus, Annadamangal, through recounting the life of the poet as well as describing the underlying theme and story of his verse creation. It was within the praxis of publishing that his biography was compiled by Ishwar Gupta, an editor and poet in the 1850s. It soon became customary to preface all editions with the reproduction of the biography. There were two versions of Bidyasundar that were composed within a few years of one another by two contemporary poets sponsored by the same royal court of Krishnanagar, the capital of the principality of Nadia. The second one was by the celebrated poet Ramprasad Sen. Despite their shared theme, similar narrative technique and identical storyline, the fates of the two compositions in print were quite different. The chapter sets out the context that predicated the beginning of the journey from a tale to a text.
