Odisha: Poet Jayanta Mahapatra cremated with full state honours

His last rites were performed at the Khan Nagar crematorium with full state honour where people from different walks of life paid homage to the poet

Cuttack: A tearful adieu was Monday given to acclaimed poet Jayanta Mahapatra who passed away at the SCB Medical College Hospital here at the age of 95 years.

His last rites were performed at the Khan Nagar crematorium with full state honour where people from different walks of life paid homage to the poet.

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Though a Christian, Padma Shri awardee Mahapatra in his will had mentioned that his body should be cremated and not buried.

“The funeral is held as per the wishes of the departed poet,” said Cuttack Mayor Subhas Singh adding that Mahapatra’s demise is a great loss not only for Odisha or India, but the entire literary fraternity across the globe.

Mahapatra also mentioned in the will that a plot should be given to J. Sarojini, a woman who served his family for 35 years.

While Mahapatra’s wife and son predeceased him, his daughter-in-law and grandchildren live in Singapore.

He also wished that his letters, typescripts and incomplete manuscripts were to be burned after his death.

Mahapatra’s body was kept at his residence in Tinkonia Bagicha area in the city where people pay their last tributes.

Born in Cuttack on October 22, 1928, Mahapatra was the first Indian poet to win the Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He was also conferred with the Padma Shri award in 2009. However, he returned it in 2015 to protest against “rising intolerance in India”.

The author of ‘Indian Summer’ and ‘Hunger’, considered as classics in modern Indian English literature, Mahapatra penned 27 books of poems, of which seven are in Odia language and the rest in English.

Odisha governor Prof Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and several other dignitaries have condoled Mahapatra’s demise.