Jayanta Manik Samagra / জয়ন্ত মানিক সমগ্র

Hemendra Kumar Roy 2 September 1888 – 18 April 1963 was an Indian Bengali writer noted for his contribution to the early development of the genre of children’s literature in the language. He was a noted contributor to the early development of Bengali detective fiction with his ‘Jayanta-Manik’ and adventurist ‘Bimal-Kumar’ stories, dealing with the exploits of Jayanta, his assistant Manik, and police inspector Sunderbabu. Roy also the translated the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám into Bengali. Roy’s ‘Ajab Deshe Amala’ is a well-known translation of Alice in Wonderland.
Hemendrakumar Roy was born in Kolkata in 1888, in an affluent Vaidya (Baidya) family originally hailing from Pathuriaghata. Roy inherited a part of his artistic talent from his father who was a more than competent player of the esraj a string instrument and regularly gave performance at the famed Star Theatre in North Kolkata. His first published work was a short-story Amar Kahini that appeared in the magazine Basudha in 1903. In 1916, he joined the circle of writers that published in the Bharati journal edited by Sourindramohan Mukherjee and Manilal Ganguly. He also composed a number of horror stories for children.