Kuntala Kumari Sabat

**Kuntala Kumari Sabat** (8 February 1901 – 23 August 1938) was an Odia poet during colonial India.

Kuntala Kumari Sabat was born on 8 February 1901, at Jagadalpur in Bastar region. Her parents were Daniel and Monica. Shortly after her birth, her parents went to Burma with family. So Kuntala Kumari passed her early childhood in Burma with her parents. Then she returned to Khurda with her mother Monica after her father got remarried at Burma. She completed her early school education at Ravenshaw Girl’s School and higher study at the  Medical School, Cuttack. Kuntala Kumari composed poems during her school days. She came out successfully from the medical school and became popular as a doctor with her sincerity and simplicity.

Kailash Rao was her literary teacher who guided her literary activities. Kuntala Kumari enrolled herself as a member of ‘Nava Vidhan’, the ‘Brahmo Society’. She got wide applause when poems, ‘Anjali’ came out. She won praise from almost all the literary figures of Orissa. A leading cultural association of women conferred on her the title ‘Utkal Bharati’. Gopal Chandra Praharaj and Pallikabi Nanda Kishore Bal loved her and adopted her as their daughter. Kuntala Kumari joined a maternity welfare centre, which was newly opened at Cuttack in 1925. She left for Delhi on 1st July 1928. The same year she got married to Krishna Prasad. New phase of life began, yet she did not leave her writings. She had written in English : A True Patriotic Litterateur and Reflection of Her Literary Works on Gandhian Movement Dr. Janmejay Choudhury Bengali and Hindi and contributed to a number of nonOriya journals and edited a number of Hindi journals at Delhi. During her stay at Delhi, she presided over the ‘All India Arya Mahila Sammilani’ at Bareli. During this time also she was invited by the Allahabad University and Benaras Hindu University to deliver lectures. She was the president of the students federation at Aligarh. She was made the chair-person of a reputed social organisation founded by Harbilash Sarada for the introduction of widow marriage and abolition of child marriage. While at Delhi she took steps to encourage, publish and project Oriya literature. At Delhi, Kuntala Kumari was also associated with eminent writers like Maitheli Saran Gupta, Yeasshpal Jee Jain, S.H. Batsayan and a host of Hindi writers. ‘Hindi Pracharini Sabha’ conferred on her the title of ‘Bharat Kavinetri.’

As a disciple of Gandhi she claimed independence as the birthright of Indian people. She took up the task of awakening the women. She encouraged them to join the National Movement under Gandhian leadership. During the noncooperation movement she gave a clarion call to the people of Orissa to fight for freedom. In a real sense she was a visionary and a rebel. 

No doubt, Kuntala Kumari had a lot of patriotic fervour in her. She had derived a special pride in herself by portraying Gandhi, Nehru and the spinning wheel in her lucid poems. The Oriya youths plunged headlong into the noncooperation movement being addicted to her war songs. It ignited the sparks in them spontaneously, so to say rapidly. She composed beautiful numerous patriotic poems and songs. Her first collection of poems came out in 1922. Then it was followed by ‘Uchhwas’ – 1924, ‘Archana’ – 1927, ‘Sphulinga’ – 1929, ‘Ahwan’ – 1930, ‘Prem Chintamani’ – 1930, ‘Oriyanka Kandana’ – 1937, ‘Garjat Krishaka’ – 1939.4 Her love for man, nature and nation is reflected in her poems. She had a deep hatred for superstitions and conventions, raised her voice against high and mighty. She always tried to protest against injustice and inequalities. She renounced the heartless religious dogmas and practices. She comprehended the image of the  glorious past of Orissa. 

She composed the inaugural song of ‘Utkal Sammilani’, chaired by Acharya P.C. Roy in 1924. the poems in the anthology ‘Archana’ echoes the voice of poor and lowly, the depressed and the marginalized. Her poetic longing for brave new world is expressed in most of her poems. Some of her poems published in ‘Sphulinga’, inspired the youth of Orissa and infused dynamism in them. The volume ‘Ahwan’ captures the spirit of Gandhi’s clarion call to people to join the struggle for freedom. Her poems in Ahwan created tremendous sensation. Her fame as a patriot and poet spread over the country. The yearning for liberty is always marked in her poems like ‘Garjat Krishaka’. Her poetry, in some degree, reveals all the romantic traits : “Love of nature, love of beauty, imagination, love of past and a wearied sadness.”   Her writings were regularly published in the ‘Samaj’ and ‘Sahakar’ under the title ‘Delhi letters’. She expresses the socio-political life of pre-independent India and makes a zealous attempts to reform the tradition ridden society. In the novel, ‘Na-tundi’, She expresses real thing of the land. ‘Raghu Arakhit’ is one of her most outstanding works. It narrates the social character regarding marriage, where a compensation was given to the bride’s family.

Kuntala Kuamri’s voice was more reflected in her poetry anthologies AHWAN (the call) and Gadajata Krishaka (Feudatory Farmer). The following stanza provides enough stimulus to adorn the spirit of mankind. Oh ! my compatriot !! The man is not born to die of reminiscence or to sink in somewhere It is never a human fate That gets terminated through a happiness living After being condemned to the fretful glooms of failure in a deprived morbid prison of ever – disciplined humiliating; Thus great Earth is never a decaying caravan or a lady nurturing death.

One of the session of Utkal Sammilani was held at Balasore on 2nd August 1931 with Kuntala Kumari in chair. Jahnabi Devi was the chairperson of the reception. Nearly twelve hundred people all over Orissa attended. This meeting was also attended by more than a thousand women. In her speech as the chairman of the Reception Committee Jahnabi Devi refuted the universally accepted view of women’s inability to stand on their own. A central executive committee, named “All Orissa Women’s Association” was set up. Here sincere efforts were made to work out a programme for the improvement of conditions of women of Orissa. In an essay entitled “Kabi O Lekhakara Udeshya”, she raised the status of a poet by declaring that she is not limited to any time and clime. “The poet or the writer is nature’s representative. He is not confined to any particular nation or time. He belongs to all the nations, to all time and all humanity. Her death on 23rd August 1938 was a great loss for the people of Orissa.. Although she spent most of her short life outside the state, she had enough inclination to intercede the causes of its Gods and Goddesses, aquatic landscapes, rural surroundings, and the people irrespective of rich and poor alike. 

## References