The Hindi Department of the Pondicherry University has come out with a book of discourse on the poetry of Sambalpuri poet Haldhar Nag.
Pondicherry University Vice-Chancellor Gurmeet Singh released the book, which is an outcome of a national seminar on folk literature in the perspective of Mr. Nag’s poetry held last year in the University. The book paves the way for comparative studies in various languages as the poetry written in Sambalpuri-Kosli by Mr. Nag is now available in Hindi and English, a press note from the university said.
On the occasion, Mr. Singh said the compilation of 28 seminal papers was a gift to academics to cherish the great values depicted in Mr. Nag’s poetry. He also lauded the efforts of the department in bringing out the proceedings of the seminar.
In his foreword, Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan hailed the extraordinary poet whose poetry represented the values of great Indian tradition and forms the part of the treasure of folk-literature.
The book reproduces seminal papers presented at the conference by scholars from various parts of India. It has been edited by C. Jaya Sankar Babu, head of the Department of Hindi, and Dinesh Kumar Mali, literary translator.
A Padma Shri awardee, Mr. Nag is probably the only poet of oral tradition in modern times. Mr. Nag recites all his poetry without support of any piece of paper. He writes in his mother tongue Sambalpur-Kosli. He has 24 poetry works to his credit, out of which almost 20 are epical poetry.
The poet was honoured with the Odisha Sahitya Academy Award, Life Time Achievement Award and a honorary doctorate by the Sambalpur University. The translation of Mr. Nag’s works was carried out by Surendranath in English and Mr. Mali in Hindi.
These translations have facilitated worldwide exposure to Mr. Nag’s poetry. A school dropout, he started out as a folk artist and later began writing on social issues and epical tradition and culture. He fights for social reform through his poetry and is also at the forefront of the language literature movements of western Odisha.
Pondicherry University is also planning to organise an international seminar on Ramayana based poetry of Mr. Nag in April. The deadline for submission of papers has been extended till March 31, the press note said.
