1. Pandit Nilakantha Das was one of the most illustrious sons of Odisha, who appeared both in its political and literary arena at the most crucial period of its history, when Odisha had no political identity in the map of India, and Odia as a language was about to be extinct.
Nilakantha Das worked relentlessly for Odisha's recognition both politically and linguistically, and helped bring to fruition the dreams of Utkala Gaurab Madhusudan Das, Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das and all other Odia loving people.
Nilakantha Das was a polymath who was an eminent teacher, exceptional leader, erudite scholar, renowned writer, great orator, and a powerful legislator.
Pandit Nilakantha Das was renowned as the headmaster of Satyabadi Bana Bidyalaya, the brainchild of Utkalamani Gopabandhu.
Nilakantha Das was a prime architect in creating the independent Odisha Province in 1936, who worked untiringly as the right-hand man of Madhusudan Das to achieve this goal.
Nilakantha Das was born in a respected Brahmin family in the village of Sri RamachandraPur, a Brahmin Shasan, near Puri, Odisha on 5 August 1884.
Nilakantha Das was the only surviving son of his parents, born to them late in life.
Nilakantha Das's grandfather was a well-to-do landowner and the chief of his village, but died young at the age of 28.
Consequently, Nilakantha's father Ananda Das could not pursue higher education, but he was a man of firm character and progressive ideas, and was a strong supporter of all Nilakantha's social reforms and other activities at a big social cost to himself.
Nilakantha Das completed his bachelor's degree from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack in Chemistry and Philosophy.
Nilakantha Das was a voracious reader with an impeccable memory, and educated himself on both eastern and western ultures, literature, religions and folklore.
Nilakantha Das was equally eloquent in Odia, English and Sanskrit.
Undaunted, Nilakantha Das held the school, from next day, in the open area of the surrounding Bakula Bana.
Nilakantha Das left the headmaster position in 1918, but was associated with the school till 1920.
Nilakantha Das was extremely impressed with Nilakantha's knowledge and asked him to join as the professor of 'Oriya and Comparative Philosophy' at the Presidency College.
Nilakantha Das established a very good High school there with the help and cooperation of many prominent local leaders.
Gopabandhu Nilakantha Das soon realized the lack of strong Odia representation in Delhi Central Legislative Assembly to champion Odia causes.
On his advice, Nilakantha Das contested and was elected to the Central Assembly from Odisha in 1924, with three main objectives:.
Nilakantha Das worked tirelessly, with an undaunted spirit, on these issues.
Nilakantha Das worked on improving the wages and living standards of labourers in various fields.
Nilakantha Das retired from the Central Assembly and came to Odisha in 1945, and from 1945 to 1951 devoted his time primarily to literary pursuits.
Nilakantha Das wrote his autobiography in 1963, for which he received India's Central Sahitya Akademi award in 1964.
Madhusudan Nilakantha Das made it a prime issue for Odias through his Utkala Sammilani.
In 1917, Nilakantha Das presided over the Manjusha session of Utkala Sammilani and greatly helped in strengthening the demand for amalgamation of scattered Odia-speaking tracts including undivided Koraput, Ganjam, Paralakhemundi etc.
Nilakantha Das wrote several articles in The Statesman and The Bombay Chronicle on the formation of separate provinces on linguistic basis.
Nilakantha Das was responsible for the inclusion of southern regions, including Koraput, Paralakhemundi and Ganjam up to Chilika, in Odisha when it was formed on April 1,1936.
Nilakantha Das successfully argued that the poverty and underdeveloped nature of the annexed areas should be an important reason for bringing them to Odisha and improving their condition concurrently with the rest of the state.
Nilakantha Das had prepared and submitted a memorandum to the O' Donnell committee, which constituted the foundation for the formation of the independent Odisha Province.
Madhusudan Das, who died in February, 1934, was not alive to see the formation of this new, independent Odisha Province, but prior to his death he expressed his full confidence in Nilakantha in carrying on his legacy and bringing his dreams to fruition.
Hence, Nilakantha Das was placed among the Makers of Modern India by Central Education Minister Prof.
So, Nilakantha Das demanded successfully the creation of Odisha's own independent university and high court, arguing that an independent state must have these basic institutions as fundamental to self-determination.
Nilakantha Das helped in the organization of the plantation workers of Assam Tea Gardens, and the labourers in Jamshedpur, Calcutta and Khidirpore.
Nilakantha Das's cut motion supporting the strike by tin-plate workers in Tata resulted in the defeat of the Government in the Central legislative assembly.
Nilakantha Das was elected to the prestigious Central Assembly Public Accounts Committee.
Pandit Nilakantha Das retired from the Central Assembly in 1945 and came to Odisha's political arena.
Nilakantha Das stayed out of the Congress party politics till 1954, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru requested him to rejoin Congress.
In 1957, Nilakantha Das was re-elected uncontested to the Odisha Assembly, and became the speaker of the Assembly.
Nilakantha Das stayed in that position till July 1961, although the administration collapsed in Match of that year.
Nilakantha Das came in close contact with many of the Indian freedom fighters while stationed in Delhi and Shimla and worked closely with them for India's independence.
Nilakantha Das made his demands in the Central Assembly in 1929 to repeal this Salt Tax on Odisha.
Nilakantha Das started his historic Dandi Salt March in 1930, as a demonstration of civil disobedience, in defiance of the salt tax.
