Rai Krishnadas (born November 13, 1892, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh; died 1985) was a contemporary story writer and prose song writer of story emperor Premchand. He established ‘Bharat Kala Bhavan’, which was given to ‘Kashi Hindu University’ in the year 1950. Today ‘Bharat Kala Bhavan’ is no less than a pilgrimage site for researchers. Rai Krishnadas received the title of ‘Sahitya Vachaspati Award’ and ‘Padma Vibhushan’ by the ‘Government of India’.
Rai Krishnadas’s nickname was ‘Snehi’. He was born in Varanasi in 1892 AD. Due to his father’s death in his childhood, his formal education was interrupted. He studied Hindi, Sanskrit, English and Bengali at home. After coming in contact with the then literary environment of Varanasi and Jaishankar Prasad, Ramchandra Shukla, Maithili Sharan Gupt etc., his literary interest developed.
Rai Saheb composed books on all subjects like poetry, essays, prose, stories, art, history etc. His huge contribution is in the field of painting and sculpture. His written ‘Painting of India’ and ‘Indian Sculpture’ are the fundamental texts of their subject. He constructed a high class art building at his personal expense. This is a huge museum of its kind of painting and sculpture etc. Now it is a department of ‘Kashi Hindu University’ and is a major center for the study of ancient Indian art and Sanskrit.
Rai Krishnadas had special interest in painting, sculpture and archaeology. He was a member of ‘Lalit Kala Academy’. You were a descendant of King Patnimal. His title of ‘Rai’ was hereditary, which he got from the Mughal court. Rai Krishnadas belongs to a well-respected family of Banaras. He was one of the close friends of Jaishankar Prasad. Rai Krishnadas was the founder of ‘Bharti Bhandar’ (Literary Publishing House) and ‘Bharatiya Kala Bhavan’.
In the stories of Rai Krishnadas, both social satire and humor of Indian life are equally present. Being a sentimental writer, there are good glimpses of the conflict between ideals and reality rather than craft content and artistic creation. Their language is simple and their feelings are extremely emotional, their vision is basically idealistic. That is why sentimentality in prose songs has become a living and vibrant symbol of his style. Shadowy romanticism is the life of his prose songs. The sentimental and tender side of human emotions has been especially depicted in his works. If anyone’s name can be taken along with Makhanlal Chaturvedi and Ravi among prose lyricists, it is Rai Krishnadas.
Apart from these literary interests, Rai Saheb’s special interest is in obtaining authentic hand copies of original works for research work, collecting original manuscripts of new writers, collecting ancient paintings and sculptures, collecting paintings of various old Indian styles. . Rai Krishnadas ji died in 1985 AD.
