Radhanath Ray (An Old & Rare Book)

Radhanath Ray (1848-1908) came of a Bengali family that had settled in Orissa for generations. His kavyas set up a new tradition in Oriya poetry and influenced subsequent poets almost up to the middle of the 20th century. He enriched Oriya poetry by introducing into it new forms, new topics, a new approach and greater freedom. Among the many new things which he brought into Oriya poetry, there were blank-verse modelled on Michael Madhu-sudan Dutt's Bengali poetry, pictorial, musical but direct and unambiguous language following Scott and Wordsworth, satire in the manner of Dryden and Pope, denunciation of despots, tyrants and oppressors, concern with social problems, a spirit of protest against conventional morality, a disbelief in the power of gods and goddesses, and patriotic sentiments, which last brought him trouble from his employers. He was viewed as a national poet of the first order in Orissa.

Dr. Gopinath Mohanty, the author of this monograph, needs no introduction to any student of Indian literature. But here one would find one of the greatest novelists of Orissa paying highest tribute to one of the greatest poets of his language in a very lucid and convincing manner.