Misplaced Pages

Ram Nath Shastri: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 02:53, 1 December 2017 editInternetArchiveBot (talk | contribs)Bots, Pending changes reviewers5,388,432 edits Rescuing 2 sources and tagging 1 as dead. #IABot (v1.6.1) (Balon Greyjoy)← Previous edit Revision as of 20:37, 11 December 2017 edit undoRoland zh (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers121,090 editsm +Category:Dramatists and playwrights from Jammu and Kashmir; ±Category:Writers from Jammu and KashmirCategory:Poets from Jammu and Kashmir using HotCatNext edit →
Line 110: Line 110:
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]

Revision as of 20:37, 11 December 2017

Ram Nath Shastri
Born(1914-04-15)15 April 1914
Jammu, India
Died8 March 2009(2009-03-08) (aged 94)
Jammu, India
OccupationDogri writer, playwright, poet
SpouseSushila Khajuria

Padam Shree Ram Nath Shastri, known as the "Father of Dogri" for his pivotal role in the revival and resurgence of the Dogri language, was born on 15 April 1914. He was a versatile and prolific litterateur who excelled as Dogri poet, dramatist, fiction writer, lexicographer, essayist, educationist, translator, and editor. Through his writings in the various genres he has succeeded in urshering Dogri language on the national stage.

In 2001, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, awarded by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, the highest literary honour conferred by the Government of India.

Early life and career

Prof. Shastri's father, Vaid Gauri Shankar, was an Ayurvedic doctor and originally belonged to a small village Marhi in Reasi tehsil of Udhampur district (now Reasi district). For better prospects, he moved to Jammu. Initially, he wanted Ram Nath to adopt the same profession and instructed him to learn Sanskrit. All ancient scriptures being in Sanskrit, it would be immensely helpful as an Ayurvedic doctor. He joined Ranbir Sanskrit Pathshala at the Ranbir High School. After which, he did post graduation in Sanskrit and Prabhakar in Hindi. He started his career as a high school Sanskrit teacher for 5 years and later he became a college lecturer.

In 1944, on the day of Basant Panchami, along with a few friends, he established the Dogri Sanstha. Every upcoming writer in the Dogri language would first enroll himself in the Sanstha .Dogri is highly indebted to Professor Ram Nath Shastri, who is always giving it his paternal blessings. He also edited the Dogri literary periodical Nami Chetna of the Sanstha. In 1970, on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee Celebration of Dogri Sanstha, he edited the RAJAT JAYANTI GRANTH in which research oriented articles on Dogra life, art, culture, literature and history were put together.

In 1970, he retired as a professor in the J&K State Education Department. From 1970 to 1975 he has been a Senior Fellow of Dogri in the University of Jammu.

From 1977 to 1985, as Chief Editor in J&K Cultural Academy he edited the 'Dogri – Dogri Dictionary′ which is regarded as a monumental addition to the development of the Dogri language for J and K Cultural Academy.

He died on 8 March 2009, in Jammu.

Literary achievements

Professor Shastri began his literary career with the writing of Hindi short stories and essays as Dogri was more of a regional local language with insignificant literary history. Later, he resolved to be at the forefront of the Dogri literacy movement.

Later, in 1943 he along with his fellow writers, switched over to writing in his mother tongue Dogri, giving impetus to the spirit of renaissance in the community to recognise and appreciate the beauty of their language He has contributions in different genres to his credit and he worked tirelessly to promote the Dogri Language.

Prof. Shastri presented an ideology that he believed in, shunning old and outdated values and embracing values like- fairness, equality and individual heroism. His writings have undercurrents of satire and irony as he exposes the double standards of our society. He always placed emphasis on writing biographies of dogri heroes, who challenged establishment and followed a track unvisited by others. When asked to write his own autobiography, he was hesitant as his humility would pose a major hurdle in doing so.

Major literary works include

  • Dharti Da Rin is a collection of poems he wrote over a thirty -five-year period.
  • Badnami Di Chhan- Collection of Dogri short stories. (1976)
  • Talkhiyan – A collection of Dogri Gazals
  • Kalamkaar Charan Singh – Critical Study of a Dogri Poet
  • Naman Gran- Dogri Play (with co-authors Dinu Bhai Pant and Ram Kumar Abrol)
  • Bawa Jitto – A Dogri Play based on the life and sacrifice of a legendary Dogra hero
  • Jhakdian Kiran – Dogri One-Act Play
  • Duggar De Lok Nayak – An account of dogri

Major translation works include

He translated array of prominent works in Dogri to further dogri language including-

  • Six Upanishads
  • Bhartrharis's NEETI SHATAK
  • Shudraka's Mricchakatikam (1989)
  • Four short plays of BHASA
  • Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, Balidan, Malini and Dakghar
  • Mahatama Gandhi's autobiography –My experiments with Truth
  • Vinoda Bhave's Gita Pravachan
  • C.Rajagopalachari's Ramayana
  • Dharamveer Bharati's Andha Yug
  • Gorki's Lower Depths

Some quotes/couplets

On the last day of the high school wrote parting message on classroom blackboard-

Alvida ai karma man Alvida
Ab Dua hai Phir Na Laye Yaan Khuda
(Adieu! My classroom, I hope God does not bring me back here again)

TALKHIYAN (Collection of Dogri Gazals)
Dharm de naa cha inna Kura,
Kee nayi issi tili lagande
(So much rubbish in the name of religion; why don't you just forget it?)

