Odia Books

Gourishankar Ray was born in 1838 ,in a Bengali family at Dikshitpara in the district of Cuttack. After receiving informal education in Oriya, Urdu and Persian in his native village, he came to Cuttack for studies, whereafter he joined a college at Hoogly for higher studies. He returned to Odisha, joined the Commissioner’s Office, Cuttack, as a clerk, and later rose to be a ‘translator’ in the Cuttack Collectorate.With the help of a few friends he set up the Cuttack Printing Company and started editing Utkal deepika, a weekly newspaper, for the benefit of the people of Odisha.

He was associated with the paper for more than half a century, and is regarded as the father of journalism in Odisha. Utkal deepika became the centre of socio-cultural and political activities in the state. A good number of classical and puranic literature in Odisha,written on palm leaf, was decaying. He collected the material and got it printed with correct reading and notes.

He was a great lover of music and ancient literature of Odishaand made the colloquial language a
powerful vehicle of expression and evolved an effective prose style through his editorials.Besides, the ancient Odiya poems edited by him with suitable notes speak of his literary merit. One of the builders of modern Odisha, he ushered in the dawn of a new era through his dedication and ceaseless efforts for half a century.He wrote some bibliography A.C. Satpathy, Matru gourab (1933); Mrutunjoy Ratha, Karmayogi Gourishankar (1925); Nagendra Kumar Rai, Karmi Gourishankar (Cuttack, 1956); Radhanath Rath, Karmavir Gouri Shankar Roy (Satyabadi Press, 1980).