Dwijendralal Ray was born in Krishnanagar, Nadia, in the modern-day Indian state of West Bengal, on 19 July 1863. His father’s name was Kartikeyachandra Ray, Dewan (Chief Officer) of Krishnanagar Palace. From his mother’s side, he was a descendant of Vaishnava ascetic Advaita Acharya, one of the apostles of the medieval Bengali saint Shri Chaitanya.
On his return from England, Ray was appointed as a Deputy Magistrate in 1886 and worked in the Departments of Survey and Settlement, Excise, Land Records and Agriculture, Administration, and Judiciary in different parts of Bengal, Bihar, and Central Province.
He was known for his Hindu mythological and nationalist historical plays and songs known as Dwijendrageeti or the Songs of Dwijendralal, which number over 500, creating a separate subgenre of Bengali music.
