What is "sabujpatra"

Sabujpatra (, English: Green Leaf) was a Bengali magazine. It was named Sabujpatra as its cover page was illustrated by a green palmleaf drawn by Nandalal Bose and on other colors was used ever. It was first published on 25th Baishakh 1321 BS (1914) and edited by Pramatha Chowdhury. He was mentored and inspired by Rabindranath Tagore to publish such a journal. The magazine shunned advertisements and pictures to uphold about the ideals and standards the editor believed in. In the first phase it was being published up to 1329 BS (1922). Its second phase started in 1332 BS. The magazine finally folded in 1334 BS (1927).

Though short-lived, Sabujpatra was a major force in remolding Bengali language and literary style for the post-First World War generation. Pramatha Choudhury endeavored to introduce new literary ideals, preferred spoken Bengali to the written and a new style of writing, often called 'Birbali', after his pseudonym 'Birbal'. From then forward, the colloquial Bengali is dominating the Bengali literary scene. Even Tagore's later prose works and modern Bengali literature vindicates the success of Sabujpatra's motto.

Sabujpatra initially contained writings from Rabindranath Tagore, Satyendranath Dutta and the editor himself. Some of the intellectuals who gathered around Pramatha Chowdhury became literary luminaries later. Dhurjatiprasad Mukhopadhyay, Atul Chandra Gupta, Barada Charan Gupta, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Kiranshankar Roy wrote articles in Sabujpatra; Kanti Chandra Ghosh, Amiya Chakraborty and Suresh Chakraborty contributed poems. In everything it published, Sabujpatra expressed the spirit of freethinking and advocated rationalism, democracy and individual freedom.

Pashchimbanga Bangla Akademi Library, Calcutta,archived a complete set of Sabujpatra.