Snehaprava Das (born 10 October 1955) is an Indian writer and translator in the Odia language. She is a pioneer translator of several classic works from the Odia language into English. She has also translated several world classics into the Odia language. Her English translations rank among the top translated works from the Odia language. [1] [2]
Snehaprava obtained her Master's degree in English literature and doctorate in Translation Studies and Comparative Literature from Utkal University. As an associate professor she has taught English literature at several institutions of higher learning. She also served as Principal of Binayak Acharya College, Berhampur.
Snehaprava has translated “Padmamali” by Umesh Chandra Sarkar, the first novel in Odiya, into English, besides several novels by Fakir Mohan Senapati. Her other works include ‘The World Within’, an English translation of Odia novel “Mane Mane “ by Baishnaba Charan Das and “Bibasini, A Historical Romance” by Ramsankar Ray. She also translated world classics from English to Oriya, including poems of Elizabeth Jennings and P.B. Shelley, besides short stories by Saki and Oscar Wilde. She has translated several poetry and story collections and biographies, including the celebrated autobiography "Bandira Atmakatha" by Gopabandhu Das..
She is also a poet herself. Her works in Odia have been published in Prativeshi, Kahani, Anupam Bharat and other magazines, whereas her English translations have been published in Indian Literature, The Orissa Review, The Little Magazine, Rock Pebbles etc.
Her translation of "Colours of Loneliness" by Paramita Satpathy is critically acclaimed. [3] Her most discussed work of translation is "One Thousand Years in a Refrigerator". [4] According to her, translation is a strategy to subvert hierarchies and check all forms of dominations, and also a tool for liberating human consciousness. [5]
Odia is a classical Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the official language in Odisha, where native speakers make up 82% of the population, and it is also spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Odia is one of the many official languages of India; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand. The Odia language has various varieties, including the Baleswari Odia, Central Odia, Ganjami Odia, Sundargadi Odia, Sambalpuri, Desia and Tribal Community dialects who have adopted the Odia language.
Nandini Satpathy was an Indian politician and author. She was the Chief Minister of Odisha from June 1972 to December 1976.
Fakir Mohan Senapati, often referred to as Utkala Byasa Kabi, was an Indian writer, poet, philosopher and social reformer. He played a leading role in establishing the distinct identity of Odia, a language mainly spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. Senapati is regarded as the father of Odia nationalism and modern Odia literature.
Odia literature is literature written in the Odia language, mostly from the Indian state of Odisha. The modern Odia language is mostly formed from Tadbhava words with significant Sanskrit (Tatsama) influences, along with loanwords from Desaja, English, Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu), Persian, and Arabic. Its earliest written texts date from around 1000 CE. The earliest Odia newspaper was Utkala Deepika, first published on August 4, 1866.
Radhanath Ray was an Odia writer of initial modernity era in Odia poetry during the later part of nineteenth century. He was born in a Zamindar Hindu Karan family in Baleshwar, now in Odisha, and is honoured in Odia literature with the title Kabibara . In his early life, he composed in both Odia and Bengali languages, but later he shifted his writings in Odia only. He was born on 28 September 1848, at Kedarpur village in Baleswar district, Odisha. He has contributed verses and poetry for Odia literature in the nineteenth century.
Gopabandhu Das (1877–1928), popularly known as Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das, was a social worker, reformer, political activist, journalist, poet and essayist.
Rebati, is a short story by Fakir Mohan Senapati, published in 1898. It is considered first ever short story published in Odia language.
Chha Maana Atha Guntha is a 19th-century Indian novel in the Odia language by Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843–1918), published in an English language translation by the University of California Press. Written long before Russia's October Revolution, it is the first Indian novel to deal with the exploitation of landless peasants by a feudal Lord in British India. Its author is known as the "Father of Modern Odia Literature".
