Michael Madhusudan Dutt, one of the early Indo-Anglian writers from Bengal and the founder of modern Bengali poetry, lived in Madras, between 1848 and 1856, pursuing a career as a journalist and teacher. It was in Madras that he wrote The Captive Ladie, a poem of two cantos, based on the character of Rajput warrior Prithviraj Chauhan, and established his remarkable talent as a poet.
“You know that when I came here I had no friends; but now, many a barbarous villain, born and bred here, would be glad to be in my shoes,” he wrote to his friend Gourdas.
