As a lawyer Chitta Ranjan earned a good deal. For the last three years his income was about fifty thousand rupees a month. Many are of opinion that no lawyer of India had ever earned so much. More over there is no doubt that his income would have been much enhanced if he could exclusively engage all his time in the legal profession. He took up the political cases almost without any fees and also served on the Punjab Enquiry Committee for more than four months at a great personal sacrifice. This unrivalled practice he has given up unhesitatingly at the call of his mother country.
Such was the career of Chitta Ranjan at the Bar for about a quarter of a century, rich in details, famous for acuteness and noble in uprightness.
Chitta Ranjan's Contributions to Bengali Literature.
Long before Chitta Ranjan was able to take an active part in politics his genius was revealing itself in literature. In 1895 he published a volume of lyrics, "Malancha", which introduced a new element of freedom and realism into the modern literature of Bengal. Some poems of Malancha support atheism and this made Chitta Ranjan very unpopular in the Brahmo Samaj. Many Brahmos headed by the late Pandit Shivanath Sastri did not even attend the marriage ceremony of Chitta Ranjan which took place in 1897 shortly after the publication of "Malancha". After this he published four more volumes of Lyrics__Mala, Antaryami, Kishore-Kishori and Sagar Sangit. The first three volumes contain poems inspired by the Vaishnava cult which is the special heritage of Bengal. Chitta Ranjan's lyrical talent is sufficiently prominent in these four volumes, some of the poems are in matter and form gems of perfect beauty, the charm is much enhanced by the pathos with which the poet describes his yearning for God whom he seeks with the enthusiasm of a lover.
But most popular of Chitta Ranjan's lyrical volumes is his Sagar Sangit (or songs of the sea). In this work the poet has woven in lyrics the high sentiments which stole into his heart as they came dancing on the waves of the sea. Here he has touched a new chord of his musical lyre which sang out emotionally:--
Straining my ear I listen to thy chanting O sea, in the midst of this Light--encircled dawn! What words, what tune! My heart is full even to over-flowing! Yet do I not understand What is it that sounds Amidst this morning So resonant with this music.