Odia Books

Kuntala Kumari Sabat was born in 1900,the princely state of Bastar, now in Madhya Pradesh. She spent her childhood in Burma where her father was a doctor. She had her early schooling at home where her mother taught her odia, Bengali and Hindi. At the age of thirteen she went to Cuttack and joined the Ravenshaw Girls’ School and passed the Entrance examination in 1917. Later, she studied medicine and passed the L.M.P. examination in 1921. For about five years she served under the Red Cross Society of Cuttack, and then moved to Delhi to practice independently.

Kuntala Kumari Sabat fondly called as the Nightingale or BulBul of Orissa was amongst many other women freedom fighters who stood against the British forces during the Indian freedom struggle. An eminent poet, Kuntala Sabat used her thoughtful poems to ignite a sense of patriotism among people across the country. She also made efforts to motivate other women to join the independence movement.

She spent most of her childhood in Burma with her parents and returned with her family to Odisha at the age of 14. She completed her high school from Ravenshaw girls school. In 1921, Kuntala Kumari Sabat completed medicine from a Medical College in Cuttack and passed with a distinction. She went on to be the first lady doctor in Cuttack. She got married Krushna Prasad Brahmachari and adopted Arya dharma.

She had already made her mark as a poet of great creativity before she moved to Delhi. She now wrote
poems in Hindi also and edited some periodicals too. Soon she earned a reputation as a writer in Hindi as she had already done in odia. She was a regular contributor to odia journals. Many of her poems in odia and her novel Raghu Arakhita were published in Delhi.

She had written in English, Kuntala Kumari Sabat : A True Patriotic Litterateur and Reflection of Her Literary Works on Gandhian Movement Dr. Janmejay Choudhury Bengali and Hindi and contributed to a number of nonOriya journals and edited a number of Hindi journals at Delhi. During her stay at Delhi, she presided over the ‘All India Arya Mahila Sammilani’ at Bareli. During this time also she was invited by the Allahabad University and Benaras Hindu University to deliver lectures.She was the president of the students federation at Aligarh. She was made the chair-person of a reputed social organisation founded by Harbilash Sarada for the introduction of widow marriage and abolition of child marriage.

She was far above narrow religious dogmas. A Christian by birth, she embraced Hinduism and later
married an Arya Samaji. The freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi deeply moved her, and her nationalistic feelings found their expression in a long poem called ‘Awhana’ which was proscribed by the British Government immediately after it was published.

As a lyric poet Kuntala Kumari’s contribution is remarkable. Her poems, most of which are highly
emotional, express her religious and patriotic feelings, besides her love of nature. Her sympathy with the downtrodden and the oppressed is revealed in her later poems, such as ‘odianka kandana’ and ‘Gadajata krushaka’. She has shown her excellence in writing odes too in odia. A robust sense of optimism and a desire for the uplift of humanity dominate her poems. Kuntala Kumari wrote a good few novels also which bring out her realistic and reformistic attitude. The characters she portrayed are usually social reformers with a progressive outlook, revolting against repression and superstition prevailing in contemporary society.

Her works, besides those mentioned above, include such poems as ‘Anjali’, ‘Uchhavasa’, ‘Archana’,
‘Sphullinga’, ‘Prema chintamani’, and novels as Bhranti, Parasmani, Naatundi and Kali bohu.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kuntala Kumari granthavali (Cuttack. 1969): J.B. Mohanty, ‘Uchhavasa kabi Kunta1a
Kumari’, Nabajugara kabi o kavyadhara (Grantha Mandir, 1977).

Archana
Awhana
Anjali
Uchhavasa
Sphullinga
Prema Chintamani
Parasmani
Naatundi And Kali Bohu
Raghu Arakhita