The 124th death anniversary of mystic poet Pagla Kanai was observed in a befitting manner at Pagla Kanai complex at village Berbari in Jhenaidah on Friday. The death anniversary of the poet is
observed on 28 of the Bengali month Ashar.
Pagla Kanai Smriti Sangrakkhan Sangshad organised the programme that continued till midnight. After honouring the legendary bard with a floral wreath, the programme was formally inaugurated by the chief guest Abdul Hai, state minister for fisheries and livestock.
The speakers discussed how the legendary bard glorified humanity in the verses of the poems he composed despite his lack of formal education due to financial constraints of his family.
Word of mouth from various people and history in books say, Kanai left his village to evade the oppression of the British rulers who forced the farmers to cultivate indigo. He became a cow-herd. His spiritual inclination put him in touch with the bauls and fakirs of the area.
The mystic poet had composed over 3,000 devotional songs. The themes of his songs featured topics such as dehotattta (analysis of human form), the transient world, and the mystery of life. He composed songs about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as well as hymns to Krishna. Pagla Kanai is popular for developing a Jari form titled Dhuajari, in which an incident is narrated in a rhythmic tone.
The speakers lamented that many of the poems of Kanai have not been preserved. Mohammad Mansur Uddin, Dr. Mazharul Islam, Abu Talib, Amin Uddin Shah, Durga Das Lahiri, Upendranath Bhattacharya and some other scholars had collected and archived songs of Paglakanai.
Pagla Kanai was born to a peasant Messer Ali and Momena Khatun at village Nebutola-Madhabpur under Jhenidah in Phalgun 25 in Bengali year 1226, which was recorded as March 18, 1809 in Gregorian calendar, the committee members said. Though he is popular as Pagla Kanai, his original name was Kanai Sheikh.
-With New Age input
