Laxmi Prasad Devkota

Who is Laxmi Prasad Devkota?

Laxmi Prasad Devkota was a Nepali poet, playwright, novelist, and scholar born on 12 November 1909 in Dhobidhara, Kathmandu, to a Sanskrit-scholar father who gave him his earliest education. He studied at Durbar High School and went on to earn a law degree, later working as a teacher, lawyer, and briefly as a government minister, while producing one of the largest and most celebrated bodies of work in Nepali literature. He is honored with the title Mahakavi, "Great Poet," and is best remembered for Muna Madan (1936), a long narrative poem written in the folk Jhyaure meter rather than the classical Sanskrit forms that had dominated Nepali poetry before him; it became the best-selling work in Nepali literary history and was later adapted into Nepal's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His other major works include Sulochana, Kunjini, Shakuntala, and numerous essays and plays exploring themes of poverty, compassion, and everyday Nepali life. Devkota died of cancer on 14 September 1959 in Kathmandu.

Sources: Laxmi Prasad Devkota — Wikipedia · myRepublica, "Devkota's 114th birth anniversary being marked" · english.nepalnews.com, "Everything You Need to Know About Laxmi Prasad Devkota"