Vijaydan Detha
Vijaydan Detha | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | writer |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Genre | fiction, satirist, folk-lore |
| Subject | socialist, anti-feudal, feminist |
| Spouse | Sayar Kanwar |
| Children | Kuberdan, Mahendra |
Vijaydan Detha also known as Bijji is a noted writer from Rajasthan and a recipient of Padma Shri award. He is also recipient of several other awards such as Sahitya Akademi Award and Sahitya Chudamani Award.
He has more than 800 short stories to his credit, which are translated into English and other languages. He is co-founder of Rupayan Sansthan with late Komal Kothari, an institute that documents Rajasthani folk-lore, arts and music. His literary works include Bataan ri Phulwari (garden of tales), a fourteen volume collection of stories that draws on folk-lore and spoken dialects of Rajasthan. His stories and novels have been adapted for many plays and movies including Habib Tanvir's Charandas Chor and Amol Palekar’s Paheli.
Early life
Vijaydan Detha hails from charan caste. His father Sabaldan Detha and grandfather Jugtidan Detha were also well known poets of Rajasthan. Detha lost his father and two brothers in a feud at the age of four year. At the age of six he moved to Jaitaran (25 km from Borunda) where his brother Sumerdan used to work in civil court. He studied there till class IV. His brother had transferable job hence Vijaydan also had to move with him. Vidaydan did his school study at Bihar and Barmer. Detha in his school years was poor in English language and had to face many embarrassing moments. In Barmer, while competing with another student Narsingh Rajpurohit, he realized that he wants to be a writer. His brother then transferred to Jodhpur where Detha studied in Durbar School.
Vijaydan Detha considers Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay as his first inspirer. He is equally good fan of Chekhov. In beginning he was critical of Tagore but after reading Tagore's Stripatra he became fan of Tagore.
Detha joined college in 1944, by that time he had already established his name in poetry, however he gives credit for it to his cousin brother Kuberdan Detha, who had left school after standard X. Vijaydan says he use to pass his cousins poems in his name, applause brought from those poems made him to think to establish his own name in writing.
One of his first books to create a storm was Bapu Ke Teen Hatyare. The book is critique of the work of Harivanshrai Bachchan, Sumitranandan Pant and Narendra Sharma. The trio brought out books about Gandhi within two months of Gandhi's death.
Nathuram Godse may have killed Gandhi physically, but these three writers killed his soul
— Vijaydan Detha, Bapu Ke Teen Hatyare
In 1950-52, Detha read and was inspired by 19th Century Russian literature. That is when he thought: "If you do not want to be mediocre writer, you should return to your village and write in Rajasthani." By that time he had already written 1300 poems and 300 short stories.
Works
Hindi
- Usha, 1946, poetry
- Bapu ke teen hatyare, 1948, critics
- Column in Jwala Weekly, 1949-1952
- Sahitya aur samaj, 1960, essays
- Anokha Ped, illustrated children's stories, 1968
- Phoolwari, Hindi translation by Kailash Kabir, 1992
- Chaudharain Ki Chaturai, short stories, 1996
- Antaral, 1997, short stories
- Sapan Priya, 1997, short stories
- Mero Darad Na Jane Koy, 1997, essays
- Atirikta, 1997, critics
- Mahamilan, novel, 1998
- Priya Mrinal, short stories, 1998
Rajasthani
- Batan Ri Phulwari, vol. 1-14, 1960-1975, folk lores
- Prerana co-edited with Komal Kothari, 1953
Soratha, 1956-1958
- Parampara , edited three special issues - Folk songs, Gora Hatja, Jethava Ra * Rajasthani Lokgeet, folk songs of Rajasthan, six volumes, 1958
- Tido Rao, first pocket book in Rajasthani, 1965
- Uljhan,1984, novel
- Alekhun Hitler, 1984, short stories
- Roonkh, 1987
- Kaboo Rani, 1989, children's stories
Detha also been credited for editing following works [1]
- Complete work of Ganeshi Lal Vyas for Sahitya Akademi
- Rajasthani-Hindi Kahawat Kosh
Awards and honors
- Sahitya academy award for Rajasthani in 1974 [1]
- Bhartiya Bhasa Parishad Award in 1992 [1]
- Marudhara Puraskar in 1995[1]
- Sahitya Chudamani Award in 2006 [2]
- Padmashri in 2007 [3]
Notes
References
- Padmanabhan, Chitra (2006-01-21). "The English Adversary". Tehelka. Archived from the original (asp) on 2007-11-11.
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- Dutt, Kartik Chandra (1999). Who's Who of Indian Writers. India: Sahitya Akademi. pp. 317–318. ISBN 8126008733.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - "Padma Shri Award". National Portal of India, Govt. of India. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
- "Biodata - Vijaydan Detha". Shree Sabal Woman Teacher's Training College, Borunda, Jodhpur. 2007-10-15. Archived from the original on 2007-12-10. Retrieved 2007-12-10.