Hazari Prasad Dwivedi

Alok Parva

(Rajkamal Prakashan, Delhi; 1972)

(Sahitya Academy Awardee-Hindi-1973)

"Sri Hazari Prasad Dwivedi (born 1907), born in Ballia (UP) was educated in the Sanskrit tradition of the family. He received the degree of Jyotishacharya in 1930, and joined Santiniketan as a teacher, where he was director of Hindi Bhavan from 1940 to 1950. He headed the Hindi Department at Banaras Hindu University in 1950. He was a member of the first official Languages Commission and was awarded Padmabhushan in 1957. One of the founding members of the Sahitya Akademi, and till recently a member of its Executive Board, Sri Dwivedi has been closely associated with several literary institutions and has been a member of a delegation of writers to the Soviet Union. In 1960, he joined the Punjab University as Head of its Hindi Department. In 1961, he received a special Tagore Centenary Award of the Sahitya Akademi. He is now Chairman of the U.P. Hindi Granth Akademi. He has so far published more than twenty rooks of literary criticism, essays, research studies and novels including his novel Banbhatta ki Atmakatha which has been translated into various Indian languages through the Sahitya Akademi.

The award book, Alok Parva, is the latest collection of his essays published in 1972. For its depth of perception and its lucid prose style, the work has been hailed as an outstanding contribution to contemporary Hindi literature." (Citation)

Hazari Prasad Dwivedi was one of the foremost writers in Hindi literature. He heralded a new trend in the discipline of essay writing, thus generating an entirely new genre in Hindi fiction writing. Alok Parva is a collection of twenty seven essays, including in its pages some of the most significant essays which have been hailed to be amongst the best writings of Hindi.

Dwivedi's essays are full of artistic grandeur carrying as they do a very pertinent message for our generation, with utmost simplicity. The essays of Alok Parva, beautifully depict the cultural heritage of ancient India, at the same time accelerating the continuity of our glorious tradition.

As a foremost scholar of this century, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi has done commendable work on the ancient and medieval period of Hindi literature, and argued in his most innovative style that our culture had a colourful past and it stressed the human aspect of life. In Alok Parva, his essays on the Himalayas, on the art and grandeur of Kalidas, and on the democracy and language will long be cherished for the sincere conviction of the writer, who believes that through cultural renaissance alone a nation can carve out a bright future for the people.

Ganga Prasad Vimal

(Source: Sahitya Academy Awards – Books and Writers – 1955-1978

Published by Sahitya Academy. ISBN 81 7201 014 1)