Odia Books

Rajkishore Pattanayak was born 1917 in Calcutta, he was educated at Cuttack and passed the matriculation examination from Ravenshaw Collegiate School in 1934, and his B.Sc. examination from Ravenshaw College in 1938. After passing the Bachelor of Law examination from Cuttack and LL.M. from Banaras he started legal practice in Cuttack in 1944. While practising law he also served as a lecturer at the Law College, Cuttack, for about five years. As a journalist he edited many peirodicals both in Oriya and in English of which one English fortnightly magazine, Scrutiny, deserves mention.

He was also a reputed sportsman but soon gave up sports and devoted himself to writing fiction. His first novel Panjuri pakhi (The bird inside the cage) was serialised in 1937 in Nababharat. Simultaneously a few of his short stories also appeared in the Ukal sahitya and the Sahakara and were soon published. Rajkishore came to be known far and wide as a successful writer of fiction. Since then he has produced some seventeen novels, two collections of essays and ten collections of short stories.

His works include: Sindura gara (1943), Ashranti (1944), Smritiramanasi (1944), Panjuri pakhi (1945), Premara niyati (1946), Sapan Khudi (1954), Sanjabati (1956), Premikara diary (1955), Chala bata (1957),Bhasa megha (1958), Kajal gara (1959) Astami chander (1966), Kalaparda (1967), Sakala kuhudi (1970),Pritira banija (1973) and Pritira kajal (1973). Tutha pathar (1945), Hrudayara bandhan (1945), Pathuki(1948) Nisana khauta (1954), Salagrama (1955), Kalpnarafula (1958), Patharadhima (1963), Hata sauda(1971), Hata bahuda (1974) are collections of his short stories. His critical writings are Lekha o pathak(1971) and Oriya sahityara agapachha (1973).

Though his novels and short stories mainly deal with love, they are always marked by psychological
studies of characters. It is through his characters that Rajkishore successfully depicts the different crosssections of contemporary society. His narration is simple and attractive, and his use of the colloquial speech has won him great popularity.

Sindura Gara
Ashranti
Smritiramanasi
Panjuri Pakhi
Premara Niyati
Sapan Khudi
Premikara Diary
Sakala Kuhudi
Kalaparda
Kalpnarafula
Kalpnarafula
Nisana Khauta