Sumitranandan Pant
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Sumitranandan Pant (सुमित्रानन्दन पंत) (May 20, 1900 - December 28, 1977) was one of the most famous modern Hindi poets. He is considered one of the major poets of the Chhayavaadi school of Hindi literature. Pant mostly wrote in Sanskritized Hindi. Pant authored twenty eight published works including poetry, verse plays and essays.
Pant was born at Kausani village of Almora, in the hills of Kumaon. His mother died within a few hours of his birth. He was given the name Gosain Dutt. His initial schooling took place in Almora. After matriculation he moved to Kalakankar near Prayag. He did not like his name so he gave himself a new name "Sumitranandan Pant".
The mark of the childhood in the hills can be seen in his works and his poems resound with an echo of the beauty of nature. He was a shy and girlish child and his classmates often used to tease him calling him 'girl'. For his graduation, Pant went to Prayag University. On hearing Mahatma Gandhi's call for Satyagraha, he left college. However, he continued his education by reading English, Sanskrit and Bengali literature. After some time, he went to Sri Aurobindo's ashram at Pondicherry.
Apart from Chhayavaadipoems, Pant also wrote progressive, philosophical (influenced by Sri Aurobindo), socialist and humanist poems.
Pant received Jnanpith Award for collection of his most famous poems, titled Chidambara. He was awarded Nehru Peace Prize by Soviet Union for Lokayatan.
Pantji's childhood house, in Kausani, has been converted into a museum. This museum displays his daily use articles, drafts of his poems, letters, his awards etc.
[edit] Major works
Veena, Uchchhavaas, Pallava, Granthi, Gunjan, Lokayatan Pallavini, Madhu Jwala, Manasi, Vaani, Yug Path, Satyakaam.
