[1] In kavigan, also referred to as kabir larai, two person who are lyricist plus composer at the same time answer each other in form of songs.
"[1] Various literary researchers such as Ishwar Chandra Gupta and Dr. Harekrishna Mukhopadhyay have dwelt at length on the origins and development of kavigan.
[1] Dr. Sushil Kumar Dey opines, "The existence of kabi songs may be traced to the beginning of the 18th century or even beyond it to the 17th; but the flourishing period of the Kabiwalas was between 1760 and 1830.
[1] Dr. Sushil Kumar Dey has a word of praise for the kaviyals, "These poets were, no doubt, born among the people (lowest classes), lived with the people and understood perfectly their ways of thinking and feeling; hence their direct hold upon the masses of whom many a modern writer is contentedly ignorant.
Amongst the earliest were Lokokabi Lambodar Chakroborty, Gonjla Guin, born in the 18th century and his contemporaries: Lalu–Nandalal, Raghu and Ramji.
The famous 19th century kaviyals of Kolkata were Haru Thakur, Nitai Vairagi, Ram Basu, Bhola Maira, and Anthony Firinghee.
[3][1] Some of kaviyals in other parts of Bengal were Balahari Roy (1743–1849), Sambhunath Mondal (1773–1833), Tarakchandra Sarker (1845–1914), Haricharan Acharya (1861–1941), Ramesh Chandra Shil (1877–1967), Rajendranath Sarkar (1892–1974), Bijaykrishna Adhikari (1903–1985),[3][1] Nishikanto Raysarkar.
[1] His character was featured in a popular Bengali film Balika Bodhu, wherein the songs of Mukunda Das inspired the rural masses during the independence movement,[7] Another famous kaviyal, Anthony Firingee, a Portuguese man,[8] was featured in a Bengali biographical film bearing his name, with Uttam Kumar portraying him.