Visited Lakshminath Bezbaruah Museum in Sambalpur, Odisha, India.
Earlier this week (24-25 February 2025) my mother, Ira Ghosh, and I visited the Lakshminath Bezbaruah heritage museum being created in Sambalpur, Odisha. Lakshminath Bezbaruah is known as the Father of Modern Assamese Literature and ‘Sahityarathi’ of Assam (Charioteer of Literature), due to his establishing a new standard for Assamese literature, and because of his witty writings, is also known as ‘Roxoraj’ (King of Humor). This visit was a personal pilgrimage because Lakshminath Bezbaruah is my mother’s grandfather. Although Lakshminath Bezbaruah is a son of Assam, he lived and worked for many years in Sambalpur, was an integral and active part of the community, and served as an elected city councilor; thus, the citizens of Sambalpur also view him as one of theirs. The museum is being established in the heritage houses where he lived and worked and where he produced a lot of his literary output. Although my mother last visited these houses when she was 5 or 6 years old, she has distinct memories of the visit which she shared with our hosts.
The museums are being established through the passion, commitment and persistence of a dedicated group of volunteers from both Sambalpur and Assam called the Lakshminath Bezbaruah Smriti Raksha Samiti. Key members of this volunteer association are its chief advisor, Sambalpur historian and journalist Deepak Kumar Panda, and its Assamese general secretary, Rantu Deka.
The poet’s property in Sambalpur next to the Mahanadi River had two houses; one was his office where he did his writing and business, and the other was his residence. The property also had a separate structure used for cooking and was the laboratory of his wife, the pioneering cookbook authoress Pragyasundari Devi, who was the granddaughter of Maharishi Debendranath Tagore and niece of Rabindranath Tagore. Recently the structures had fallen into disrepair and a road had been built through the property destroying the kitchen laboratory. The remaining structures were slated for demolition to enable the expansion of the roads leading to the bridge over the Mahanadi River. However, it was through the persistent and valiant efforts of Deepak Panda that the properties were spared, and then through the support of the Assam and Odisha governments and the work of the volunteer association, restoration of the heritage structures under the supervision of the Indian National Trust for Arts and Heritage (INTACH) to create the museums was started. Today, the Sadhana Griha, the building where the poet worked, has been restored, and restoration of the residence building will start once the next tranche of funds from the two state governments are allocated. The Sadhana Griha contains photographs of the poet and his family, written materials, and a library of his works and associated material. During this trip my mother donated some related items to add to the museum’s collection. We also visited Gangadhar Meher University in Sambalpur where a Lakshminath Bezbaruah chair is being added to the faculty to explore and strengthen the cultural bridges between Assam and Odisha.
Photo Credit: Richik Ghosh
