Bhubaneswar: Noted litterateur Chandrasekhar Rath who was selected for Padma Shri award this year died of sepsis at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar . He was 89.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and people from all walks of life paid rich tributes to doyen of odia literature after his body arrived at his residence in the city.
“All of us are grieved by the sad demise of the eminent litterateur. He will be remembered by his fans and admirers,” said Patnaik.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also condoled the death of Chandrasekhar Rath.
Born on October 17, 1929 in Bolangir, Rath did his post-graduation in English from Canning College in Lucknow University of Lucknow under Prof. NK Siddhanta.D.Litt was conferred on him by Lucknow University in 2008. Later Utkal University of Culture also conferred a D.Litt in 2012.
Chandrasekhar Rath, was, by any measure, among the front –liners in Odia literature. His was a fairly well-known name both in the field of fiction and non-fiction for more than five decades now. He got published rather late in life when he was past thirty in early sixties and never looked back. Right from day one, therefore, his workmanship and utterance bore a stamp of maturity, perception and style. He took off as an essayist or, to be more precise, rather as a reflective writer in poetic prose and that very year he was honored by Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab’s ‘Jhankar ’ with the annual Vishnu Award. He carved out a place for himself in an area which did not have many names either in the past or in his times.
By a straight –jacket classification, what he wrote could be called belles-lettres but, in fact, he adopted an open form which had room for the profundities of essays, the visions of poetry, the dialogues of drama and yet had space for further embellishments of his own.That way he was considered a trendsetter by many in this form of Odia prose.
Joined Orissa Education Service in 1952 as lecturer in English and retired as Deputy DPI in 1987.