Annada Shankar Ray

Annada Shankar Ray Biography

Annada Shankar Ray was a Bengali poet and essayist who lived in the 20^th century. He was the first "native" Indian in British India to stand first in the I. C. S. examination – really a historic achievement for Indians. He topped the list of Indian Civil Service examinees in 1927 in his second attempt. He was cut-off the previous year by a single rank. Later he served in various administrative posts and took voluntary retirement to completely dedicate his time for writings. Many of his poems are a part of state syllabus, the noted one being ‘Sabita’. He died in Kolkata on 28 October 2002.

Annada Shankar Ray was born in 1904 in Dhenkanal, Orissa. He graduated in English from Ravenshaw College and topped the list of Indian Civil Service examinees in 1927. He was the first ICS officer from Orissa. He got married to Leela Ray, an Indianized American lady. He started writing at the age of 16 as an essayist. His first published book was Tarunya, which got published in the year 1928. Asamapika and Agun Niye are his first two published novels. He published Pathe Prabase, a diary of his Europe trip, in 1931 which proved to be the turning point of his literary career. Later he published short stories - Prakritir Parihas (1934), Man Pavan (1946), Kamini Kanchan (1954) and Katha which made him an immensely popular short story writer too.

As a patriotic, he severely criticized India partition through his literary works.  "Teler shishi bhaanglo bole khukur pare raag karo" is the most popular Bengali poem on this subject. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan by government of India.

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Updated: June 27, 2014