About this stamp
An Essayist in Hindi
India Post issued this ₹5 stamp on 9 March 2019 for Kubernath Ray (1933–1996), scholar of Hindi and English and one of the best-known writers of the personal essay in Hindi. He was born on 26 March 1933 in Matsa village, Zamania tehsil, Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, to Lakshmi Devi and Baikuntha Rai. He studied at Queen’s College, Varanasi, and Banaras Hindu University, and took a master’s degree in English literature from Calcutta University.
Teacher and Writer
He taught English at Nalbari College in Assam, rising to head of the department, from 1959 to 1986, and was then Principal of Swami Sahajanand P.G. College, Ghazipur, until he retired on 30 June 1995. His essays deal with the life of Aryan and non-Aryan India, Gandhian thought, the story of Rama and modern ideas. English, he said, was the language of his livelihood and Hindi the language of his prayer.
His books include Priya Nilkanthi (1969), Ras Aakhetak (1971), Gandhmaadan (1972), Nishad Bansuri (1973), Vishad Yoga (1974), Parn Mukut (1978), Kaamdhenu (1990) and Uttarkuru (1993); more were published after his death on 5 June 1996. He avoided public speaking, held that a writer should widen the reader’s vocabulary, and knew Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Bengali and Sanskrit besides Hindi and English. Twenty scholars have earned Ph.D.s on his work.
On the Stamp
The stamp shows his portrait in an oval frame beside a quill pen. It was designed by Alka Sharma; 300,000 were printed by wet offset at the Security Printing Press, Hyderabad.
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