Born :- 14-Sep-1904
Died :- 26-Jan-1979
Place of Birth :- Badamba, Nayagada

Romantic and mystic poet Baikunthnath Patnaik, the most brilliant among the poets in the ‘Sabuja Gosthi’, was born on September 14, 1904 in Badambagarh under Cuttack district. His father's name was Sumanta Patnaik. Needless to say that Nature’s boundless beauty around Badamba had profound effect on Baikunthanath’s early life, and later, on his poetry.

Baikunthanath’s childhood and adolescence were spent in the well-known Satyavadi Bana Bidyalaya, and Dhenkanal and Puri. As a student of Ravenshaw College in 1921, his life changed dramatically when he came in contact with Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, Annada Shankar Roy, Sarat Chandra and Harihar, pioneers of the Sabuja Era in Odia literature. After post-graduation in Odia language and literature, Baikunthanath accepted teaching as his career. He retired from his job in 1959.

His father's revolutionary personality and passion for literature and his involvement with the Sabuja poets influenced his literary career a lot and, in fine, he came out as a bright star among the Sabuja poets. Baikunthnath’s poem ‘Sabuja Bandhu’ is always taken as an example when a justification is sought as to such naming of the group. In the entire group, Baikunthnath was the only person who exclusively clung to writing poetry until the end.

Baikunthnath was inspired by the ideological inspiration of the English romantic poets Wordsworth and Shelley, Viswakavi Rabindranath Tagore and poet Madhusudan Rao. He became quite popular after writing a full-length lyrical play called ‘Upekshita’ and a five-act play titled ‘Muktipathe’. But, as drama was not his cup of tea, his passion for poetry made him famous as a poet par excellence in Odia literature. Baikunthnath's unforgettable contribution to Odia literature included 'Arunashree', 'Kabyasanchayana', 'Uttarayana', 'Bilwamangala' and 'Muktipathe'. He was honoured with the Kendra Sahitya Academi Award  in 1965 for 'Uttarayana'.

A large volume of his poetry, titled ‘Kavya Sanchayana’, was published in 1943. This collection speaks volumes about the height of Baikunthanath as a poet and the depth of his poetry. It is held as the best representation of his poetry. He was a romantic poet. His poetry is rich with love for Nature, experience of love, mysticism, melancholy, humanism and revolt.

Poems such as ‘Sabuja Swapna’, ‘Ushaloke’, ‘Barshabarana’, ‘Nav-barshanubhuti’, ‘Barsha-sathi’, ‘Barasha aasichi duare’, ‘Pausha-paban’, ‘Banafula’, ‘Yachajna’ and others have expressed the poet's consciousness of Nature and Beauty. Poems such as ‘Bietris’, ‘Nav- Barshanubhuti’, ‘Abhisara smruti’, ‘Byatha Nibedana’, ‘Preeti Abahana’, ‘Byatha Madhuri’, ‘Preeti Anubhuti’, ‘Mlana phula’, ‘Golapa Byatha’ and ‘Nav-Barsha’ etc. are his unique creations.

Many poems like ‘Yatrasangeet’, ‘Karabasi Kabira Swapna’, 'Baasagruha', ‘Pathachaya’, ‘Panthashala’, ‘Devaduta’, ‘Sandhyaraga’, ‘Seshayatra’, ‘Ashru’, ‘Mahimamadhuri’, ‘Dainyaprakasha’, ‘Nirvana Ananda’ and ‘Upasana’ represent the poet's sense of humour and mystery. This great romantic-mystic poet passed away on January 26 at the age of seventy-four.

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