Baikunthanath Pattanayak was born in 1901. He is an eminent odia poet and one of the pioneers of the Sabuja movement, did his M.A. in odia and B. Ed, and worked as a college teacher and later as Inspector of Schools. He began writing poems when he was a student of Ravenshaw College, which were published in Utkal sahitya and Sahakar, two leading literary magazines of the time. In collaboration with his friends of the Sabuja Group, he published a collection of poems called Sabuja kabita. He is best known for his two books Kabya sanchayana (1943) and Uttarayana. The first speaks of the poet’s youthful love, his love of beauty and his mystic ideas on life and death. Uttatayana, which won him the Sahitya Akademi Award for 1965, is a happy blend of noble ideas and hard realities of life. His earlier poems have a fluency of expression, a spontaneity of thought and felicity of diction, but his later poems are obscure and there is a perceptible thematic change. Mrittika darshan (The philosophy of dust), an elegy on the death of his child, is unique in the realm of odia literature. Besides, he wrote a drama Muktipathe (On the way to freedom) and a one-act play Upekshita (The rejected woman).
Odia Books By Baikunthanath Pattanayak
Uttarayan (ଉତ୍ତରାୟଣ )
Bilwamangala (ବିଲ୍ୱମଙ୍ଗଲ)
Kabyasanchana (କାବ୍ୟସଞ୍ଚୟନ)
Upekhita (ଉପେକ୍ଷିତା)
Kabya Sanchana (କାବ୍ୟ ସଂଚୟନ)
Muktipathe (ମୁକ୍ତିପଥେ)
Nababarsha Sangita (ନବାବର୍ଷା ସଙ୍ଗୀତ)
Arunashri (ଅରୁଣଶ୍ରୀ)
Mrutika Darshana (ମୃତ୍ତିକା ଦର୍ଶନ )