Born :- 18-Dec-1927
Died :- 29-Nov-1982
Place of Birth :- Khordha

Eminent writer Akhilamohan Pattnayak was born in Khordha under the undivided Puri district. His father Bankanidhi Pattnayak was a renowned teacher. His mother was Haramani Devi. He successfully completed his matriculation from Khordha High School in 1944, graduation from Puri Samanta Chandrasekhar College, Puri in 1948 and did his LLB from Madhusudan Law College, Cuttack in 1957.

From 1957 to the end of his life, Akhilamohan was in his legal profession in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Khordha. Between 1948 and 1953, he was involved in leftist politics and was imprisoned multiple times. He was twice expelled from the college for leading the student movement in 1951.

 Akhilamohan joined the Godavarish Sahitya Samsad in Bhubaneswar in 1960 and was the editor of its mouthpiece ‘Murchhana’.  He led the young litterateurs in 1962 and became the first president of the Odia Young Writers' Conference in 1963. This is how the literary edifice of Akhilamohan took its shape with a social, literary and political background.

Akhilamohan's first story ‘Sapan’ was published in ‘Shankha’ published by Mayadhar Mansingh in 1947. His last story ‘Spartacus’ was published in ‘Sucharita’. ‘Jhadara Egal O Dharanira Krushnasara’ (1964) was his first collection of short stories. ‘O Andhagali’ (1979) was his second collection of short stories which won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for 1981.  The last two collections — ‘Nadira naama Ganatantra’ (1984) and ‘Prathama O Sesha’(1990) — were published after his death. The Akhil Mohan Foundation has compiled his first four books into a single volume titled ‘Akhilayana’ in 1998. His other three important books are Anagata Falguna (Lark Books, 1982), Anyadesha (Shivani Prakashan, 1984) and Bagharaani Khairi (Utkal Sambad Prakashan, Pvt.L. 1992). These three books were published after his death.

Akhilamohan's  ‘Anyadesha’ is a travelogue — an account of his tour of Europe on invitation by the Indo-French Friendship Society in 1973. He travelled countries such as England, France, Switzerland, France and West Germany and documented his experiences in this book, using his story-telling art. It was serialised in the Odia magazine Nabarabi published from West Bengal. It reflected the writer’s pain while comparing their situation with India.  ‘Anyadesha’ has greatly enriched the Odia travel literature.

Similarly, ‘Baghrani Khairi’ is another unique creation of Akhilamohan. It was also serialised in the monthly Samabesha and created a flutter among readers. It was based on the diary maintained by Saroj Rai Chowdhury, a Forest officer, and his wife Nihar Nalini, who brought up Khairi, the tigress, as their own child. The book was unfinished as the writer breathed his last midway through the book. But Asit Mohanty, a research scholar and a litterateur, later completed the book by adding the last chapter basing on the diary.

Akhilamohan's  creation did not stop there. He was serialising a detective novel titled ‘Sundara Banare Hatyara Bibhisika’ in the Samabesha. He was also serialising a brief verson of the ‘Balmiki Ramayana’ in the Asanta Kali magazine published from West Bengal.  Not only that, Akhilamohan was translating Arthur Kosell's ‘Darkness at Noon’ under the Odia title ‘Madhyahnara Andhakara’. All these remained unfinished and are still unpublished. ‘Kachchapaya’, the column he wrote in the Samabesha, and his regular editorials in the same magazine under the caption ‘Sesha Prustha’, some stories, two autobiographical essays titled ‘Nirjana Bilapa’ and ‘Saishabara Saba’ are yet to see the light of the day. Although a believer in leftist ideology and atheist, his stories of the last days — ‘Gaja Uddharana’ and ‘Spartacus’ — give a glimpse of his faith as the undercurrent of a dead river.

Akhil Mohan, as a story writer of excellence, was honoured with the Bishuv AAward in 1978 and the Kendra Sahitya Academi Award for his ‘O Andhagali’ in 1981.

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