View source for Ramakanta Rath

{{Short description|Indian poet from Odisha (1934–2025)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=March 2019}}
{{News release|date=February  2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name           = Ramakanta Rath
| image          = Ramakanta Rath Odia Author.jpg
| birth_date     = {{birth date|1934|12|13|df=y}}
| birth_place    = [[Cuttack]], [[Bihar and Orissa Province]], [[British India]]
| death_date     = {{death date and age|2025|03|16|1934|12|13|df=y}}
| death_place    = [[Bhubaneswar]], [[Odisha]], India
| nationality    = Indian
| occupation     = Poet
}}

'''Ramakanta Rath''' (13 December 1934 – 16 March 2025) was an Indian poet who was regarded as one of the most renowned [[modernist]] poets in [[Odia language|Odia]] literature. Heavily influenced by the poets such as [[T. S. Eliot]] and [[Ezra Pound]], Rath experimented greatly with form and style. The quest for the mystical, the riddles of life and death, the inner solitude of individual selves, and subservience to material needs and carnal desires are among this philosopher-poet's favorite [[theme (literary)|themes]]. His poetry betrays a sense of pessimism along with counter-aesthetics, and he steadfastly refuses to put on the garb of a preacher of goodness and absolute beauty. His poetry is full of melancholy and laments the inevitability of death and the resultant feeling of futility. The poetic expressions found in his creations carry a distinct sign of symbolic annotations to spiritual and [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] contents of life. Often transcending beyond ordinary human capabilities, the poet reaches the higher territories of sharp intellectualism. The contents have varied from a modernist interpretation of ancient [[Sanskrit]] literature protagonist [[Radha]] in the poem "Sri Radha" to the ever-present and enthralling death-consciousness espoused in "Saptama Ritu" (The Seventh Season).

==Life and career==
Rath was born in [[Cuttack]], [[Odisha]], [[British India]]. He obtained his MA in English Literature from  [[Ravenshaw College]]  in Odisha.  He joined the [[Indian Administrative Service]] in 1957, but continued his writing career. He retired as Chief Secretary Odisha after holding several important posts in the Central Government such as Secretary to the Government of India. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1977, [[Saraswathi Samman]] in 1992, Bishuva Samman in 1990 and India's 3rd highest civilian honour, the [[Padma Bhushan]] in 2006.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web | url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | title=Padma Awards | publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India | date=2015 | access-date=21 July 2015 | archive-date=15 October 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> He was the Vice President of the Sahitya  Academy of India from 1993 to 1998 and the President of the Sahitya Akademi of India from 1998 to 2003, [[New Delhi]].

In February 2009, he was awarded a [[List of Sahitya Akademi fellows|Sahitya Akademi Fellowship]] by the [[Sahitya Akademi|Central Sahitya Akademi]], the fifth [[Odia language|Odia]] writer to be so honoured.

A number of his poems have been translated into [[English language|English]] and other [[Languages of India|Indian languages]].

After prolonged illness, Rath died on 16 March 2025 at his residence in Bhubaneswar. He was 90.<ref>{{cite web |title=Renowned Odia poet and Padma Bhushan awardee Ramakanta Rath passes away at 91 |url=https://kalingatv.com/odisha/renowned-odia-poet-and-padma-bhushan-awardee-ramakanta-rath-passes-away-at-91/ |website=www.kalingatv.com |access-date=16 March 2025}}</ref>

==Major works==

===Poems===
* "Kete Dinara" (Of a Long Long Time), 1962
* "Aneka Kothari" (Many Rooms), 1967
* "Sandigdha Mrigaya" (Suspicious Hunting), 1971
* "Saptama Ritu" (The Seventh Season), 1977
* "Sachitra Andhara" (Picturesque Darkness), 1982

===Long poems===
* ''Sri Radha'' (Sri Radha), 1984 (won [[Saraswati Samman]] in 1992 for this Poetry)
* ''Sri Palataka'' (Mr. Escapist), 1997

==See also==
* [[List of Indian poets]]
* [[Odia literature]]
* [[Odia language]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* [https://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/ramakantrath.html "Ramakant Rath - Oriya Poet: The South Asian Literary Recordings Project (Library of Congress New Delhi Office)"]

{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 2000–09}}
{{SahityaAkademiFellowship}}
{{Sahitya Akademi Award For Odia}}
{{Saraswati Samman}}
{{Padma Award winners of Odisha}}
{{Gangadhar National Award For Poetry}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rath, Ramakanta}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:2025 deaths]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Odia]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Saraswati Samman Award]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Gangadhar National Award]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Atibadi Jagannath Das Award]]
[[Category:Indian civil servants]]
[[Category:People from Cuttack]]
[[Category:Odia-language poets]]