Ramakant Rath

Sriradha Ramakant Rath

Ramakant Rath's magnum opus SRIRADHA is acknowledged as a modern Odia classic. It has sixty-one poems, each presented in the form of a monologue. In these poems, Radha repudiates the image attributed to her in Vaishnav literature and explores herself through an intense experience of love and separation. She is not the playmate of Krishna; she is herself.

The Radha-Krishna myth has for centuries inspired poets and artists. In SRIRADHA, Ramakanta Rath reinterprets this myth to liberate Radha from her image in traditional literature and introduces her as an exceptional character who combines in herself the tenderest emotions of love with the yearning to discover her own identity.

SRIRADHA won the prestigious Saraswati Samman for 1992.