LAXMI PRASAD DEVKOTA: the Shakespeare of Nepali literature

by LB Thapa

Laxmi Prasad Devkota elevated the literary stature of our country in the eyes of the world. His great works sprang from intensity of vision and feeling. In his literary works, he spoke of that province of human life, enormous and infinite, with its affections and sympathies, loves and friendships, joys and sorrows of which the man like Devkota could only reign. Devkota was perhaps the first littérateur of Nepali literature, who rose to such a height where no other litterateurs have ever reached before. Devkota was a versatile and voluminous writer who left no branch of literature untouched and produced works of outstanding merit in each field. He was a great poet and also a great dramatist. At the same time he was a great prose writer and is regarded as the founder of modern prose style. Devkota's fine writings to enrich Nepali literature are indubitably unparalleled. The quality and weight of literature Devkota produced single-handedly is amazing and also astonishing. By his strong and decisive style of writing, he took Nepali literature to a new horizon. Devkota's remarkable stock of rich literature will continue to inspire the posterity for all ages to come. Devkota is without doubt the brightest star in the literary firmament of Nepali literature. Laxmi Prasad Devkota was born into a middle class Brahmin family at Dhobi Dhara in 1909. Devkota was born on the auspicious day of Laxmi Puja, that's why he was named Laxmi Prasad Devkota. But what an irony! His name 'Laxmi' stands for wealth, but he remained a pauper throughout his life. On the other hand, goddess Saraswati (a deity of wisdom) blessed him instead. Devkota was a dominant literary lion and a much acclaimed savant of his time. Since the early on, Devkota got into literature. He was no doubt a precocious boy. He began to show poetic genius from the very tender age. His early poems, which bore the stamp of poetic fervent, actually belied his age. At times when Devkota was studying at Durbar High School in the 6th grade, he used to recite poems composed by him. Those early poems he composed in the grade 6 were about nature, god, and beauty. As a young prodigy, Devkota wrote sublime poetry on varieties of subjects. As Devkota began to write excellent poems from his early age, many of times his friends did not believe him for having written such excellent poems. As a result, some of his friends had made adverse comment upon Devkota's poem.

10 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 26, 2020