Gopinath Mohanty

Gopinath Mohanty studied at Ravenshaw College, Patna University and Ravenshaw University. The recorded working language is Odia. Works named in the authority record are Amrutara Santan, Paraja and Amara Dabi. Distinctions recorded are Jnanpith Award, Padma Bhushan and Sahitya Akademi Award.

• Name — Gopinath Mohanty • Born — 20 April 1914 • Birthplace — Nagabali, Cuttack • Died — 20 August 1991 • Place of death — San Jose, California • Education — M.A. • Alma Mater — Ravenshaw College Patna University • Occupation — Administrator; UGC distinguished visiting professor, Utkal University • Awards — Jnanpith Award Padma Bhushan

Mohanty joined the Odisha Administrative Service in 1938 and retired in 1969. He was invited by Professor Prabhat Nalini Das, then head of the English department at Utkal University as University Grants Commission, UGC Distinguished Visiting Professor and writer-in-residence for two years at the English department, Utkal University, in the late 1970s. In 1986, he joined San Jose State University in the United States as an adjunct professor of Social Sciences. He died at San Jose, California on 20 August 1991.

Gopinath's first novel, Mana Gahirara Chasa, was published in 1940, which was followed by Dadi Budha (1944), Paraja (1945) and Amrutara Santana (1947). His literary output was prolific. He wrote twenty-four novels, ten collections of short stories, three plays, two biographies, two volumes of critical essays, and five books on the languages of the Kandha, Gadaba and Saora tribes of Odisha. He translated Tolstoy's War and Peace (Yuddh O Shanti), in three volumes, 1985–86), and Rabindranath Tagore's Jogajog, (1965), into Odia. Dadi Budha (The Ancestor) (1944) is his first novel on the tribal community and it offers a realistic portrait of life and tradition of the tribal people of the mountainous region surrounded by thick forest. It is a seminal novel in Tribal Literature and corresponds to Chinua Achebe's classic tale of Colonial invasion of tribal culture Things fall Apart and foregrounds almost the same theme – the impact of modernity and disintegration of tribal society. Paraja (1945) is a moving narrative based on the life of a tribal community. It is the tale of one's attachment to land, the soil of one's ancestors. Sitakant Mahapatra describes the novel as "the story of shattered dreams". The novel also implicitly portrays the impact of colonial rule on Odia tribals. Amrutara Santana (1949), the first novel to receive the Central Sahitya Akademi Award (1955), is centered round the life of the Kandhas, another tribe in the southern parts of Odisha.

In the post-Independence era Odia fiction assumed a new direction. The trend which Fakir Mohan Senapati had started developed after the 1950s. Gopinath Mohanty, Surendra Mohanty and Manoj Das are considered the three literary jewels of this period. They were pioneers of a new trend, namely, that of developing or projecting the "individual as protagonist" in Odia fiction. Another of Gopinath's stories, 'Pimpudi' has had great influence. It is the story of a forest officer checking rice smuggling to Madras.

Six of Mohanty's novels, along with a number of short stories, have been translated into English. It is extremely difficult to render in English the nuances of Gopinath Mohanty's language. However, translators have attempted to convey the richness and complexity of the original texts to readers unfamiliar with Odia. English Translations of Gopinath Novels • Title — English title — Translator(s) — Publisher(s) — Publication Date • Danapani — The Survivor — Bikram K. Das — Macmillan India Limited — 1985 • Paraja — n/a — Bikram K. Das — Faber and Faber (UK) and Oxford University Press (India) — 1987 • Dadi Budha — The Ancestor — Aruṇa Kumāra Mahānti — Sahitya Akademi — 1997 • Laya Bilaya — High Tide, Ebb Tide — Bikram K. Das — Lark Books — 1999 • Amrutara Santana — The Dynasty of the Immortals — Bidhu Bhusan Das, Prabhat Nalini Das, and Oopali Operajita — Sahitya Akademi — 2016