Byomkesh Bakshi (or, Byomkesh Baksi) (Bengali: ব�যোমকেশ বক�সী) is a fictional detective in Bengali literature created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. He is one of the most successful detective characters in Bengali Literature. Also, Bandyopadhyay once said that these stories can be thought as and read as social novels only. In Bangla, "Byomkesh" means "the sky". The advocate-turned-littérateur Bandyopadhyay was deeply influenced by Sherlock Holmes[1] of Arthur Conan Doyle, Hercule Poirot of Agatha Christie and Father Brown of G.K.Chesterton as well as the "tales of ratiocination" involving C. Auguste Dupin produced by Edgar Allan Poe. He was, however, concerned with how the Indian and Bengali fictional detectives created between 1890 and 1930 had failed to exist as something other than mere copies of the Western (and particularly English) fictional detectives. The stories of Dinendra Kumar Ray\'s Robert Blake, Panchkari Dey\'s Debendra Bijoy Mitra or Swapan Kumar\'s Deepak Chatterjee were almost always set in London or in Kolkata which was identifiably the British metropolis. It was almost as a postcolonial response that Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay introduced the Bengali ‘’Bhadrolok’’ (gentleman) sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi and Ajit Bandyopadhyay (Byomkesh\'s associate and narrator) in Pather Kanta in 1932, and began to write of them as investigating in an Indian metropolis—the capital of British India until 1911—that has had been thoroughly Indianised. Apart from Byomkesh, there are only two other detective characters who can be thought as purely Bengali of that time are: Hemendra Kumar Roy\'s Jayanta [জয়ন�ত] & Nihar Ranjan Gupta’s Kiriti Roy [কিরীটী রায়], though in the view point of complexity and importance of crimes, Byomkesh is much more ahead. In Initially serialized in the literary magazine Basumati, the stories and novels were all eventually published in hardcover editions, the first being Byomkesher Diary. In all, Sharadindu wrote 33 stories featuring Byomkesh, one of which remained incomplete due to his death. At first, he wrote in Sadhu Bhasha, but later he preferred Chalit Bhasha while writing Byomkesh. Byomkesh is one of the most popular characters in Bengali literature, along with Feluda of Satyajit Ray, Kakababu of Sunil Gangopadhyay, Parashor Barma and Ghanada of Premendra Mitra and Tenida of Narayan Gangopadhyay. Although the story Satyanweshi, in which Byomkesh and Ajit meet for the first time, is often the first story in most Byomkesh anthologies, the first Byomkesh story written was Pother Kanta in 1932, followed by Seemanto-Heera in the same year. Sharadindu started writing the stories regularly, and by 1936 he had written ten stories, all of which were published by Calcutta publishers Gurudas Chatterjee and Sons in three collections. Sharadindu stopped writing Byomkesh stories for 15 years, during which time he lived and worked in Bombay, writing screenplays for Bollywood films, including Durga, Kangan and Navjeevan (all 1939), featuring. On returning to Calcutta in 1951, Sharadindu began writing Byomkesh stories again after friends asked why he had stopped and published Chitrochor in the same year. He wrote a further 21 stories, including one, Bishupal Bodh, left incomplete by his death in 1970. Byomkesh meets Ajit for the first time in the story Satyanweshi. He initially introduces himself as Atul Mitra to prevent others from knowing his actual motives there. Through a series of complicated events, one of which resulted in him being accidentally arrested by the police on charge of murder, he ultimately unmasks the criminal, which turns out to be the mess owner himself. As a result the mess members are forced to vacate the mess, while Byomkesh takes Ajit to his own mess in Harrison Road, where he entreats him to stay there with him, saying that after living with him for the last two weeks he would find it difficult to live alone. Ajit consents, and since then they live there along with their devoted servant Puntiram [প��টিরাম], until in Arthonamortham Byomkesh gets married to Satyaboti who henceforth lives there too. Ajit narrates all but five of the thirty-three cases which feature Byomkesh. In all these stories he assists and accompanies Byomkesh in his escapades. Most of the stories are centered on Kolkata, except a few like in Byomkesh O Baroda, where they go to Munger in Bihar, or Amriter Mrityu, where they go to Baghmari. SharadinduBabu had intended to portray Ajit as a stereotype foil to a \'Super-Sleuth\', and indeed in all the stories the readers find that Byomkesh single-handedly solves the mysteries, while Ajit\'s narration, punctuated by his own interpretations of various events, offers interesting insight into the story. Byomkesh\'s own opinion about Ajit\'s intelligence and acumen is somewhat underwhelming- in Durgo Rohosyo, when Ajit throws some intelligent light on the mystery, he is very surprised, which prompts him to concede "Can it be that at last you have really developed your faculties!" However, he let Ajit try to solve the case in his lieu in Makorsar Ros, though admittedly it was more due to circumstances precluding him from engaging himself in the case than due to his trust in Ajit\'s abilities; inasmuch as he was busy solving another case concerning some large scale forgery of notes. Ajit however is unable to solve the case, and even naively suggests at one point that the only explanation of NandadulalBabu still managing to intoxicate himself with Tarantula extract is that he devours those roaming on his room-walls. This preposterous idea compels a hearty laugh from Byomkesh, much to his chagrin; however after he had solved it out himself, Byomkesh tells the family that it was Ajit who had solved it, with only a minor assistance from him. Occasionally Byomkesh assigns Ajit some role in solving the mystery: in Pother Kanta he lets Ajit go to New Market incognito to procure a letter from an unknown person, though later we find that he followed Ajit close at heels all the time. In Amriter Mrityu he asks Ajit to interrogate a suspect while he busied himself in some other affairs. In most of the story we find that Byomkesh banks more on instinct and intuition when concrete proof is unavailable. Sharadindu never expresses it explicitly through Ajit; however in Seemonto-Heera the boastful and condescending Sir Digindranarayan Roy mentions it while he pretends to make an analysis of Byomkesh\'s faculties from his appearance only. Ajit visibly is unable to agree with the fact that intuition can supplant material proof, though he acquiesces after Byomkesh does solve the case. In Bahnni-Patanga we see that Byomkesh is somewhat perplexed by the seemingly trivial fact that in a painting depicting Dushmanta stealing a glance at Shakuntala, the artist had chosen to paint the iris of the latter in blue. Based on this fact alone, he constructs the entire case, which we later we find accurate. Achin Pakhi perhaps provides the best example of his intuitive skills, here just in the act listening to an unsolved case as recounted by a retired police officer, he realises that the perpetrator of the crime in question is none other than the person recounting it. Byomkesh keenly focuses on the most quotidian events and facts, and many a time we find that such a fact proves all important in the solution of the mystery. He encourages his clients to state everything they can remember while they recount their experiences, insisting that nothing is unimportant to him. In Pother Kanta, this leads to the client stating that just prior to his being attacked; he heard the ringing of a bicycle bell. Later this turned out to be the most crucial piece of clue in deciphering the mystery. In "Arthonamortham", he correctly guesses that Sukumar returned from cinema at exactly 12 am. In fact there are very few stories where concrete proof does materialise to help him solve the case; for example in Chiriyakhana and Benisanghar he gets substantial help from the police. Many times we see that even though he already knows who the culprit is, he waits for an opportune moment to catch him flagrante delicto, such as in Pather Kanta, Lohar Biscuit and Shojarur Kanta.

Releshed Date  13 - August - 2010