Kuntala Kumari Sabat- Makers of Indian Literature

The brief life of Kuntala Kumari Sabat (1900 - 1938), a well-known Oriya social activist and poet, was crowded with tumultuous events. Born in a Christian family, she embraced Hinduism in the face of a belligerent social opposition. A converted Hindu, she later married an Arya-Samajist. Her life had been a 'web of a mingled yarn'. She had both idealism and pragmatism at the same time. She was charitable and compassionate and yet could be an uncompromising rebel. In her writings too, realism and idealism, romanticism and classicism contended with each other. In her poetry she sang of the country and the common flower, and brought into it the divine and the earthly. These enigmatic aspects of her life and creations made her a legendary personality in her life time itself.

Pratibha Ray is a well-known short story writer and novelist in Oriya. Her publications include eighteen novels, eighteen collections of short stories, one trave logue, nine books for children and ten for neo-literates. She has received a number of awards including the Orissa Sahitya Akademi, the Sarala, and the Katha. She is presently Reader in Education at a college in Orissa.

**Contents and Sample Pages**