Chunilal Dewan

(1911–1955)

Chunilal Dewan was a man whose soul was always stirred by the serene natural beauty of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. To express his emotions and deep affection for this beauty, he painted vivid pictures, wrote poetry, composed songs and dramas, set them to music, and even sang them himself. He was a rare talent who gave voice to nature’s charm through multiple forms of artistic expression.

As a renowned painter, he received rare honors. But Chunilal Dewan was not just a painter—he was also a poet, singer, composer, lyricist, and sculptor. Among the few who composed poems in the Chakma language during the mid-20th century, he stands out as a prominent figure.

The poet’s ancestral home was in Boradam, Naniarchar Upazila, situated along the banks of the Chengi River in Rangamati District of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. He was born on February 3, 1911, in Dighinala Upazila of Khagrachari District, where his father, Shashi Kumar Dewan, was stationed for work.

He studied up to class nine at Rangamati Government High School. Although he did not pursue a conventional academic path, he gravitated toward painting. He enrolled in the Government Art and Craft College in Kolkata, where he studied for six years and graduated with distinction in 1934. According to available records, Chunilal Dewan was the first academically trained painter from the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

He participated in numerous art exhibitions at both local and national levels and captured the attention of legendary figures such as Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and Quamrul Hassan. As a cultural pioneer of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, poet Chunilal Dewan breathed his last in Naniarchar on December 24, 1955.