Sachidananda Routray

Born:13 May 1916

Died: 21 August 2004

He was an Odia poet, novelist, short-story writer.
He received Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award of India, in 1986.
He was popularly known as Sachi Routray.
He started his writing career through ” patheya ” (1st poetry) in 1932.In 1943.
He became very famous among Odia readers when he published Baji Rout, a long poem that celebrated the martyrdom of a boatman boy who succumbed to the bullets of British police when he refused to take them in his rickety boat to cross the river Brahmani.
He was a prolific poet and published as many as twenty anthologies.
His Pallishri, dealing with village life in Odisha, is as successful as his poem Pratima Nayak that portrays the suffering and the predicament of a city girl.
He belonged to a group of writers who called themselves ‘poets of the people’.
He also published a few poems with religion as their theme.
“Chhota Mora Gan Ti” was written by him. This topic is now taught by most of the teachers in Odisha.
He recieved Padmashree in 1962 ,Sahitya Akademi Award in 1963 for the poetry Kabita-1962,Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1965.Jnanpith Award in 1986.
Lifetime fellowship (kendra sahitya academi) – 1988 ” Mahakabi ” samman-1986 – Rourkela, 1988 – Cuttack President – Nikhil Bharat Kabita Sammelan – Kolkata (1968), Rourkela (1988) Sahitya Bharati Award – 1997.