New Delhi, April 8 (). April 9…is not just a date. On this day in 1893, in a small village in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, a writer was born who changed the way people looked at the world. We are talking about Rahul Sankrityayan, who made traveling his life and created a new world with his pen. He was not just a writer but a walking university, where experience was knowledge and the world was a book.
Rahul Sankrityayan was born in his maternal home i.e. Pandaha village and his childhood was also spent there. Then people knew and called him by the name of Kedarnath Pandey. Since childhood, there was a restlessness within him to do something different. The stories he heard from his grandfather about the army, about distant countries, about mountains and rivers, became like seeds in his mind. And then one day a small incident (the ghee pot falling) gave him the courage to cross the threshold of the house.
First Banaras, then Calcutta, then Himalayas… and gradually this journey became so long that even the borders of the country started appearing small. He reached Tibet, went to Lanka, traveled to Russia and even Europe but his travels were not limited to just travelling. There was a new book everywhere for him. Wherever he went, he learned the language there, lived with the people there and understood their life. This is why his books are not only filled with knowledge but also with experiences.
One special thing about him was that he never got stuck in any one thought. Born and brought up in a Brahmin family, he looked at everything with a questioning eye. First Sanatan Dharma, then Arya Samaj, then Buddhism and later Communism, he started understanding every idea and started adopting whatever he felt was right. He believed that knowledge should not just be accepted, it should also be tested.
Rahul Sankrityayan’s writings were as interesting as his journey. He wrote more than 150 books. Wherever he went, whatever he saw, he would put it into words.
While reading his famous book ‘Volga to Ganga’, it feels as if we are traveling thousands of years. Whereas in ‘Meri Jeevan Yatra’, his own life has been written with such simplicity and truth that the reader gets connected with him.
His language was also very simple and direct. He did not write in difficult words, but in common colloquial language, so that everyone could understand them. This is why his books are not only useful for scholars but also for common people.
Rahul Sankrityayan was not just a writer or traveler but he was also a hard-working person. He took part in the freedom movement, went to jail and raised his voice for farmers and laborers. He believed that knowledge alone is not enough but that knowledge should be used for the society.
Rahul Sankrityayan left this world on 14 April 1963, but his thoughts, his books and his travels still take readers from one place to another.
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PIM/PM