| Ray Family |
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The two families that played a significant part in shaping the cultural consciousness of Bengal in the 19th and 20th centuries were the Tagores and the Rays. The Tagore family, where Rabindranath was born in 1861, held the centrestage of social, cultural, literary and reformist activities for three generations. The three generations of the Ray family, where Satyajit was born in 1921, too performed a similar role, though on a lesser scale, in fashioning the literary and cinematic tastes of the educated Bengal. |
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| The known history of the Ray family dates back to the mid-sixteenth century when Ramsundar Deb, a young man, left his native village in the western part of Bengal to settle in Yasodal (in what is now known as Bangladesh) as the son-in-law of the local ruler. The subsequent generations of Ramsundar acquired the honorific ‘Majumdar’. Later they changed their surname to ‘Ray’, which too was an honorific title. The family divided into two branches in the second half of the 18th century. Ramkanta Majumdar was born into the more educated of the two families. He was a polyglot with musical abilities who was also well known for his courage and physical strength. |
Ramkanta had three sons. Loknath, his second son who acquired fluency in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian at a young age, was drawn so deeply to Tantrik practices that his father, fearing he might become a sannyasi, threw his religious books and sacred objects into a river. Loknath felt so hurt that he undertook a fast unto death. He breathed his last in three days, leaving his wife and a young son.
Kalinath Ray, Loknath’s surviving son, grew up to become a chip of old block. He too was a scholar in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. His knowledge of Arabic and Persian was so profound that even Muslim maulavis frequently sought his help in interpreting legal documents. He became better known as Munshi Shyamsundar.
Kamadaranjan, second of Kalinath’s five sons, was born in 1863. He was adopted at age five by Harikishore, a relative who was a zamindar in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh). He changed the name of his adopted son to Upendrakishore, and added to it the honorific ‘Ray Chaudhuri’. Upendrakishore developed a taste for drawing and music at an early age. Later, he came to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) to study at Presidency College on a scholarship. His stay in Calcutta gave him the opportunity to improve his musical skills. He composed and sang Brahmo songs and hyms. His musical performances at the family mansion of the Tagores paved the way for his enduring friendship with Rabindranath. |
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In 1885, Upendrakishore married Bidhumukhi, daughter of Dwarakanath Ganguly, and started to live at a central Kolkata house (13 Cornwallis Street). Upendrakishore and Bidhumukhi had three sons and an equal number of daughters. Their first child Sukhalata (born 1886) was a writer of poems and stories for children. Sukumar, the second child and father of Satyajit, was born in 1887. Punyalata (born 1889), the third child, also wrote stories and a gripping memoir. The other three children were Subinay, Santilata and Subimal.
Upendrakishore was a versatile person who not only sang but established himself as the “first high quality process engraver” in Kolkata. |
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Upendrakishore Ray |
Bidhumukhi Ray |
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| He founded his own printing press, U. Ray & Sons, in 1895. Besides, he wrote a number of books for children and did illustrations for them, and launched Sandesh , the first successful magazine for young people in Bengal, in 1913. He was a sky-watcher as well. Satyajit describes him as one who “played the pakhwaj as well as the violin; wrote devotional songs while carrying out research on printing methods; viewed the stars through a telescope from his own roof, wrote old legends and folk tales anew for children…..and illustrated them……” |
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Sukumar Ray was the Indian counterpart of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. He was the father of the nonsense verse in India. His poems, with their remarkable humour and lack of malice, have delighted generations of Bengalis since their appearance. He also inherited artistic skills from his father, and illustrated many of his own poems and other writings. He graduated from Presidency College with double honours in physics and chemistry in 1906, founded the Nonsense Club, went to England in 1911 to study printing and photographic techniques, returned home and married Suprabha Das in 1913, founded the Monday Club as a successor to the Nonsense Club, took to editing Sandesh following his father's death, and went on writing in between bouts of illness till his passing in 1923.
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| Sukumar Ray |
Suprabha Ray |
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Sandip, the fourth generation Ray who is at once a fimmaker and a graphic artist in his own right, was born on 8 September 1953 to Satyajit and Bijoya Ray, who had got married at a quiet ceremony in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in 1948.
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| Bijoya Ray |
Satyajit Ray |
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Sandip married Lolita Chatterjee in 1989. Lolita took an active interest in her father-in-law's work and assisted him to design costumes for the films he made in his final years. She also designs costumes for Sandip's films. |
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Lolita Ray |
Sandip Ray
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| Saurodeep, the fifth generation Ray, was born to Sandip and Lolita on 22 November 1990. |
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Saurodeep Ray |
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