Sumitranandan Pant born on May 20, 1900 at Kausani village, Almora District, Uttarakhand, was one of the most famous modern Hindi poets. He is considered one of the major poets of the Chhayavaadi school of Hindi literature. Pant mostly wrote in Sanskritized Hindi. Pant authored twenty-eight published works including poetry, verse plays and essays.
Apart from Chhayavaadi poems, Pant also wrote progressive, philosophical, socialist and humanist poems.
Pant was the first Hindi poet to receive the Jnanpith Award, in 1968. He did so for acollection of his most famous poems, titled Chidambara. He was awarded the Nehru Peace Prize by the Soviet Union for Lokayatan. Pant received "Sahitya Kala Academy" award for "Kala Aur Budhdha Chand". Indian Government honored him with 'Padmavibhushan'.
Pant's childhood house, in Kausani, has been converted into a museum. This museum displays his daily use articles, drafts of his poems, letters, his awards etc.
Sumitra Nandan Pant also composed the Kulgeet of IIT Roorkee, "Jayati Jayati Vidya Sansthan". He died on December 28, 1977, at Rajamundry, Andhra Pradesh, India.
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