Gopinath Mohanty (1914–1991), winner of the Jnanpith award, and the first winner of the National Sahitya Akademi Award in 1955 – for his novel, Amrutara Santana – was a prolific Odia writer of the mid-twentieth century. Satya Prakash Mohanty, professor of English, Cornell University says: "In my opinion, Gopinath Mohanty is the most important Indian novelist in the second half of the twentieth century."
Odisha is one of the 28 states of India, located on the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the northeast, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and northwest, and Andhra Pradesh to the south and southwest. Odia is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by 33.2 million according to the 2001 Census. The modern state of Odisha was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions. April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day.
Odisha Day, also Utkala Dibasa, is celebrated on 1 April in the Indian state of Odisha in memory of the formation of the state as a separate state out of Bihar and Orissa Province with addition of undivided Koraput District and Ganjam District from the Madras Presidency on 1 April 1936. After losing its political identity completely in 1568 following the defeat and demise of the last king Mukunda Dev, efforts resulted in the formation of a politically separate state under British rule on a linguistic basis on 1 April 1936.
Jatindra Kumar Nayak is an Indian translator, literary critic, columnist, editor and academic from Odisha. Nayak has translated several works of Odia literature into English, including Yantrarudha, a novel by Chandrasekhar Rath, as 'Astride the Wheel'. Astride the Wheel for which he received the 2004 Hutch Crossword Book Award for Indian Language Fiction Translation. He also won the Katha Translation Award for his English rendering of Tarun Kanti Mishra's short story as The Descent. Nayak is a co-translator of the English translation of Odia novel Chha Mana Atha Guntha by Fakir Mohan Senapati. The English translation of the book was first published in the USA under the title Six Acres and a Third. He has also translated into English the Atma Jibana Charita, the autobiography of Fakir Mohan Senapati, as Story of My Life. His other notable translations in English include the translation of Jagannath Prasad Das's Desha Kala Patra into A Time Elsewhere. Rupantar, an organisation that he founded in Bhubaneswar publishes translation of Odia books in English.
Gopala Chandra Praharaj was a writer in the Odia language, well known as the compiler of the Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosha. He also contributed significantly to Odia literature by his works in prose. A lawyer by profession, Praharaj wrote several satirical and analytical essays, in magazines such as Utkal Sahitya, Rasachakra, Nababharata, and Satya Samachar, on the social, political and cultural issues of contemporary Odisha (Odisha) during early 20th century.
Paramita Satpathy is an Indian writer. Paramita is the daughter of Sahitya Akademi Award winner poet Pratibha Satpathy and Nityananda Satpathy.
Kanhu Charan Mohanty was an Indian Odia language novelist who wrote fifty-six novels in a career spanning over six decades from 1930 to 1985. He is considered "one of the most popular and celebrated novelists of Odisa". Mohanty was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 for his novel, Kaa, published in 1956, and was one of the fellows of the Sahitya Akademi. Mohanty died on 6 April 1994 at the age of 87.
Kalicharan Pattnaik also known by his sobriquet Kabichandra was an eminent literary and artistic figure of Odisha. He had contributions in the field of Odissi music, Odissi dance and Odia theatre. He had significant contributions to development early Odia cinema as well. He was born on 23 December 1898 in the then princely state of Badamba. His compositions in various traditional ragas are widely sung in the field of Odissi music and dance.
Sumanyu Satpathy is an Indian academic, who has taught at the Delhi University, New Delhi and North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Before taking up his current affiliation at KR Mangalam University as Professor of Eminence, Satpathy was Professor and Chair at the Department of English, University of Delhi; Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Rashtrapati Nivas, Shimla; and Distinguished Fellow at the Michael J Osborne Institute of Advanced Studies, La Trobe University. As a visiting professor, he has taught at the University of Granada, Spain; Jamia Millia Islamia, Frankfurt University, Germany; Exeter University, England and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia among several others. His notable works include Modernity, Print and Sahitya: The Making of a New Literary Culture, 1866-1919, Reading Literary Culture: Perspectives from Orissa and Will to Argue: Studies in Late Colonial and Post-colonial Controversies.