Poet of People Sachi Routray

Sachidananda Routray , known as poets of people was born on 13th May 1916 in Gurujang of Khorda District. But he was grew up and educated in Bengal. He has started writing poem at the very early age, e.g. when he was studying in primary school. While studying in school, he was attracted towards the freedom struggle of India. He used to raise voice against the British Rule through his revolutionary poems. Due to revolutionary nature, some of his poems were banned by British Govt.

He was not only a poet but also wrote many short stories and novels. Like poems, the expression of feelings and emotions of humanity was also the subject of short stories and novels. He did a new beginning to the odiya prose literature. The short stories written by him narrates the internal disagreement of human being, socio-political reality and the deprivations. His excellent work in short stories includes Masanira Phula, Malakain, Anguthi etc.

Sachi Routray was the father of Modern Oriya Poetry. He was having a unique style of writing poems. He was a person of great imaginary power and Penetrating perception. His poems were always a message for the society. Through his poems, he has raised his voice against social exploitations. Struggling masses of society like daily labour, poor farmer etc. were the centre point of Routray's writings. His excellent work in the filed of poetry include Abhiyan, Raktasikha, Pallisree, Hasanta, Bhanumatir Desa, Baji Rout etc.

The Poem 'Baji Rout', written as a tribute to the martyrdom of the 12 year young Martyr of Indian Freedom Struggle was made Routray more famous in 1943. It was a long poem describing the event of that raining night, how the voice of the 12 year young boatman Baji Rout along with four others was made silent by the British Administration. It is an endless creation of Routray which helped in arouse of hope and patriotism among the people suffered under British rule. Later the same was translated into English by Harindra Nath Chattopadhaya.

Sachi Routray was conferred with many awards for his literary works like Padmashree in 1962, Sahitya Academy Award in 1963, Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1965 and Janapith Award in 1986.

Basically Routray was a romantic poet. He was a prolific writer, a great poet and at the same time a very good story writer. He was in the profession for more than fifty years producing a number of gems. He was a visionary and humanist as well. He is a towering figure in modern odiya literature. He is a source of inspiration for many poets.

He breathed his last in Cuttack on 21st August 2004.