Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (anglicized as Chatterjee) CIE (26 or 27 June 1838[4] – 8 April 1894[5]) was an Indian Bengali novelist, poet, essayist[6] and journalist.

He was the composer of Vande Mataram, written in highly Sanskritised Bengali, personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring activists during the Indian Independence Movement.

[9][10][11][12][13] Chattopadhayay is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as the broader Indian subcontinent.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was the first in-charge (Sub-divisional magistrate) of the Arambag subdivision in its earlier days.

The ruins of a fort at Gar Mandaran provided the setting for Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Durgeshnandini, published in 1865.

Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss, 1882) is a political novel which depicts a Sannyasi (Hindu ascetic) army fighting a British force.

Drawing from the Shakti tradition of Bengali Hindus, Chattopadhyay personified India as a Mother Goddess known as Bharat Mata, which gave the song a Hindu undertone.

Chattopadhyay's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita was published eight years after his death and contained his comments up to the 19th Verse of Chapter 4.

With one hand, he ignited the light of literary enlightenment; and with the other, he blew away the smoke and ash of ignorance and ill conceived notions" "The earlier Bankim was only a poet and stylist, the later Bankim was a seer and nation-builder" Chattopadhyay's debut novel was an English one, Rajmohan's Wife (1864) and he also started writing his religious and philosophical essays in English.