EMINENT PERSONALITIES

GODABARISH MOHAPATRA

               
            Godabarish Mohapatra took birth in Khordha district near Banapur in the Kumaranga Sasan. While he was still studying in Banapur Minor School he was awarded for his first poem “Banapur” in the year 1914. His poems were published since then. He was inspired by the teachings of Satyabadi School. He had chosen Banapur as his work field. He was associated in variety of works in that region.He was a teacher for sometime in the National School established by Pundit Godabarish Mishra. He went to Berhampur in 1928 and became the Editor of the magazine “Asha” that was being published by Shashi Bhusan Rath. He took part in the working committee of the magazine “Samaj” in 1930. He was an associate of various magazines like “Hiteishini”, “Mukur”, “Sahakar”, “Matrubhumi” etc. from 1936. On 12th March 1938 he published his own magazine “Niakhunta”. This was first published from Berhampur and later was also published from Cuttack. It was a very popular and highly circulated magazine. His purpose was to reveal corruption and to warn the corrupt professionals through his magazine. He has worked for the motherland and the people by means of this magazine. This magazine was full of cartoons, criticisms and analysis. As a result it was adored by all the Orissa people. He has published this magazine for nearly three decades(27years) till his last breath. In 1957 he published a monthly magazine named “Tuan Tuin”.

         He had excellent command over Oriya literature. He was an excellent writer, poet, author and novelist. He was an fearless journalist and a patriotic leader. He has also shown her excellence in his critcal writings. At the age of 16 he has been awarded for his poem “Banapur”. There are more than 70 books of poetry, novels, stories, analysis and academic books to his credit. He has been awarded by the Orissa Sahitya Academy for his books “Mo Khelasaathi” and “Utha Kankala” & “Kanta O Phula” in the years 1960 and 1962 respectively. His book “Banka O Sidha” got the Kendriya Sahitya Academy award after his death. He was a revolutionary poet. His poetry reveals his sense of self-respect. He was an journalist, social reformer, revolutionary poet, author, novelist, critique and above all he has served the motherland with single minded devotion.

PUNDIT GODABARISH MISHRA

            Pundit Godabarish Mishra had taken birth in Srinibaspur sasan a place nearby Banapur of Khordha district. His parents had decided after taking holy dip in the river Godavari during their “Godavari tirtha” that they would keep the name of their son Godabari.

             After completing his primary education from his village school he passed his entrance from Puri District School in 1906 and joined in Revenshaw College. He used to take tuition to meet the college fees so that he can read in the college, as he was poor. He passed his BA in 1910 in Philosophy. He went to Calcutta to read MA and passed his MA in 1912 in Economics (arthaniti). Then he was teacher in Satyabadi School from 1913 to 1919. Then from 1919 to 1921 he was the headmaster of Chakradharpur High School in Singhbhumi district. His aim was to preserve Oriya language in the district of Singhbhumi. He took part in the non-cooperation movement in 1921. In 1922 he returned to his village and was involved in establishing schools, small-scale industries(kutir shilpa), farm & cultivation and social welfare organisations. He was the Editor of “Samaj” for around two years in 1928 after the death of Gopabandhu. His political life began from 1924. He was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi & Gopabandhu and joined the congress. He was member of the ‘district board’ from 1924 to 1933. After Orissa got its independence he was the member of Orissa Vidhan Sabha from 1937 till his death excepting for five years break in the middle. Due to politics he was left alone in the Orissa congress and was not allowed to hold any proper post in the congress. When the congress ministry of Orissa was framed he was not included in the ministry. He became Vidhan Sabha member in 1952 as an independent candidate. He served in the Vidhan Sabha as an eminent administrator and member of the opposition party. He left ‘Congress’ in 1939 and joined the ‘Forward Block.’ He served as finance and education minister in the ministry of Maharaja of Parlakhemundi from 1941 to 1944. During his stay as minister in 1943 he played an important role in establishment of Utkal University, Cuttack Medical College, High court, Colleges at Puri, Balasore and Sambalpur.

              He was associated with Utkal Samilani from 1919 to 1955. He was the President of Utkal Samilani special conference that was held at Berhampur in 1955. He was one of the “Pancahsakha (five friends)” of Gopabandhu. He came across Pundit Gopabandhu while he was in hostel and was involved in welfare of the country. Although he belonged to a conservative Brahmin family he was socialist. He did not accept caste and creed. He took of his sacred thread and also used to keep moustache that was against the Brahmin caste. He was a high standard politician, pundit, educator, historian, poet, writer, editor and orator. His works include many essays, stories, drama, novels, poems, biographies, travel stories, general knowledge, translation, workbooks, jokes etc. His poem ‘Kalijai’, ‘Kishalaya’ electrifies the life of Oriya. His poems have played an important role in creating awareness towards the nation and is heart touching. His drama ‘Purushottam Deb’, ‘Mukunda Deb’, ‘Ardha Shatabdi Ra Orissa O Tahin Re Mo Sthana’ is a immortal gift for the Oriya literature. The “Kendriya Sahitya Academy” has awarded his autobiography. He was a master of all trades. He was also an efficient editor. He published a magazine “Lokamukha” from Banapur in 1924. He was also the editor of ‘Samaj’. He also used to write for the “Eastcoast” published by Shashibhusan Rath. He was awarded Doctorate from the Utkal University. He had three sons and daughters who were left alone after his death.

