Jagannath Prasad Das (1936-2026): A lifelong pursuit for meaning and coherence in a fragmented world

In 1982, I was strongly advised by Girija Bhusan Patnaik, a social activist from Odisha, to meet Jagannath Prasad Das (popularly known as JP) before leaving for Oxford to pursue higher studies. Around this time, JP had established his reputation as a major poet and at Ravenshaw College, among students like us, the cover of his first collection of poems, Pratham Purush, designed by Satyajit Ray, was a popular topic of conversation. JP was then Resident Commissioner, Orissa Bhawan, New Delhi. When I met him at his office, he appeared polite but distant and aloof. He was mildly amused when I told him that I was going to work on Walter Scott there, and he said that life at Oxford would be exciting. On the whole, my first meeting with JP was an underwhelming experience.

The beginning of a friendship

Later, in 1992, at Sambalpur University, I went through JP’s Desh Kaal Patra (1992) and found the book unputdownable. It was a delightfully unique reading experience for which I was not at all prepared. Nearly all the characters in the novel and the incidents taking place in it were drawn from recorded history. Every chapter title introduced the reader to a specific location and a particular date. And...

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