Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
  Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay or Bankim Chandra Chatterjee    was born in the village Kanthalpara in Naihati  in an orthodox bengali   brahmin family on 27 June 1838. He was a great  poet, novelist, essayist and journalist and great patriot.  Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay  was  the author of  most famous song  Vande Mataram  or Bande Mataram that inspired the freedom fighters of India, and was later declared the National Song of India. 
  Early life  
  Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay  was born in the village Kanthalpara in Naihati  in an orthodox bengali   brahmin family. His family was a
government official who went on to become the Deputy Collector of
Midnapur. One of his brothers, Sanjeeb Chandra Chatterjee , was also a novelist and his known for his famous book "Palamau". 
  He was married at a very young of age of eleven, his first wife died in
1859. He later married Rajalakshmi Devi. They had three daughters.
   Bankim Chandra  was educated at the Mohsin College in Hugli-Chinsura  and later at the Presidency College Calcutta ( now Kolkata). He graduated  with a degree in Arts in 1857. He was one of the first two graduates of the University of Calcutta.  He later obtained a degree in Law as well, in 1869. 

  Government service
  Bankim Chandra  was appointed as Deputy Collector  of Jessore after complting his study. He  went on to become a Deputy Magistrate, retiring from government service in 1891. His years at work were peppered with incidents that brought him into conflict with the ruling British. However, he was made a Companion, Order of the Indian Empire  in 1894.
  Literary career
  Bankim Chandra  began his literary career as a writer of verse and then turned to fiction.  Durgeshnondini his first novel in Bengali, was published in 1865.  Kapalkundala/ (1866) was the first major publication of .Bankim Chandra. His next novel Mrinalini (1869), marks his first attempt to set his
story against a larger historical context.  He started publishing a monthly literary magazine Bangodarshan  in April 1872, the first edition of which was filled almost entirely with his own work.
  Bankim Chandra 's next major novels were Chandrasekhar (1877), Rajani/(1877) ,  Krishnakanta's Will (1878) and Rajsimha/ (1881). The most famous Anandamath (1882) was  a political novel which depicts a Sannyasi (Hindu ascetic) army fighting the soldiers of the Muslim Nawab of Murshidabad. The book calls for the rise of Hindu nationalism to uproot the foreign Turko-Afghan Muslim rule of Bengal and put forth as a temporary alternative the East India Company till Hindus were fit for Self Rule
   The novel Anandamath was also the source of the song Vande Mataram  (I worship the Motherland as Mother)  which, set to music by Rabindranath Tagore. This song  was taken up by many Indian nationalists and now it is the National Song of India. The novel  inspired both  Hindus and  Muslim both rebelled against the British East India Company.  
    Bankim Chandra 's next novel, Devi Chaudhurani was published in 1884. His final novel was Sitaram in 1886. Some critics  consider Chatterjee as the best novelist in Bangla literature. .He was one of the first intellectuals who wrote in a British colony, accepting and rejecting the status at the same time. 
    Bankim Chandra died on 8 April 1894 (aged 55) in Kolkata.   

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