Vijaydan Detha

Vijaydan Detha
Vijaydan Detha
Born(1926-09-01)1 September 1926
Borunda, Jodhpur State, British India
(now in Rajasthan, India)
Died10 November 2013(2013-11-10) (aged 87)
Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
OccupationWriter
SpouseSayar Kanwar
Children5
Writing career
Pen nameBijji
LanguageRajasthani
GenresSatire, folklore
SubjectsSocialism, Antifeudalism, feminism
Notable awards

Vijaydan Detha (1 September 1926 – 10 November 2013), also known as Bijji, was an Indian writer of Rajasthani literature. He was a recipient of several awards including the Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Detha has more than 800 short stories to his credit, which have been translated into English and other languages. With Komal Kothari, he founded Rupayan Sansthan, an institute that documents Rajasthani folklore, art, and music. His literary works include Bataan ri Phulwari (Garden of Tales), a 14-volume collection of stories that draws on folklore in the spoken dialects of Rajasthan. Many of his stories and novels have been adapted for the stage and the screen: adaptations include Mani Kaul's Duvidha (1973), Habib Tanvir and Shyam Benegal's Charandas Chor (1975), Prakash Jha's Parinati (1986), Amol Palekar's Paheli (2005), Pushpendra Singh's The Honour Keeper (2014), Dedipya Joshii's Kaanchli Life in a Slough (2020), and Pushpendra Singh's Laila aur Satt Geet (2020).

Biography

Detha said, "My land Rajasthan is full of stories, whatever I've written is just a drop of the ocean". Detha, was inspired by Shah Govradhan Lal Kabra to write in Rajasthani "till date I have not written in any other language", he said regarding his love for the language. He portrayed the sufferings of the poor in his writings and was also tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011 which ultimately went to Tomas Tranströmer.

Works

Rajasthani

Hindi

Due to respect for his mother tongue Rajasthani, Bijji has never written in any other language, most of his works are translated into Hindi by one of his sons Kailash Kabeer.

Detha also been credited for editing following works

Adaptations

Detha's stories have been widely adapted for stage and screen, cementing his influence on Indian cinema and theater. Notable adaptations include:

Awards and honours

Detha's work was lauded by contemporaries like Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, who described his stories as a “whirlpool” of vivid imagination, and Arunava Sinha, who praised their challenge to assumptions about modernity and morality.

References

  1. ↑ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  2. ↑ Debnath, Sayari (6 May 2023). "'A challenge of translating from Rajasthani is to keep its orality alive in English': Vishes Kothari". Scroll.in. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  3. ↑ "Film flashback, The ghost in the tree, from 1973". TheGuardian.com. 14 July 2011.
  4. ↑ "Moviebuff".
  5. ↑ "Fate and Greed in Rajasthan A Long Time Ago". 19 April 2019.
  6. ↑ "'Paheli' is a whim of mine, says Shah Rukh". 20 May 2005.
  7. ↑ "A love story out of a folk take about a woman who claims her freedom in timeless Rajasthan". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 February 2014.
  8. ↑ "Kaanchli Life in a Slough movie review: Raw, bold & probing". 7 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "The Whole Idea of borders redundant: Laila aur satt geet director Pushpendra Singh". 5 March 2020.
  10. ↑ "Rajasthan's Vijaydan Detha in race for Nobel Prize". Retrieved 14 November 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  11. 1 2 3 4 Who's who of Indian writers 1999
  12. ↑ Bihari K. K. Birla Foundation
  13. ↑ Interview on Tehelka
  14. ↑ Indian National Portal, Govt. of India
  15. ↑ "The storyteller". The Hindu. 9 September 2013.
  16. ↑ "Books by Vijaydan Detha - Prabhat Prakashan". www.prabhatbooks.com. Retrieved 3 May 2023.

Bibliography