Chandrashekhar Rath (English: Chandra Sekhar Rath, born: October 17, 1929, Orissa; death: February 9, 2018, Bhubaneswar) is one of the storytellers and litterateurs of Odisha. Rath has written many novels, short stories, essays and poems during his writing career. Rath received many awards for his contribution in the field of literature. Chandrashekhar Rath received the prestigious Padma Shri award in the year 2018.
Chandrashekhar Rath was born on October 17, 1929 in Malpada of Balangir district.
Along with writing three novels like Yantrarudh, Asurya Upanivesh and Navashantak etc., 16 short story collections, twelve collections of articles on contemporary topics, three poetry collections and four other collections have been published. His three novels were Mukhya and he has also received literary awards like Orissa Academy and Sarala Award. The three novels are – Yantrarudra (The Instrumented) 1967, Asurya Upanivesh (The Sunless Colony) 1974, and Nav Jataka (Regensis) 1981.
Chandrashekhar Rath has received ‘Odisha Sahitya Academy’, ‘Sharla Award’, ‘Atibadi Jagannath Das Award’ and Sahitya Academy Award. He was honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1997 for a story collection ‘Sabutharu Diragrati’ written by him. The prestigious Sahitya Bharati Samman 2011 was given to renowned litterateur Chandra Shekhar Rath by Gangadhar Rath Foundation. The honor was presented to Shri Rath during a function organized at the Cuttack Art Development Center on the evening of March 18. As a reward, Shri Rath was given a silver Konark temple idol and a cash amount of Rs 1 lakh. Many literary works written by Shri Rath have enriched Odia literature.
Famous litterateur Chandrashekhar Rath passed away on February 9, 2018. He was 89 years old and was ill for a long time. Rath breathed his last in Bhubaneswar on Friday. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has expressed condolences on his demise. Patnaik said that the literature that Rath has left behind will always keep him alive in our hearts. He has called Rath’s demise a big loss for the literary field and the country. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has also expressed condolence on the demise of Chandrashekhar Rath.
