Ushnas

Ushnas Biography

Natwarlal Pandya, known by his pen name Ushnas was a great Gujarati poet who lived during the time period 1920-2011. Trun No Grah (1964) and Ashwattha (1975) are his notable works. Ushnas was a recipient of multiple awards and honours including Narmad Suvarna Chandrak (1963), Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak (1972) and Sahitya Akademi Award (1976). He was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award for his poetry collection Ashwattha in 1976. He passed away on 6 November 2011 in Valsad. He was 92. The famous Ushnas Prize is named after him. Many of his popular works have become part of school and college syllabi in Gujarat. He was extremely popular among all age groups.

His full name is Natwarlal Kuberdas Pandya. He was born on 28 September 1920 in Savli village near Vadodara, Gujarat. His school and college education was done at various places of Gujarat. He graduated in Sanskrit in 1942 and Masters in Gujarati in 1945. After studies, he taught at different schools and colleges of Gujarat. Ushnas has also held many literary positions in Gujarat which include President of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad (1991-1993) and Gujarati Adhyapak Sangh in 1979. In 1976 he travelled to many foreign countries including Europe, Canada and America.

He published his first collection of poems in 1955. The anthology was titled, Prasoon. Since then he was fully active throughout 1950s to 1990s. He mostly contributed to Gujarati poetry, apart from a few short story collections. Some of his popular Gujarati poetry collections include - Nepathye, Aardra, Manomudra, Trun No Grah, Spand ane Chhand, Kinkini, Bharat Darshan, Ashwattha, Rupana Lay, Vyakul Vaishnav, Pruthvine Paschim Chahere and Shishulok. Many of his poems are extremely popular, and have become a part of academic studies.

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Updated: July 09, 2016