Jayanta Mahapatra

Jayanta Mahapatra (born 1928) is one of the best known Indian English poets.^[1] He is the first ever Indian poet to win Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He is the author of such popular poems as Indian Summer and Hunger, which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He is also a winner of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India.^[2]

Jayant returned his Padma Shri to protest so-called rising intolerance in India.^[3] His award return is first cases of award return after the end of the Bihar assembly elections which ends on 8 November 2015.

Indian Poets Trio

Besides being one of the popular Indian poets of his generation, Mahapatra was also part of the trio of poets who laid the foundations of Indian English Poetry. He shared a special bond with A. K. Ramanujan, one of the finest poets in the IEP tradition. Mahapatra is also different in not being a product of the Bombay school of poets besides R. Parthasarathy. Over time, he has managed to carve a quiet, tranquil poetic voice of his own—distinctly different from those of his contemporaries. His wordy lyricism combined with ntic Indian themes put him in a league of his own.

Career

All his working life, he taught physics at various colleges in Odisha including Gangadhar Meher College, Sambalpur, B.J.B College, Bhubaneswar, Fakir Mohan College, Balasore and Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. He retired in 1986.^[4]

Mahapatra has authored 27 books of poems, of which seven are in Oriya and the rest in English. His poetry volumes include Relationship, Bare Face and Shadow Space. Mahapatra is a Sahitya Akademi awardee, and also a recipient of the Jacob Glatstein award conferred by Poetry magazine, Chicago. He was also awarded the Allen Tate Poetry Prize for 2009 from The Sewanee Review, Sewanee, USA. He received the SAARC Literary Award, New Delhi, 2009. Besides poetry, he has experimented widely with myriad forms of prose. His published books of prose are Green Gardener, an anthology of short stories and Door of Paper: Essay and Memoirs. Mahapatra is also a distinguished editor and has been bringing out, for many years, a literary magazine, Chandrabhaga, from Cuttack. The magazine is named after Chandrabhaga, a prominent river in Orissa.

He began writing poem when he was in the age of 40s. The publication of his first book of poems, Svayamvara and Other Poems, in 1971 was followed by the publication of Close The Sky Ten By Ten. One of Mahapatra's better remembered works is the long poem Relationship, for which he was the first Indian English poet to win the Sahitya Akademi award in 1981.

He was conferred the Padma Shri in 2009 by the president of India and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ravenshaw University on 2 May 2009. He was also awarded Litt. D. degree by Utkal University in 2006.

Awards

• RaedLeaf Poetry Lifetime Achievement Award for Poetry, 2013, Hyderabad.
• Second Prize – International Who's Who in Poetry, London, 1970.
• Jacob Glatstein Memorial Award – Poetry, Chicago, 1975.
• Visiting Writer – International Writing Program, Iowa City 1976–77.
• Cultural Award Visitor, Australia, 1978.
• Japan Foundation – Visitor's Award, Japan, 1980.

Poetry Readings

Outside India

• University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1976
• University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1976
• University of the South, Sewanee, 1976
• East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1976
• Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide, 1978
• P.E.N. Centre, Sydney, 1978
• Australian National University, Canberra, 1978
• International Poets Conference, Tokyo, 1980
• Asian Poets Conference, Tokyo, 1984

Books by Jayanta Mahapatra

Poetry

• 1971: Close the Sky Ten by Ten, Calcutta: Dialogue Publications^[5]
• 1971: Svayamvara and Other Poems, Calcutta: Writers Workshop^[5]
• 1976: A Father's Hours, Delhi: United Writers^[5]
• 1976: A Rain of Rites, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press^[5]
• 1979: Waiting, Samkaleen Prakashan^[5]
• 1980: The False Start, Bombay: Clearing House^[5]
• 1980: Relationship, Greenfield, New York: Greenfield Review Press^[5]

Prose

• 1997: The Green Gardener, short stories, Hyderabad: Orient Longman^[5]
• 2006: Door of Paper: Essay and Memoirs, New Delhi: Authrospress^[5]
• 2011: Bhor Moitra Kanaphula. In Oriya. Bhubaneswar, Paschima^[5]

Poetry in Oriya

• 1993: Bali (The Victim), Cutack: Vidyapuri^[5]
• 1995: Kahibe Gotiye Katha (I'll Tell A Story), Arya Prakashan^[5]
• 1997: Baya Raja(The Mad Emperor), Cuttack: Vidyapuri^[5]
• 2004: Tikie Chhayee (A Little Shadow), Cuttack; Vidyapuri^[5]
• 2006: Chali (Walking), Cuttack: Vidyapuri^[5]
• 2008: Jadiba Gapatie (Even If It's A Story), Cuttack: Friends Publishers^[5]
• 2011: Smruti Pari Kichhiti (A Small Memory), Cuttack: Bijayini^[5]

Critical studies

• 2001: Bijay Kumar Das, The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: 3rd revised and enlarged edition; New Delhi: Atlantic, ISBN 81-7156-968-4^[6]
• 2006: Jaydeep Sarangi and Gauri Shankar Jha (eds), The Indian Imagination of Jayanta Mahapatra, New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2006, ISBN 81-7625-622-6, a compilation of critical articles.^[7]
• Jaydeep Sarangi, Jayanta Mahapatra Joy of Living and Loving in His Poetry, Aavishkar Publishers' Distributors, 2012, ISBN 8179103749. Printed INR: 600.00, hardcover, 162 pp.

Shiba Shankar Nath,"The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra:A Study in Imagery",Delhi:Authorspress,2014,ISBN 978-81-7273-897-6.Printed INR: 700.00,hardcover,173 pp.

See also

• Biodata of Jayanta Mahapatra
• Indian English literature

Rock Pebbles, Vol. XV No.1, January–June 2011(a special issue on Jayanta Mahapatra) ISSN 0975-0509

Notes

External links

• Literary review, The Hindu, 2 October 2005
• A Profile of Jayanta Mahapatra
• JM's poem Freedom from The Little Magazine
• An Article by JM
• Interview at Muse India
• Jayanta Mahapatra's Official Homepage
• Jayanta Mahapatra's Video Interviews
• Interview in Mint