Sri Buddhadeb Basu (Thakur) was born in Coomilla District at his maternal home. He was the oldest son of Sri Bhudebchandra Basu Thakur of ‘Naya Badi’. He was born on 30th of November, 1908 (In Bengali, 15th of Aghrayan, 1315). His mother’s name was Smt. Binoy Kumari. His mother died within Twenty four hours of his birth due to an infection from childbirth. After her death he was looked after and raised by his maternal grandparents Sri Chintaharan Singha and Smt. Swarnalata Singha.

From a very young age he had to work very hard to acquire his talent in literature. When his grandfather Sri Chintaharan was residing in Noakhali, the little boy Buddhadeb had two best friends; one is reading books and the other is writing. He was in Noakhali till he was Thirteen years old. Then he moved to Dhaka. It was there in Dhaka where he got famous as a student and also it was the first time for him to get recognition as a writer and editor. He stayed in Dhaka for nine and half years between 1922 and 1931. He was admitted to Dhaka Collegiate School in Class Nine in the year 1923. In 1925 he got standing in the entrance examination. His grandfather died just before his exam. In the I.A examination he obtained second position and got a scholarship of Rupees Twenty. He did really well in both his B.A. examination and M.A. examination. He was not only famous as a writer; he was a legend as a student also. In 1931 during the summer months he came to Kolkata. After moving to Kolkata he had to struggle a lot to earn money. He had to work very hard to establish himself as a professional writer.

In 1932-33 he wrote a story called ‘Era r Ora Ebong Aro Onek e’ but the book was banned by the court of law because it was very vulgar. This marred his reputation even at his working place. He applied for the position of lecturer in English at Ripon College but was rejected twice before he succeeded the third time. He joined the college in 1934. In the same year he married the sister of Sri Atul Chandra Basu Thakur of Malkhanagarh, Smt. Pratibha Basu. His colleagues in Ripon College included Sri Ajit Dutta, Sri Pramodnath Bisi, Sri Bimala Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Sri Bishnu De, Sri Bhobotosh Dutta and Sri Hirendranath Mukhopadhyay.

He married Pratibha Basu in 1934. They had three children, Meenakshi, Damayanti and Suddhaneel. Pratibha Basu was an accomplished singer in her teens but later concentrated on literature and became a distinguished writer in her own right.

However he felt fatigued while constantly teaching in the college. In 1945 he resigned from his job at college. After that he chose literature as his profession. In 1950 he got the responsibility to write the third editorial of ‘The Statesman’. On 1st of August, 1956 he joined newly formed Jadavpur University as a teacher of Comparative Literature Department. However, he didn’t stay there for long. Because of problems with the management in 20th of August, 1963 he resigned from his post.

He first went abroad in the year 1953. He worked as an assistant professor at Pittsburgh University in USA. Later he went abroad quite a few times. After resigning from Jadavpur University he taught in a fair few foreign universities. In 1965 he returned from abroad and within a few months on 5th of May, 1966 Sri Buddhadeb Basu and Smt. Pratibha Basu shifted to their South Calcutta residence in Naktala.

Regarding his publications he said “When I published my first book I was so happy with it and thought about it all the time, later I lost track of how many books I have published“ The number of his published books were One Hundred and Fifty Three. There were a few books like ‘Mahabharata r Katha’ which were published after his death. The above numbers does not include these books. His first poetry was written in English however, after that he always wrote poetry in his mother tongue. He took the alias ‘Dwadosh Borshiyo Balok r Rochito’ and published couple of poetry in ‘Sankho’ which was edited by Sri Nirendra Kishore Bhattacharya. His first book ‘Mormobani’ was published in 1924. He took literature as his religion and he maintained his dedication towards literature all his life. Literature was both his life and profession. He mostly put his effort into stories both long and short. But he was a poet by birth. That is why he couldn’t leave writing poetry. While he was a student he and his friend Ajit Kumar Dutta edited and published a handwritten magazine by the name of ‘Pragati’. After he received a scholarship from his I.A examination he started printing the magazine with that scholarship money. The notable writers of the magazine included Kazi Nazrul Islam, Jibanananda Das and Bishnu Dey etc. After publishing for two years this magazine stopped. While he was in Dhaka University he was involved with Jagannath Hall. The annual magazine of this Hall was called ‘Basantika’. Buddhadeb Basu was selected as the student editor in 1927-28. It was in his student life he first flourished as a writer. The student mouthpiece in Kolkata by the name of ‘Kallol’ is where he came out as a writer in its third year, eighth episode- by writing a poetry called ‘Jhorbe Na Ankhijol’. His first story was published in Kallol’ in the twelfth episode and was named ‘Kobi Sukumar Ray’. In the second part of 1933 his controversial piece was published it was called ‘Rajani Holo Utola’. Another of his famous creation was ‘Bondir Bondona’ which was written in 1926. On 19th of December 1968 his long story ‘Raatbhor Brishti’ was again banned by the court because of controversies.

Sri Buddhadeb Basu Thakur had to face tremendous problems while writing ‘Mahabharata r Katha’ but he still finished the first part. However his creation couldn’t see the date daylight of its publication and release. He also wanted to do a second part but he couldn’t do so. After Kabi Guru Rabindranath Tagore there were only very few writers who are as versatile and talented as Sri Buddhadeb Basu Thakur. Sri Buddhadeb Basu received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1967 for his verse play Tapaswi-O-Tarangini, received the Rabindra Puraskar in 1974 for Swagato Biday (poetry) and was honoured with a Padma Bhushan in 1970 He enriched the Bengali literature. He never wanted to be popular. But he was one of the main beacons of light of Bengali literature. He was very controversial but he was never overlooked. He was very popular in the circuit of Bengali poetry. He wrote Short Stories, Novels – Drama, Poetry – Children’s Literature – Essays –Translation – Travel Stories etc. everywhere he left his mark of genius. On 18th of March, 1974 he died suddenly because of blood hemorrhage in his brain.