SAHITYA SADHANA SAMMAN WILL BE GIVEN IN THE MEMORY OF ACHARYA ISHANTKETU: Dr. ANIL SULABH

SAHITYA SADHANA SAMMAN WILL BE GIVEN IN THE MEMORY OF ACHARYA ISHANTKETU: Dr. ANIL SULABH

22-AUG-ENG 4

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

PATNA-----------------------------Bihar Hindi Sahitya Sammelan will start 'Acharya Nishantketu Sahitya Sadhana Samman' in the memory of Acharya Chandra Kishore Pandey 'Nishantketu' from this year. Scholars will be entitled to this award for their special contribution to Hindi literature. This announcement was made by Sahitya Sammelan President Dr Anil Sulabh in the condolence meeting organized in the conference hall on the demise of Acharya Nishantketu on Thursday.

While presiding over the condolence meeting, Dr Sulabh said that Nishantketu ji's talent and sadhana is astonishing. He had started serving the language and spiritual thinking from childhood itself. For secondary school education, he had to walk 20 kilometers every day. While walking, he had memorized the special Sanskrit book 'Amarkosh'. He had read Upanishads and other oriental texts. He had earned five gold medals during his student life itself. In 1960, he passed his postgraduate examination in Hindi and the very next day after the results were declared, the then Vice Chancellor of Patna University, Vashishtha Narayan Singh called him and appointed him as a lecturer in Bihar National College. On the same day, the Principal of the same college, Dr. Diwakar Singh, interviewed him and recommended his appointment. Soon he was transferred to Patna College. After 37 years of teaching service, he retired from the post of Head of Department in 1997. Before leaving his body at the age of 90, he wrote more than 100 valuable books, which include poetry, stories, novels, criticism, essays, memoirs, dictionaries, books on yoga and spirituality, linguistics and interviews. Apart from these, he also edited dozens of literary books and magazines. He was a polyglot linguist and also had a major role in the management of 'Sarv Bhasha Mahavidyalaya' being run by Sammelan. He also contributed in editing the Sammelan magazine 'Sahitya'. Due to his busy schedule, he used to stay in the conference premises for many days. Hindi literature has been enriched by his great contributions. The loss caused by his death cannot be estimated.

In his condolence speech, the Prime Minister of the conference, Dr. Shivvansh Pandey said that people like Nishantketu do not die. They will always remain alive in their deeds. His scholarship has been illuminating the whole of India. He was an Acharya in the true sense. He was a gem of Hindi literature, which we have lost.

The literature minister of the conference, Bhagwati Prasad Dwivedi said that the departure of Nishantketu ji is the demise of a literary sage of the Rishi tradition. He awakened many generations. His words were a great motivator for the youth.

Vice President of the conference, Dr. Shankar Prasad, Dr. Madhu Verma, Dr. Kalyani Kusum Singh, Dr. Pushpa Jamuar, Dr. Poonam Anand, Vibha Rani Shrivastava, Dr. Nageshwar Prasad Yadav, Shyam Bihari Prabhakar, Siddheshwar, Dr. Pratibha Sinha, Acharya Vijay Gunjan, Dr. Sarita Kumari, Dr. Archana Tripathi, Aradhana Prasad, Dr. Pallavi Vishwas, Dr. Indu Pandey, Eng. Ashok Kumar, Krishna Ranjan Singh, Dr. Manoj Govardhanpuri, Dr. Shalini Pandey, Praveer Kumar Pankaj, Dr. Sumedha Pathak, Indu Bhushan Sahay, Nirmala Singh, Neeta Sahay, Rauli Kumari, Moin Giridihvi, Uttara Singh, Chanda Mishra, Bhaskar Tripathi, Avinay Kashinath, Rajesh Raj etc. also expressed their condolences.