Bhubaneswar: Veteran writer Nagendra Nath Mohanty, famous for his ‘Odia Charitkosha’ passed away following a prolonged illness. He was 95.
Mohanty, who had been suffering from age-related ailments for quite some time, breathed his last on Tuesday at his residence in Noida, family sources said.
A distinguished researcher and librarian, Mohanty had authored a book called ‘Odia Charitkosha’ containing the biographies of over 12,000 people of Odisha from ancient times to the present.
Popularly known as Nagen, he was born in 1930 and first started working as a teacher at Ranihat High School in Cuttack in 1952. In 1955, he joined the Odia Department of the National Library in Kolkata, and later rose to the highest position there. Later, he joined the United States Library of Congress as a senior librarian. He had also authored several other books, including ‘Odia Patrapatrikamananka Parihchaya’, and ‘Odia Lipi O Barna Parichaya’.
Mohanty played a special role in compiling the “National Bibliography of Indian Literature” prepared by the Kendra Sahitya Academy. He formed an institution called ‘Sahrudaya Sabha’ for the Odias of Delhi. He happened to be the brother-in-law of renowned Odia writer Pratibha Ray.