Suryakant Tripathi Nirala

Suryakant Tripathi Nirala Biography

Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' was a poet, novelist, essayist and story-writer. He was known for making sketches also. Nirala is his pen name. Nirala pioneered the Chhayavaad movement (poems of romanticism) along with leading poets of 20^th century, Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant and Mahadevi Varma.  His poems, Parimal and Anaamika are purely based on Chhayavaad writing style. His revolutionary poems were often unpublished due to its unconventional nature. Vedanta, nationalism, mysticism, and love for nature formed parts of his literal pieces. He is also credited with bringing in free verse in the modern Hindi prose. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Swami Vivekananda deeply influenced his thoughts while Michael Mudhusudan Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore, in his literal works. Nirala was one of those great poets whose works have been admired by people of all spheres of life.  

Nirala was born on February 21, 1896 in Bengal as the son of Pandit Ramsahaya Tripathi. Though Bengali he was attracted towards Sanskrit. Later he became proficient in English and Hindi as well. He lost his mother at a younger age. He got married at a younger age and it was his wife who encouraged him to write in Hindi than his mother tongue Bengali. She was his biggest inspiration but she died when she was only 20. He lost his widowed daughter too at a younger age. Thus his life was something like a fairy tale filled with only tragic incidents. His financial condition also grew worse and it prompted him to do proof reading work to earn a living. He has also worked as the editor of Samanvaya.   

His contributions to poetry include – Bela, Adima, Naye patte, Ram Ki Shakti Puja, Dhwani, Anaamika, Geethika, Tulsidas, Jago Phir Ek Bar, Janmabhumi, Aradhana, Parimal, Saroj Smriti and Kukurmutta. His short story collections are Chhaturi Chamar, Devi, Sukul ki Biwi, Sakhi and Lily. He has also done translation works of Anand math, Krishna kant ka Vi, Durgesh Nandini and many more. A few essays and prose and novels are also included in this list. He died on October 15, 1961 at Allahabad, UP.

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Updated: November 22, 2013