Gopal Bhar

Gopal Bhar
Statue of Gopal Bhar at Krishnanagar, Nadia
Born Gopal Chandra Bhandari
Ghurni, present-day Krishnanagar, Nadia, West Bengal, India
Died Nadia, present-day India
Religion Hinduism
Occupation Courtier and jester in the court of Raja Krishnachandra

Gopal Bhar or Gopal Bhand (Bengali: গোপাল ভাঁড়) was a court jester in medieval Bengal. He was in the court of Raja Krishnachandra (1710-1783), the-then king of Nadia in the 18th century.[1] Gopal used to give joy to others by laughter and ridicule.The king considered Gopal as a Navaratna of his court. His statue can still be seen in the palace of Krishnachandra and in Ghurni, Krishnagar town. Gopal was very intelligent and very keen of his idea.[2]

Life

Gopal belonging from a so called low caste family, was quite intelligent from childhood which resulted the upper caste brahmins to feel jealous and they turned revengeful upon Gopal and his family. His father died in Gopal's childhood and his mother was forced to Sati-daha, his elder brother became a slave and he was abducted by an robber gang, where a lady raised him and at an adult age Gopal entered in Krishnanagar Raj.

Stories

Stories about his exploits are narrated in West Bengal and Bangladesh to this day in numerous short stories. The stories are popular, short, beautiful, humorous and have a specific social message. His stories are comparable with those of Birbal, Tenali Raman and Molla Nasiruddin.

Authenticity

In early nineteenth century, Gopal Bhar's name was first mentioned in Bengali literature. It is often said that Gopal Bhar is a legendary personality. But a reference has found that there was a bodyguard of the king of Nadia, Raja Krishnachandra named Shankar Taranga who was given special status by the king for his courage and knowledge and probably gave rise to the legend of Gopal Bhar. There are many contradictory views regarding Gopal Bhar, whether he existed or not. Acharya Sukumar Sen (linguist) opined that the character Gopal is purely fictitious.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Siegel, Lee (1987). [(2)https://books.google.com/books?id=d1qZhZz5RuEC Laughing Matters: Comic Tradition in India]. University of Chicago Press, United States. ISBN 0-226-75691-2. pp. 314-318.
  2. ↑ "Legendary jester Gopal Bhar to be poll mascot in Nadia". Indiatoday.in. March 14, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2017.

Notes

Further reading

(1) Dutta, Swapna (2004). Tales of Gopal the Jester. ISBN 81-7806-059-0. (2) Sinha, Seema (2005). Gopal Bhand. ISBN 81-7011-975-8.

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