Odia Books

Ananta Pattanayak was born in 1914 . He was educated at Puri Zila School, Cuttack Collegiate School and Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, and did his B.A. from, Patna University in 1935. He participated in the freedom struggle and the Praja movement in some feudatory states of odisha for which he was imprisoned several times. He joined the Congress Socialist Party in 1934 and led its students’ wing. He was a freelance journalist, associated with the editing of Samaj, The odisha Times and The Observer at different times. Since 1968 he has been the Secretary of the odisha Children’s Literature Committee, a Government of odisha undertaking, and now edits Shishulekha, an illustrated popular, monthly for children published on behalf of the Committee. He was once associated with the Peace Committee and the All India Writers’ Conference as their active member. He wrote lyrics and dialogues for odia films and worked as Associate Director for some of them. His connection with the film-world brought for him the membership of the Film Board of India.

His literary career began in his student days, and his poems, stories and other wirtings were regularly
published in Shankar, Asha and other periodicals. He joined the Nabayuga Sahitya Samsad as its secretary in 1935 and was influenced by the progressive ideas which were increasingly finding expression in literature. Raktashikha (The flame of blood, 1936), a collection of his patriotic poems with some similar poems by Sachi Rautray, was banned. His Tarpan kare aji (Offering oblations today, 1948) is a fine poetical obituary on Mahatma Gandhi. The other important collections of his poems include Shantishikha (The flame of peace, 1953), Kinchit (Something, 1960), Aloda loda (Necessity of the unnecessary, 1964), Chhaira Chhita (The touch of the shadow, 1971) and Abantara (The irrelevant, 1979). His artistic execution in poetry is simple and effective. He has made successful use of hyperbolic images and free verse in almost all his poems. A craftsman of current words, he has used the ingenuous language of the common people, making it familiar to his readers of modern odia poetry. In his only story-collection, Chadda utar (Question-answer, 1965), he attempted the use of uncommon themes, but could not achieve much and in later years concentrated on writing for children and earned fame. His prose and verse writings for children include Kunumunu (The little kiddies), Lal tuk tuk surujatie (The very red sun), Gapudi main lo dhapudi main (Oh, the story-teller my maternal uncle’s wife), Agadambagadam (Jumble), etc. He is also successful as a translator and has rendered into odia, Gorky’s Mother (Ma, 1968), My Apprenticeship (Sikshanavis, 1978) and Sholokhov’s The Fate of a Man (Bhagyaru khie, 1966). For children, too, he has translated into odia some writings of the Soviet Union. They include Kasara ghoda (Brown horse) and Chhabitiki galpatie (A story to a picture).He wrote some bibliography like Nityananda Satapathy. Sabujaru sampratika (Cuttack, 1979); Prananath Pattanayak.Asantakalir sahitya (Bhubaneswar. 1970).

Ananta Bichitra
Sabujaru sampratika
Asantakalir sahitya

Abantara
Raktashikh
Chaira Chita
Aloda Loda
Shanti Shikha
Tarpana Kare Aji
Kinchita

Chabitieku Padha
Kasara Ghoda
Rabana
Chira Andhara Rati