Sahitya News Desk !!! Nilmani Phookan (English: Nilmani Phookan, born- 10 September, 1933) is a famous poet and litterateur of the Indian state of Assam. He is known as ‘People’s Poet’. He is considered equivalent to a sage in Assamese literature. Nilmani Phukan, who holds a special place in Assamese literature, has been awarded many prestigious awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Assam Valley Award, 56th Jnanpith Award and Sahitya Akademi Fellowship. He is the third litterateur from Assam to receive the Jnanpith Award.
Born on September 10, 1933 in Golaghat district of Assam, Nilamani Phukan is an Indian poet and storyteller of Assamese language. His canvas is vast, his imagination is mythic, his voice is folk-inclined, his concerns range from political to cosmic, contemporary to primitive. Nilamani Phukan started writing poems from the early 1950s and after obtaining a master’s degree in history from Guwahati University in 1961, he started his career as a lecturer in Arya Vidyapeeth College in Guwahati in 1964, where he worked till his retirement in 1992. The landscapes that Nilamani Phukan evokes are epic and elemental. He talks of fire and water, planet and star, forest and desert, man and mountain, time and space, war and peace, life and death. Yet he has not only the contemplative detachment of a sage, but also a deep sense of urgency and anguish and loss. He has written thirteen books of poetry.
Works
‘The sun is the name of this Nadiyed’ ‘The image of the mind’ ‘Full and full’ ‘The sunflower blooms’
Modern poet with progressive thinking, Neelmani Phukan has been active in poetry for nearly seven decades, who has given a new style to Assamese poetry. Apart from autobiography and 13 poetry collections, many of his books on criticism have also been published. His notable works include ‘Surya Henu Nami Ahe A Nodiyedi’, ‘Gulapi Jamur Lagna’, ‘Kobita’ etc. He also translated poems from Japan and Europe into Assamese. He was awarded D.Litt by Dibrugarh University in 2019.
In the selection committee meeting chaired by eminent storyteller and Jnanpith Award winner Pratibha Ray, it was decided to give the 56th Jnanpith Award to Assamese writer Neelmani Phukan for the year 2020. Other members of the selection committee present in the meeting were Madhav Kaushik, Syed Mohammad Ashraf, Prof. Harish Trivedi, Prof. Suranjan Das, Prof. Purushottam Bilmale, Chandrakant Patil, Dr. S Maniwalan, Prabha Verma, Prof. Asghar Wajahat and Madhusudan Anand.[1]
Padma Shri, 1990 Sahitya Akademi Award, 1981 Assam Valley Award
Nilmani Phukan is the third Assamese writer to receive the Jnanpith. Earlier recipients of the award were Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya in 1979 and Mamoni Raisam Goswami in 2000.