Bangadarshan

Many of Bankim's novels were serialized in this magazine, which also featured work by writers such as the Sanskrit scholar Haraprasad Shastri, the literary critic Akshay Chandra Sarkar, and other intellectuals.

The magazine included numerous articles on the Puranas, the Vedas, and the Vedanta, reflecting a reaction within Bengali intellectual community (the bhadralok culture) to "negotiate with the set of ideas coming in the name of modernity by incorporating and appropriating the masses.

"[2] Bankim articulated his objectives for creating the magazine as one of: "...making it the medium of communication and sympathy between the educated and the uneducated classes... the English language for good or evil has become our vernacular; and this tends daily to widen the gulf between the higher and lower ranks of Bengali society.

The impact of the magazine in 19th-century Bengal can be gauged from Rabindranath Tagore's recollections of reading it as a boy - he was only eleven when Bangadarshan was launched.

"[3] Prof Santanu Banerjee observed: "There is hardly any magazine apart from Bangadarshan in the world to claim the glory of publishing two National Song of two separate country".

A large number of poems from Tagore's Gitanjali period (and earlier) also came out in the magazine; this included Amar Sonar Bangla, today the national anthem of Bangladesh.