GUWAHATI, Dec 25 - Modern Assamese poetry with its foundation dating back to the later part of the 19th century reached its full development by the fifth decade of the 20th century with the contributions of poets like Nalinibala Devi, Nabakanta Barua, Nirmal Prabha Bardoloi, Hiren Bhattacharya, Prof Hiren Dutta and scores of lesser known poets.
The latest stage of development of modern Assamese poetry is comparable with the best of any other developed modern languages of India including Bengali, Tamil and Kanada.
This observation was made by senior journalist DN Chakravartty while releasing a book of poems titled Man Nandan Kanan by writer and educationist Dr Surendra Mohan Mahanta, retired professor of Cotton College recently.
The function was held at the residence of Dr Mahanta with Chakravartty. The meeting coincided with celebration of the birthday of Dr Mahanta who was formally accorded the title �Sahitya Bhaskar� on the occasion.
Several distinguished writers including Dr Swadhinata Mahanta, Dr Bijoy Krishna Deva Sarma and Devaprasad Talukdar, while participating in the discussion, dwelt on the literary contributions of Dr Mahanta who, besides contributing regular columns to a couple of daily newspapers, has during the last six decades of his literary career published over six books on poetry, some textbooks and books on current thoughts and problems.
Chakravartty described Dr Mahanta as a poet of optimism and a votary of truth and beauty. He dwelt at length on the growth and development of Assamese poetry right from the days of Hemchandra Baruah, Lakshminath Bezbaroa, Padmanath Gohain Baruah and Chandra Kumar Agarwala of the Jonaki era and spoke on the literary genius of Nalinibala Devi, Ganesh Chandra Gogoi, Devakanta Barua, Jatindranath Duarah, Ananda Chandra Baruah and Sneha Devi. He also referred to the great poets of the Ramdhenu era such as Navakanta Barua, Homen Borgohain and Nirupama Borgohain, among others.
Coming to the latest position of Assamese poetry, Chakravartty spoke on the literary stalwarts like Nilim Kumar and scores of modern poets.
Dr Mahanta acknowledged the boundless love and affection shown to him on his birthday. Renu Mahanta and Ranajit Sutradhar also spoke on the occasion.