Manik Bandyopadhyay was born on 19 May 1908 in Dumka, a small town of Santhal Parganas district in the state of the then Bihar (now under Jharkhand) in British India.
Because his fathers moved around so much for work, He was able to experience the misery and sorrows of the rural and urban people as growing up, which was reflected sympathetically in his works throughout. Romantic in nature, Manik could sing well and play flutes from early in his life almost till death.
He is an Indian author regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century Bengali literature. During a lifespan of 48 years and 28 years of a literary career, battling with epilepsy from the age of around 28 and financial strains all along, he produced some masterpieces of novels and short stories, as some poems, essays, etc. One of the early neo-realist films shot in Pakistan, The Day Shall Dawn is based on his story.
