Siddhidas Mahaju () (alternative name: Siddhidas Amatya) (15 October 1867 – 29 December 1929) was a Nepalese poet and one of the Four Pillars of Nepal Bhasa. He was at the forefront in the endeavour to revive literature in Nepal Bhasa that had become stagnant as a result of official suppression. He has been honored with the title Great Poet.

Early life

Mahaju was born in Kel Tol,

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

to father Laxmi Narayan and mother Harsha Laxmi. He studied at home under various tutors, and married Ganga Devi at an early age.

Career

Mahaju looked after his family's cloth shop as a young man after a stint in government service in 1886. He had to travel frequently to

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, India to purchase stock, and he took advantage of the opportunity to browse libraries and book stores. In Kathmandu, he spent more time composing poetry than looking after business, and his cloth shop suffered. Finding it difficult to make ends meet, he went to

Birgunj Birgunj () is a metropolitan city in Parsa District in Madhes Pradesh in southern Nepal. It lies south of the capital Kathmandu, attached in the north to Raxaul on the border of the Indian state of Bihar. As an entry point to Nepal from Patn ...

to work for a trader as a freight forwarder. Mahaju returned to Kathmandu after a few years when business dried up. His economic condition worsened; and in 1927, he got a job as an assistant at a medicine shop. Distressed by an unhappy family life and bad health, Mahaju went to live with his sister during his final days. He died at

Pashupati Paśupati (, ) is a form of the Hindu deity Śiva, in his benign aspect as the five-faced herdsman of all creatures. Paśupati is traditionally considered to be the guardian deity of Nepal, described in texts such as the ''Nepāla Māhātmya'' ...

Works

Mahaju wrote more than 44 books of poetry, epics, short stories and essays. ''Sajjan Hridayabharan'', a book of poems on morals, was the only one published during his lifetime. It was published from

Bettiah Bettiah is a city and the administrative headquarters of West Champaran district ( Tirhut Division) - ( Tirhut). It is near the Indo-Nepal border, northwest of Patna, in the state of Bihar, India. History In 1244 A.D., Gangeshwar Dev, a B ...

, India in 1920. Mahaju composed ''Siddhi Ramayana'', a translation of the epic

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

in Nepal Bhasa, in 1913. It was published by Thaunkanhe Prakashan in 2010. Other notable works include ''Satyasati'' (an epic on female education and considered to be his best work, written in 1913) and ''Siddhi Vyakaran'' (a grammar of Nepal Bhasa, written in 1927).

Legacy

In 1980, the Postal Service Department of the government of Nepal issued a commemorative postage stamp of Mahaju. A street in central Kathmandu was named Siddhidas Marg in his honor by

Kathmandu Metropolitan City Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

. A statue of Mahaju was erected in

Hetauda Hetauda (, ) is a sub-metropolitan city in Makwanpur district of Bagmati Province in central Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of the Makwanpur district and the capital of Bagmati Province as declared by a majority (105 out of 110) ...

in 2006. A statue of poet Siddhidash Mahaju was established at Ratnapark, Kathmandu on the day of his birth anniversary on September 29, 2015.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahaju, Siddhidas 1867 births 1929 deaths Writers from Kathmandu Newar people 20th-century Nepalese poets Translators of the Ramayana Newar-language writers Nepalese male short story writers Nepalese short story writers Nepal Bhasa movement Nepalese male poets 20th-century Nepalese male writers Newar-language poets from Nepal