Nilakantha Das accompanied him many times to different parts of the state and inspired others to join the movement.
Nilakantha Das worked directly with Jawaharlal Nehru on his trips to the Odisha state after its formation, and accompanied him on many of his trips to various regions of the state to campaign for the Congress party.
Nilakantha Das did not want to fight against that decision as an independent candidate because of his loyalty to the party at the time.
Nilakantha Das was equally devoted to the field of Odia literature as he was to an independent state of Odisha and to the cause of Indian Independence.
Nilakantha Das wrote books and articles in many different fields, of many different genres, with the goal of discovering the foundation of the Odia language and its heritage, as well as to enrich the Odia literature.
Nilakantha Das had written many Odia short stories and poems for children.
Nilakantha Das was a comparative philologist, and his work was the first scientific linguistic study of the Odia language and culture.
Nilakantha Das wrote a devotional book named Bhakti Gatha in 1918 for the students of the Satyabadi school for their daily prayer.
Nilakantha Das was extremely well-versed in many subjects, availing himself of large book collections in the libraries from Calcutta University to Delhi Parliament.
Nilakantha Das used to spend most part of his nights in reading books as day times were full of important activities.
Nilakantha Das was the first Odia linguist and the first Odia Juvenile litterateur.
Nilakantha Das was the first Oriya Script reformer, and the first pure Odia grammarian.
Nilakantha Das tried to remove the ills of the society through his work and philosophy.
Nilakantha Das made scathing attack on occult power, horoscope and palmistry through his writings.
Nilakantha Das was the founder-secretary of the Orissa branch of Hindu Mahasabha in 1925, with Janakinath Bose, father of Netaji Subhas Bose, as the President.
Nilakantha Das used this platform in denouncing practices like untouchability, dowry, child marriage, prohibition of widow marriage, etc.
Nilakantha Das was against many social and cultural restrictions imposed by upper class Brahmins and wrote a series of articles, under the title Mo Nisha in the well-known monthly magazine of the time called "Mukura" to protest against it.
Pandit Nilakantha Das edited the celebrated monthly magazine NabaBharat from 1934 to 1953 with occasional breaks, and published a daily paper of the same from 1941 to 1953.
Nilakantha Das objected against Bhaktika Mithya, where upon admirers embellish the accomplishments or nature of a celebrated personality or a nation through either exaggeration or false narratives.
Nilakantha Das tried to point out such incidents involving himself and other well-known people, without bothering for criticisms by others for doing so.
Pandit Nilakantha Das was a philosopher of the highest rank and was a great believer in the uniqueness and teachings of Jagannath Dharma.
Nilakantha Das was influenced by the doctrines of Jain Dharma, and found great parallelism between Jainism and Jagannath culture, both focusing on the equality of all men rather than on a supreme God.
Nilakantha Das claimed himself to be a Yuktibadi, rather than a Bhaktibadi.
Pandit Nilakantha Das was a simple and righteous man, prone to sudden flair of temper upon witnessing wrong things, but equally apt to cool down immediately if realized his own mistakes.
Nilakantha Das was a worshiper of the Truth, with deep love for Odisha and its heritage.
Nilakantha Das was always an original and unconventional thinker, and known as a Fighter par excellence for just causes.
Nilakantha Das was never intimidated by criticism, threats, denouncement or personal discomfort, though he had to face it often for his critical thinking and indomitable spirit.
Nilakantha Das was a man of the soil and loved his village Sri RamachandraPur.
When Nilakantha wanted to join the Indian Independence movement, on the advice of Gopabandhu Das, he requested his father-in-law to take care of his young family and elderly parents.
Two of his daughters died in their childhood at the age of four or five, when Nilakantha Das was away on his mission for the country, first in 1921 at Sambalpur, and the other time in 1923 while being transferred from Puri Jail to Hazaribagh.
For most part of his active life, Nilakantha Das did not even possess a car, and on returning from Delhi, Cuttack or other places, used to travel the two miles from the Sakhigopal Railway station to his village home in bullock carts.
Nilakantha Das never built a house outside his village, not even in Puri to spend his old days there, and had simply renovated his village home for the convenience of his parents and family.
Nilakantha Das died on 6 November 1967 in Cuttack, at the residence of his eldest daughter and son-in-law.
Nilakantha Das was suffering from ill health for the last few years of his life and died peacefully surrounded by his extended family and friends.
Nilakantha Das was cremated in full state honour in Sakhigopal, in the cemetery of the Pancha Sakhas, his dear friends of the Satyabadi era.
Nilakantha Das's memorial was later erected there, near that of Gopabandhu and Godabarish, for the nation to pay its obeisance to these immortal souls.
Nilakantha Das's statues are erected in various places such as Satyabadi, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar General Post Office, and Calcutta.
Nilakantha Das was admired and respected for his knowledge, ethics, techniques, and perseverance by many prominent people both inside and outside Odisha.
Nilakantha Das was a great rajanitigyan, but never a politician.
Nilakantha Das was appointed as the pro-chancellor of the university from 1955 to 1962.
Nilakantha Das was the first President of the Odisha Sahitya Akademi.
Nilakantha Das had many, many admirers in Odisha among his colleagues, political leaders, educators, writers, philosophers and students.
The non-profit Samiti holds a vast repository of Nilakantha Das's published writings in prints and book form, as well as articles of many prominent people on his many different accomplishments.