Changa ai ke marha hai, jiyan bhi hai, Kirdaar mera ai
(Good or bad, this character is at least mine)

Honors/awards

  • 2001—59th Sahitya Akademi Fellowship-highest literary honour conferred by the Government of India for his contribution to Dogri Language
  • 1990—Padma Shri Award, India's fourth highest civilian honour for Literature & Education
  • 1994—D.Litt. (Honoris Causa) from University of Jammu
  • 1977—Sahitya Akademi Award for his short story collection – Badnami Di Chaan
  • 1991—State Akademi Award for the collection of Dogri gazals – TALKHIYAN
  • 1989—Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize in 1989 for the Dogri Translation of the Sanskrit Drama, Mrichakatika as Mitti Di Gaddi.
  • 1981—State Academy Award for his Dogri prose work – Duggar De Lok Nayak.

His happiest moment

Describing Central Government's decision to include Dogri in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution in December 2003, as the happiest moment of his life, Ram Nath Shastri, said: "This has ended the long struggle of the Dogri-speaking people for a rightful place for their language. (Prime Minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee has fulfilled his promise to Jammuites."

Other writers' comments

Ramnath Rath, an eminent Oriya poet and president of Sahitya Akademi says, " There are few in India and elsewhere in the world who excel in so many areas of literature.”

Eminent Dogri litterateur Padma Sachdev says, "Professor Ramnath Shastri is the Bharatendu Harishchandra of Dogri. There is not a single person, who is writing in Dogri now has not been influenced by him Not a single word is there in Dogri on which his stamp has not been registered.”

References

  1. "Soz condoles Dogri writer's demise". Newstrack. 9 March 2009.
  2. "Fellows & Honorary Fellows". Sahitya Akademi. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  3. "Padma Awards Directory (1954–2009)" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
1968–1980
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1968)
D. R. Bendre, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Sumitranandan Pant, C. Rajagopalachari (1969)
Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar, Viswanatha Satyanarayana (1970)
Kaka Kalelkar, Gopinath Kaviraj, Gurbaksh Singh, Kalindi Charan Panigrahi (1971)
Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Mangharam Udharam Malkani, Nilmoni Phukan, Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi, Sukumar Sen, V. R. Trivedi (1973)
T. P. Meenakshisundaram (1975)
Atmaram Ravaji Deshpande, Jainendra Kumar, Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa 'Kuvempu', V. Raghavan, Mahadevi Varma (1979)
1981–2000
Umashankar Joshi, K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, K. Shivaram Karanth (1985)
Mulk Raj Anand, Vinayaka Krishna Gokak, Laxmanshastri Balaji Joshi, Amritlal Nagar, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Annada Shankar Ray (1989)
Nagarjun, Balamani Amma, Ashapurna Devi, Qurratulain Hyder, Vishnu Bhikaji Kolte, Kanhu Charan Mohanty, P. T. Narasimhachar, R. K. Narayan, Harbhajan Singh (1994)
Jayakanthan, Vinda Karandikar, Vidya Niwas Mishra, Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Raja Rao, Sachidananda Routray, Krishna Sobti (1996)
Syed Abdul Malik, K. S. Narasimhaswamy, Gunturu Seshendra Sarma, Rajendra Shah, Ram Vilas Sharma, N. Khelchandra Singh (1999)
Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar, Rehman Rahi (2000)
2001–present
Ram Nath Shastri (2001)
Kaifi Azmi, Govind Chandra Pande, Nilamani Phookan, Bhisham Sahni (2002)
Kovilan, U. R. Ananthamurthy, Vijaydan Detha, Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Amrita Pritam, Shankha Ghosh, Nirmal Verma (2004)
Manoj Das, Vishnu Prabhakar (2006)
Anita Desai, Kartar Singh Duggal, Ravindra Kelekar (2007)
Gopi Chand Narang, Ramakanta Rath (2009)
Chandranath Mishra Amar, Kunwar Narayan, Bholabhai Patel, Kedarnath Singh, Khushwant Singh (2010)
Raghuveer Chaudhari, Arjan Hasid, Sitakant Mahapatra, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Asit Rai, Satya Vrat Shastri (2013)
Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa, C. Narayana Reddy (2014)
Nirendranath Chakravarty, Gurdial Singh (2016)
Honorary Fellows
Léopold Sédar Senghor (1974)
Edward C. Dimock, Jr., Daniel H. H. Ingalls Sr., Kamil Zvelebil, Ji Xianlin (1996)
Vassilis Vitsaxis, Eugene Chelyshev (2002)
Ronald E. Asher (2007)
Abhimanyu Unnuth (2013)
Premchand Fellowship
Intizar Hussain (2005), Kishwar Naheed (2016)
Ananda Coomaraswamy Fellowship
Senake Bandaranayake, Chie Nakane, Azad N. Shamatov (1996)
Categories:
Ram Nath Shastri: Difference between revisions Add topic