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JAGANNATH DASH
Poet Sri Jagannath Das(1933-1973) was born of Sri. Kshetramani Das and Shrimati Haramani Das in the remote village of Ertal,  Basudevpur block, Bhadrakh district in the year 1933 as the eldest one in the family. Despite extreme poverty, all hurdles and hardships, his father never broke away from his involvement in artistic activities. He was an active member of the theatre group set up by Kabi Manjula Krushna Prasad Babu at Ertal and afterwards he joined the theatre of the Raja of Kaptipada and the Maharaj of Mayurbhanj. Young Jagannath was inspired by his father a lot. When Jagannath was only seven his father breathed his last breath, leaving all responsibility on his frail shoulders. Jagannath fell upon the thorns of life. He bled.

Since primary school days fatherless Jagannath had started Pala, acting in dramas forming troops from among his friends and wrote few poems. These poems came out as a collection KALPANA KALLOLA by the loving effort of famous Poet Sachhi Routray.

When Jagannath lost all hope of pursuing further studies owing to financial crisis, a well wisher from his village  took him to the monastery of Trimali in Puri and he continued his upper primary studies there. During his stay in Puri he gathered various experience, feelings of early youth and mended the broken string of his lyre. Nature unfolded itself before him with new colours and he developed a deeper insight into the soul of Nature. The Nature that had a communion with his spirit now began to soothe him, console him, and commiserates with him in all his past tragedy and desperate strife of the present. He again started writing poetry with renewed inspiration.

While continuing his intermediate course he married to Sabitree Devi, the eldest daughter of Sri  Manmohan Panigrahi of Brahmangaon in Basudevpur block. He did his Master degree in Oriya language and literature from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa. His second Master Degree was from Calcutta University, West Bengal in English language and Literature. For some time, after completing his graduation did teaching in Puri. Afterwards he joined various schools like Ertal High School, Khantapada High School, Utkal Vidyapitha at Kharagpur and  at last  he joined Chakradharpur  Railway Higher Secondary School. In the year 1973 Jagannath died and the following year his wife followed the suit.

A rare talent Jagannath proved his excellence in music, poetry, dance, drama, and even making Idols. He wrote poetry in Oriya, Bengali, Urdu and English. He wrote few plays also. Some of his collections of Odia poetry like chal megha, mausumi, prathama prema, bijana benu ,purbaraga, pranaya salila, ratira ragini, epari separi and bidaya ratira sesha kabita have already been published and gained popularity among readers. His dramas like footpath, naba aloka and asta surya were also published. The English poem collections are published in a book ‘The Quest’ and the collection of Oriya essays Chetanara Batayane consist of his only few available creations. Sri Das even voiced two songs the Bengali film ‘Shree Chaitanya’. He was a versatile genius with many artistic qualities.

Sri Jagannath Dash was a rare talented person. He died untimely, and it was not only a loss for his family but also as a whole for oriya literature. He wrote poetry, drama and essays, but it was in poetry that he excelled. It is unfortunate that his writings except very marginally, could not be published during his lifetime and hence he could not get his due, which a good poet always expects while he is alive. When one goes through Dash’s poems, even casually, one is amazed at the power, intelligence and emotional compactness exhibited in these poems.

His English poems, that can be seen from the volume ‘ The Quest ‘ is a shade dower than his Oriya poems. But they have almost similar power and appeal as could be seen in his Oriya poems. It is a pleasure to remember such a poet and his contributions both in Oriya and English even though many years have intervened in the meantime.