Hason Raja’s birthday today

Today is the birthday of Bengali poet, mystic philosopher and songwriter Hason Raja.

He was born on 1854 in Sylhet. Raja gained international recognition few years after his death, when Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, mentioned him in his lectures at Oxford University.

Tagore said, “We realise it through admiration and love, through hope that soars beyond the actual, beyond our own span of life into an endless time wherein we live of all men. It is a village poet of East Bengal who preaches in a song the philosophical doctrine that the universe has its reality in its relation to the Person.”
Hason established schools and religious centres like mosques, temples and churches, and he is said to have been widely engaged in charities within his immediate communities.

He donated vast land properties for the well-being of the people. He was interested in the well-being and protection of birds and animal life. He spent a large quantity of his money on those lives.

On June 12, 1897, one of the biggest earthquake happened in the Assam and Sylhet area. The largest known Indian interpolate earthquake at 8.8 Richter scale resulted in the destruction of structures over much of the Plateau and surrounding areas, and caused widespread liquefaction and flooding in the Brahmaputra and Sylhet floodplains. He found out many of his kin and relatives as well as his people wounded and killed. His thatched house was fully damaged. He lost many of his tamed birds and animals.

Raja’s songs are collected in books Hachhan Udas and Shaukhin Bahar. It was reported by Washington Bangla Radio in May 2013, that an epic Bengali feature film Hason Raja is under production, based on the life and music of Raja played by Mithun Chakraborty, directed by Ruhul Amin, and produced by Galaxy Films between UK, India and Bangladesh. A volume called Hason Raja Samagra was also published. It contained 500 poems and songs.

Raja died on 7 December 1922. Two museums were established in his name in two places. One, Hason Raja Museum sponsored by “Hason Raja Museum Trust” at his birthplace, Lokkonshri, Sunamganj, and another, Museum of Rajas’ at RajaKunjo, Sylhet, sponsored by “Educationist Dewan Talibur Raja Trust”.

Source: Wikipedia