Author: Rinky S

An accomplished novelist and short story writer from Odisha, Gopinath Mohanty (1914–91). His works Paraja and Danapani are contemporary masterpieces that have been translated into several languages. For his book Amrutara Santaan, he received the Sahitya Akademi Prize in 1955. In 1974, he received the Jnanpith Prize; in 1981, the Padma Bhushan. In 1938, Mohanty began working for the Odisha Administrative Service, and he retired in 1969. In the late 1970s, he was recruited by Professor Prabhat Nalini Das, who oversaw the English department at Utkal University, to serve as a University Grants Commission (UGC) Distinguished Visiting Professor and writer-in-residence…

Gopinath Mohanty was a committed, organised, and successful Oriya author. among the best products the state has ever made. He thought that before beginning to write, one should genuinely delve deeply into a subject. He also chose topics where there were few written records or where little investigation had been done since he needed to first-hand experience them before he could write about them. Therefore, works on the Orissan tribes, the untouchables, and topics like illiteracy, superstition, and the oppressive caste system began to appear. Since Gopinath Mohanty was a brilliant storyteller, it was especially endearing that the majority of…

One of the most innovative and radical Indian novels of the 20th century is Gopinath Mohanty’s Harijan, which was initially published in the Odia in 1948 and was translated into English for the first time here by Bikram Das. It brings the tale of a community of Mehentars residing in a slum to life. Their caste prevents them from working in any other occupation, leaving them with no choice but to clean latrines with their bare hands. The leader of this group is the middle-aged, obnoxious Jema, who begins each day by downing a pot of alcohol and smoking pinkas…

Gopinath Mohanty was born on April 20, 1914, in Nagabali, Cuttack. He had a stellar academic career and a master’s in English literature. In 1938, he enlisted in the Orissa Administrative Service, and he left the organisation in 1969. His debut book, Dadi Budha (The Grandfather), published in 1944, gives a vivid depiction of tribal life and customs in the hilly region surrounded by dense forest. It is a classic work of tribal literature that conforms to Chinua Achebe’s well-known account of the colonisers’ invasion of tribal life. The impact of modernity and the breakdown of tribal civilization are two…

An accomplished novelist and short story writer from Odisha, Gopinath Mohanty (1914–91). His works Paraja and Danapani are contemporary masterpieces that have been translated into several languages. For his book Amrutara Santaan, he received the Sahitya Akademi Prize in 1955. In 1974, he received the Jnanpith Prize; in 1981, the Padma Bhushan. Mana Gahirara Chasa, Gopinath’s debut book, was released in 1940. Dadi Budha, Paraja, and Amrutara Santana next followed (1947). He produced a lot of writing. He also penned three dramas, two biographies, two volumes of critical essays, twenty-four novels, ten collections of short stories, five books on the…

Gopinath Mohanty was a well-known Odia author of the middle of the twentieth century. He was the recipient of the Jnanpith award and the inaugural recipient of the National Sahitya Akademi Award in 1955 for his novel, Amrutara Santana. Paraja is a work of modern Indian fiction that was first written in the Oriya language in 1945 and is now being translated for the first time. It narrates the epic tale of a tribal patriarch and his family living in the dense woods of Orissa’s mountains. The family’s long descent from quiet prosperity of a subsistence lifestyle to servitude to…

Among the Orissan tribes, the Kondh are statistically the largest and one of the most primitive. Amrutara Santana is an epic novel that fictionalises the pain and ecstasy, the joys and tragedies of the Kondh people. The book was the first novel in India to win the Sahitya Akademi Prize, which was presented in 1955 in Odia. Amrutara Santana is a book that was written in the middle of the 1940s, right before India gained its independence, and it exposes the harsh patterns of exploitation and dispossession of tribal people that are still all too pertinent today. How much has…

Gopinath Mohanty was born on April 20, 1914, in Nagabali, Cuttack. He had a stellar academic career and a master’s in English literature. In 1938, he enlisted in the Orissa Administrative Service, and he left the organisation in 1969. He had intimate interactions with the tribal people (particularly the “Kondh” and “Paraja”) during his early tenure as an administrator in the Koraput District and had a keen interest in their languages and way of life. His most important artistic creations at this period focus on tribal culture and society. It is incredible that Gopinath wrote a work of fiction in…

An accomplished novelist and short story writer from Odisha, Gopinath Mohanty (1914–91). His works Paraja and Danapani are contemporary masterpieces that have been translated into several languages. For his book Amrutara Santaan, he received the Sahitya Akademi Prize in 1955. In 1974, he received the Jnanpith Prize; in 1981, the Padma Bhushan. Tarun Roy, a clerk in a British trading firm in pre-independence Calcutta, travels to Puri with his wife and children for a weekend getaway in an effort to temporarily escape the pressures of living in the lower middle class. Like any other tourist, he goes to the seashore…

An accomplished novelist and short story writer from Odisha, Gopinath Mohanty (1914–91). His works Paraja and Danapani are contemporary masterpieces that have been translated into several languages. For his book Amrutara Santaan, he received the Sahitya Akademi Prize in 1955. In 1974, he received the Jnanpith Prize; in 1981, the Padma Bhushan. In 1938, Mohanty began working for the Odisha Administrative Service, and he retired in 1969. In the late 1970s, he was recruited by Professor Prabhat Nalini Das, who oversaw the English department at Utkal University, to serve as a University Grants Commission (UGC) Distinguished Visiting Professor and writer-in-residence…