PADMASHREE DR. SATYANARAYANA RAJGURU :

Some men are born great, while some achieve greatness during their lifetime.  Dr. Satyanarayana Rajguru was a man of multidimensional character.  He was a poet, a writer, a dramatist, a stage director, an actor, a freedom fighter, a linguist, an orator, an historian and a research scholar.

He started his education at the age of five.  From his childhood he was a man of independent mind.  Though a meritorious student, he could not be qualified in the matriculation examination, intentionally.   However, he passed the Oriental Title Examination in ‘Oriya & Sanskrit’ from the Andhra University.  In the year 1929 he worked as the manager of the ‘Parala Padmanabha Rangalaya’ and entered in to the field of theater during 1935.  He took active part in the ‘Utkal Sameemani’  & ‘Odiya Rakshya’ and helped Sri Krushna Chandra Gajapati in the formation of ‘Utkal Pradesh’.  He will be remembered for his thesis presented   before the State Re-organisation Commission.  He was the President of Ganjam District Education Council from 1942-1945.  In the year 1946, he joined as an assistant in the Kalinga Historical Research Society at Bhawanipatana. He worked as a Curator in the Orissa Museum from 1950-1961 and an Epigraphist from 1963-1970.  He also worked as a member in the working committee of the ‘Orissa Sahitya Academy’.  He was also the Chairman of the Paralakhemundi Municipality for 16 years.

The Andhra Mahasabha conferred him with the ‘Bharati Bhushan’ award. He was also awarded by the Ganjam Sahitya Sammilani (1968), Orissa Sahitya Academy (1968), “PADMASHREE” by the President of India Shri V.V.Giri (1974), D.Litt. by the Berhampur University and a life member in the University Senate (1975), Utkal Pathak Sansad (1977), Orissa Congress (1980), “SARALA SANMAN” (1989) for his outstanding and meritorious research work.    

      Some of his works are: -

 ‘PALINKI BAHAKA’: A poem translated IN Oriya from ‘The Palanquin Bearers’ of Sarojini Naidu

  ‘SWAPANE CHUMBAN’, ‘JANANI UTKAL’, ‘RADHAVISEK’, ‘ODIALIPIRA KRAMABIKASH’, ‘HISTORY OF GANGAS’, ‘THE KORASANDA COPPER PLATE GRANT OF VISAKHAVARMMA’,  ‘HISTORY OF EASTERN GANGAS OF KALINGA’, ‘HEIROGRAPHIC LETTERS OF NARAJ’, ‘THE ODRAS AND THEIR PREDOMENANCY’, ‘THE HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN ORISSA’, ‘THE KONDULI COPPER PLATE GRANT OF NARASIMHA DEVA OF SAKA 1305’, ‘SUMANDAL PLATES OF DHARMARAJ’.