Founder president of the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti, Pulinbehari Das, son of Nabakumar Das, was born in Lonsing village of the Faridpur district of undivided Bengal. After having passed the Entrance examination (1894), he joined Dhaka College first as the Laboratory Assistant, then Demonstrator. He mastered martial arts from renowned lathial Ustad Murtaza and founded an Akhara at Tikatuli in Dhaka in 1903.
Indoctrinated to revolutionary ideals by Barrister Pramothanath Mitra, he launched his Dhaka Anushilan Samiti, an association for training youth in physical art and war drills. In 1908, the government banned the Anushilan Samiti and similar other organizations; while Pulinbehari was sent to the Montogomery jail in Punjab for two years.
Pulinbehari had by then established 600 branches of the Anushilan Samiti all over eastern India, Myanmar included. In 1912, he was rearrested under the Dhaka Conspiracy Case that ultimately landed him in the Cellular Jail for seven years. Released in 1920, he organized Bharat Sevak Samgha to oppose Gandhi’s non-violent agitation. In 1922, he gave up active politics; founded Bangiya Byayam Samity (Bengal Exercise Club) at Calcutta (1925) to re-dedicate his life to imparting physical training to the youth. Incidentally, he breathed his last in the midst of a training class.