SACHI ROUTRAY

Sachi Routray has been writing poems for more than half-a-century now or even more, Count-less poems: rich in form and content using symbols, myths and archetypes; most of t hem in free verse. In a sense, he is without parallels. While his contemporaries are all taciturn in spirit, Routray, acclaimed to be the people’s poet continues to wield his pen. He has indeed been a prolific writer-a poet, a short story writer, a novelist and a critique all rolled into one. He is a towering figure in modern oriya literature. A BODHIDRUMA, the enfant terrible.

Routray belonged to that group of writers who called themselves poets of the people. They echoed the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Lenin, Kari Marx and Walt Whitman in their writings. Influenced as he is also by T.S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas Sachi Routray was the innovator of ultramodern note in Oriya poetry. Morden Oriya Poetry, with its vast repository of words and one being firmly in saddles today, owes much to Routray. He is the source of inspiration to many poets of the present genre. Sachi Routray did to Oriya poety what Ram Dhari Sing Dinakar had done to Hindi or Kazi Nazrul Islam to modern Bengali verse.

Sachi Routray was born in Gurujang near Khurda on May 13, 1916. While a school boy he was drawn into the vortex of the freedom struggle. So revolutionary were his poems that some of them were banned by the British. Sachi Routray made the debut in writing poetry at the early age of elven. He has been writing pomes ever since.

Routray’s first anthology of poems was PATHEYA (Pathway). That, in fact, set the path for a whole range of creations. In a writing career spanning six decades he has published many volumes of verse. Beginning with PANDULIPI (Manuscript) up to KAVITA-1990 Routray’s poem have been as varied and powerful as his life.

Essentially a romantic poet, he became acutely aware of the impact of the contemporary life on the individual and he expressed this awareness with honesty and through the use of carefully chosen images which acted a kind of objective correlation of that awareness.

His versification has a vivid imagery, penetrating perception and acute awareness of the current happening. Routray has his own technique of writing poetry. The essential element being its address to the downtrodden. At the same time, they have an important bearing on social milieu. In some of his poems like ABHIYAN (Expedition), RAKTASIKHA (Flames of Blood) and PALLISREE (The Rural Beauty) he has raised his voice of protest against exploitation of various kinds. Many of his poems are clarion calls to the struggling masses to come out of the cages of servitude. The poor farmer, the wage earner, the mazdoor and the helpless man of the town all have been Routray’s characters.

PANDULIPI, KAVITA-1962, SWAGATA, PALLISHREE, BHANUMATIR DESHA, ABHIYAN, HASANTA, KAVITA-1977, KAVITA-1986, KAVITA-1987 AND KAVITA – 1990, are some of his creations.

Another poem of Routray’s is BAJI ROUT. Translated by Harindra Nath Chattopadhaya into English (The Boatman Boy and Forty other poems) this anthology is a landmark in Indian literature. The poem is about the martyrdom of a 12-year old boy of Bhuan in Dhenkanal. The boy who gallantly laid his life at the hands of the British police has emerged as an emblem of true sacrificial grandeur on the canvas of enkindled futurity. This is an immortal creation of Sachi Routray as it has kindled the hope and aspiration among the people who were tyrannized by the British as well as the feudal overlords of Dhenkanal.

Sachi Routray wrote short stories as well with equal poise and elegance. They may not be a variegated as the poems, but, like poems, they give expression to the feelings and emotions of humanity. The inner conflicts of man, the deprivations and the socio-political reality all are narratives of a unique kind. For instance, MASANIRA PHULA (Flower in the Graveyard). MALAKAIN (The Withered lily) and ANGUTHI (Finger) and a host of other anthologies. Just as poetry, some of Routray’s short stories too have heralded a new beginning in Oriya prose literature.

In 1935 Routray wrote CHITRAGREEBA. This novel (or an antinovel as he claims) was very popular for its varied characterization, subtle treatment and itellectual snubbing.

Routray has travelled extensively aboard and that accounts for the cosmopolitan outlook we find in his works. For his seminal contributions to literature awards have flower to him-Padmashree in 1962. Kendriya Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964, Soviet Land Award in 1965 and the mother of all awards the Jnanapeeth in 1986.

Sachi Routray’s life is the confluence of three different streams: he is born Oriya, Educated and grew up in Bengal and married to a Telugu princess of Golapalli. The consummation of three cultures of Utkal, Banga and Dakshin opned up new vistas and established cross-cultural linkages. A Triveni Sangam to say it rather rhetorically.

Sachidananda Routry is not only a poet but a humanist and a visionary as well. His response to modernity lies in his patient sympathy for the poor and the oppressed, the desolate and the ruined. His poems has natural tendency to speak for the lower substratum of the society. His poetic crusades release a sense of freedom and aggressiveness. Routray’s staunch faith in man, his assertive protest and dissent against man’s frustration and despair and his undying dreams for man’s social salvation make his truly a poet of the people, the JANAKAVI. He left for his heavenly abode on 21.08.2004.