Born :- 21-Oct-1911
Died :- 20-Apr-1981
Place of Birth :-

Great researcher and historian, patron of art and culture and a nationalist to the core, Kedaranath Mohapatra was the eldest son of Gopinath Mohapatra and Radhika Devi of Old Town, Bhubaneswar, the Capital city of Odisha. He was born on 21 October, 1911.

Kedarnath started his early education in a local school but later shifted to Khurda in 1925 for higher secondary studies. He graduated from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack in 1933 with Honours in History. But, financial problems in family prevented him from pursuing higher studies. Despite difficulties, he was determined to pursue further study and research beyond the campus. He successfully completed the teachers training in education in 1935. In early youth, he got married to Yasoda Devi in 1930 who stood behind him like a rock through thick and thin.

During his college days Kedarnath had developed intimate relationship with the leading Congress figures of Odisha and was working as a ground level worker for them. Generally, the sphere of activity embraced National Independence Movement, Odia Movement for the unification of the scattered Odia speaking tracts into one administrative unit. It was during this period that he started writing articles, which were published in the ‘Prachi’, the ‘Ravenshawvian’ and other Odia magazines. He was included in a group of volunteers and sent to Midnapore in 1931 to work for the amalgamation of that district of Bengal with Odisha division.

On 13th September, 1931, the Government announced the formation of the Odisha Boundary Committee. When the committee visited Cuttack in January, 1932, Kedaranath Mohapatra joined the fellow students to press for a separate province of Odisha. He even wrote in protest against the unjust amalgamation of the Odia tracts of Paralakhemundi and Jeypore Zamindaries with the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in an essay titled ‘Orissa Province Without Parla and Jeypore’.

He was a teacher by profession and joined Khurda High School in 1935 as an assistant teacher. Subsequently, he also served in Victoria High School, Cuttack town and Banki High School in January, 1938. He joined as an Assistant Teacher in Puri Zilla School and it was his first assignment as a government employee. In July, he was transferred to Sambalpur Zilla School. But his distinction in the pedagogic career created professional jealousy following the publication of history books for school children. His book ‘Bharata Itihasa’ was adopted as a prescribed textbook for 8th and 9th standard students to the total dismay of the then Headmaster of Sambalpur Zilla School. Kedarnath was so much disgusted that he ultimately resigned from his government job there and joined P.M. Academy at Cuttack.

After completing three years of sincere and dedicated service at P.M. Academy he accepted an offer from the princely State of Kalahandi and joined as the State Archaeologist on 17^th of November, 1943. After merger of the State with the province of Odisha he joined the State Museum at Bhubaneswar as an assistant curator on 19.04.1950. Later, he was promoted to the rank of curator and then, in 1962, as Superintendent of the Museum and Archaeology of Odisha. After a long dedicated service career he retired on August 1968 but was reemployed, and finally left the job in April, 1971. In March, 1972 he was associated with the ‘Orissa Research Project’ conducted by the Heidelberg University of Germany.

He started writing essays and articles during his school and college days. In the year 1932, he wrote the first English article in the literary mouthpiece of Ravenshaw College—the Ravenshawvian—on the ‘Tradition of Orissa’. He was also associated with ‘Prachi’, an English Journal, and regularly contributed to it. His essays and research articles mostly dealt with inscriptions and temple architecture and were published in a number of Odia Journals like Nababharat, Bhanjaprabha and Jhankar. With scant knowledge in Sanskrit initially, he worked hard and became a scholar in the language. The outstanding works that made him prominent included the four volumes of ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts of Odisha’. This brought him the epithet ‘Pothinath Kedarnath’ from no less than the illustrious Mayadhar Mansingh.

His diligent studies brought to light ‘Khurda Itihasa’ (History of Khurda) in 1969 and in 1973 he published ‘Sri Jayadev’ and ‘Sri Gitagovinda’. He was also made the Chief Editor of the ‘Gitagovinda Compilation Committee’. He wrote an article in the special issue of the Odisha Historical Research Journal (OHRJ) on the occasion of the All India Oriental Conference held in 1959 at Bhubaneswar in which he established with evidence that Jayadev was an Odia poet par excellence which drew the attention of both Indian and foreign scholars. Moreover, he wrote a few articles for the Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature published by the ‘Kendra Sahitya Akademi’.

Kedaranath was an editor of great dexterity. He took the pains in editing ‘Kalpalata’ by Arjun Dasa, ‘Parimala’ by Narasimha Sen, ‘Kalavati’ and ‘Premolochana’ by Vishnu Dasa and ‘Chatta Ichhavati’ by Banamali Dasa, the works of pre- and post-Sarala Dasa literary traditions in Odisha.

He authored as many as 17 text and reference books on history and culture of Odisha. He contributed as many as 200 in English, 300 in Odia and five in Hindi articles and essays in many journals and magazines.

For his outstanding contributions, he was awarded and honoured by ‘Odisha Sahitya Akademi’, ‘Prajatantra Prachar Samiti’ (Visuba Milan), ‘Odisha Cultural Forum’ and ‘Utkal Pathaka Samsada’ during his lifetime and by the ‘Sarala Samity’ posthumously.

As a social activist he used to raise funds for the upkeep of the Gouri Temple Complex. He organised a youth cultural organisation for the development of the Lingaraj Temple. He was instrumental in the conservation of temples in and around Bhubaneswar during 1956-1973.

After a long dedicated life, this great scholar breathed his last on the 20^th of April, 1981.

History