Sahitya News Desk!! Lochan Prasad Pandey (English: Lochan Prasad Pandey; born- January 4, 1887 AD, Bilaspur[2]Madhya Pradesh; Death- November 8, 1959 AD) was a famous Hindi litterateur. He has also composed poetry in both Hindi and Oriya languages. From 1905 onwards, his poems started appearing in ‘Saraswati’ and other monthly magazines. Some of Lochan Prasad Pandey’s works are in the form of short stories and some in short form. He was also a member of ‘Bharatendu Sahitya Samiti’. He had a special reputation among the litterateurs of Madhya Pradesh. Even today his name is taken with great respect.
birth and family
Lochan Prasad Pandey was born on January 4, 1887 in a village named Balpur in Bilaspur district of Madhya Pradesh. Bilaspur is now part of Chhattisgarh state. Lochan Prasad Pandey’s father Pandit Chintamani Pandey was an addict. He had opened a school in his village for the education of children. Lochan Prasad ji was the fourth son of his father. They were eight brothers – Purushottam Prasad, Padmalochan, Chandrashekhar, Lochan Prasad, Vidyadhar, Vanshidhar, Muralidhar and Mukutdhar and four sisters – Chandan Kumari, Yagya Kumari, Surya Kumari and Anand Kumari.
Education
Lochan Prasad Pandey’s primary education took place in a private school in Balpur. In 1902, he passed middle school from Sambalpur and in 1905, after passing the intermediate examination from Calcutta (present day Kolkata), he went to Banaras, where he came in contact with many literary scholars. He also acquired knowledge of Oriya, Bengali and Sanskrit through his own efforts. Lochan Prasad Pandey visited many places during his lifetime. He was always ready to participate in literary seminars, conferences, Congress sessions and historical-archaeological research expeditions. Due to his discovery, many forts, inscriptions, copper plates and caves came to light. In 1923, he founded ‘Chhattisgarh Gaurav Pracharak Mandali’, which was later called ‘Mahakoushal Itihas Parishad’. He had equal authority in literature, history and archaeology.
temperament
Lochan Prasad Pandey was simple and innocent by nature. Their behavior used to be friendly. He inspired the readers to uplift their character through his writings. At that time, it was not possible to do the work of a preacher with the help of literature like it is today, hence his writings aroused the interest of readers towards restraint. He was a respected member of ‘Bharatendu Sahitya Samiti’. There is a great sense of respect, honor and prestige towards him in Madhya Pradesh.
literary work
Lochan Prasad Pandey’s literary work has been dedicated only to character upliftment, policy-nutrition, preaching, realistic portrayal and public welfare. The objective form of his poetry is objective, definite and non-symbolic. He used to write descriptive poems based on stories and incidents. From 1905 AD, he started writing poems in ‘Saraswati’. Bhartendu’s jagran-triam had already sounded. Lochan Prasad Pandey came to power during the power accumulation period of Dwivedi era. At the same time, his poetry, full of heartfelt timeliness, vigor, balanced rhyme scheme and matching phraseology, attracted people’s attention due to its heart-filled narration even in the absence of symbolism and meditation. Lochan Prasad ji established the spirit of reform through both Sphut and Prabandh poems. His kindness towards trees, animals etc. has also been beautifully expressed in the poem titled ‘Mrigi Dukhamochan’. He was also a leading literary leader of Madhya Pradesh.
creations
The details of the major works of Lochan Prasad Pandey are as follows-
‘Do Mitra’ is the first work of Lochan Prasad Pandey, published in 1906, based on objective, social novel, ideal of friendship, social reform, inspired by female character and written on the reaction of western civilization. In the poetry collection named ‘Pravasi’ published from Madhya Pradesh in 1907, an effort of imagination, idolatry and false symbolism is visible like the shadowy, mysterious anthologies. In 1910, ‘Indian Press’, Prayag, published ‘Kavita Kusum Mala’, a collection of children’s poetry and in 1914, ‘Neeti Kavita’, a collection on religion. Lochan Prasad Pandey’s farce named ‘Sahityaseva’ was published in 1914, in which the hyperdramatic incident-character-combination style of comedy production was used for satire and humor. In the year 1914, the social reform oriented drama plays ‘Prem Prakash’ and ‘Grihastha-Dasha Darpan’ were published. His historical volume ‘Mewar Gatha’ was published in 1914 itself. In 1915, two poetry collections named ‘Padya Pushpanjali’ were also published. In 1915 itself, his social and national drama ‘Student Plight’ and the satirical-humorous drama ‘Gramya Vivah’ etc. were released.
Respect
Lochan Prasad Pandey had received the titles of ‘Poetic Humor’ and ‘Literary-Vachspati’.
demise
Lochan Prasad Pandey died on 8 November 1959.
