A collection of poetry by a former student at Aberystwyth University will be launched at the National Library of Wales next week.

The poems were written by Dorothy Banarjee, who was famous for her work and became known as the ‘Hindu Bard’.

Honno Press will launch the collection of poetry next Thursday, 13 April, at 5pm, when the book will be presented by its two editors, Andrew Whitehead, a former BBC India correspondent, and Mohini Gupta who was a student at Aberystwyth herself, and is now a doctoral student at Oxford.

Dorothy Bonarjee created a sensation when she won the bardic Chair at the University College of Wales’ Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth in 1914. She was 19, and the first woman as well as the first overseas student to win the college Eisteddfod.

Over the next few years, Bonarjee contributed well-regarded poetry to Welsh Outlook and The Dragon. Her verse caught the mood of the time, and particularly the brutal impact of the First World War.

Dorothy Banarjee with fellow students at Aberystwyth
Dorothy Banarjee with fellow students at Aberystwyth (Picture supplied)

Join the National Library of Wales, Honno and the Dictionary of Welsh Biography to launch the first ever published collection of her poems, The Hindu Bard: the poetry of Dorothy Bonarjee, published by Honno.

The editors, Mohini and Andrew, offer an expert assessment of Bonarjee’s writing and a vivid account of her remarkable life, and will be in coversation with Dr Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones and Dr Faaeza Jasdanwalla-Williams at the launch.

Dorothy’s grand-niece, Dominique Savitri Baron-Bonarjee, an artist and researcher at Goldsmiths University of London, will be joining the launch event and speaking on behalf of the family as well.

The Guardian newspaper reviewed The Hindu Bard and has listed it as its top This month’s best paperbacks: February and March.

Mohini with Dorothy's portrait which made it to the cover of the book
Mohini with Dorothy's portrait which made it to the cover of the book (Picture supplied)

Writing about the collection, The Guardian said: “Born into an upper-caste Bengali brahmin family in Uttar Pradesh, Dorothy Bonarjee was sent with her brothers to England for school in 1904. She was 10 years old and would never return to the land of her birth… Bonarjee opted to study French at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth.

“Bonarjee loved her time at the Welsh seaside town. In 1914 she became the first foreign student and the first woman to win the prestigious College Eisteddfod chair with her poem about the 14th-century Welsh warrior Owain Lawgoch.

“News of her ‘chairing’ was reported in the Times of India. The college journal, The Dragon, praised her poem’s ‘imaginative fire’ and the award gave her confidence to contribute to other influential publications.

“She became known, rather inaccurately (her parents were Indian Christians), as the ‘Hindu Bard’.

“Bonarjee fell in love while at Aberystwyth, but after a three-year secret engagement her fiancé called it off when his parents told him, ‘She is very beautiful and intelligent but she is Indian’.”

Drinks will be served after the English language launch event.