Surjit Patar is a

Punjabi language Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 ...

writer and poet of

Punjab, India Punjab (; ) is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and ...

. His poems enjoy immense popularity with the general public and have won high acclaim from critics.

Biography

Patar hails from village Pattar ( pa, ਪੱਤੜ) Kalan in Jalandhar district from where he got his surname. He graduated from Randhir College, Kapurthala and then went on to get a Master's degree from

Punjabi University Punjabi University is a collegiate state public university located in Patiala, Punjab, India. It was established on 30 April 1962 and is only the second university in the world to be named after a language, after Hebrew University of Israel. ...

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the '' Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') construct ...

and then a PhD in Literature on "Transformation of Folklore in Guru Nanak Vani" from

Guru Nanak Dev University The university is Entitled by University Grants Commission to offer higher studies degree courses online. Guru Nanak Dev University's campus is spread over near village of Kot Khalsa, nearly west of the Amritsar, next to Khalsa College, A ...

, Amritsar. He then joined the academic profession and retired as Professor of Punjabi from

Punjab Agricultural University The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is a public funded agricultural university located in Ludhiana district of Punjab. It is a state agricultural university in India. It was established in 1962 and is the nation's third-oldest agricultur ...

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

. He started writing poetry in mid-sixties. Among his works of poetry are ''"Hawa ਵਿਚ Likhe Harf"'' (Words written in the Air), ''Birkh Arz Kare'' (Thus Spake the Tree), ''Hanere Vich Sulagdi Varnmala'' (Words Smouldering in the Dark), ''Lafzaan Di Dargah'' (Shrine of Words), ''Patjhar Di Pazeb'' (Anklet of Autumn) and ''Surzameen'' (Music Land). He has translated into Punjabi the three tragedies of

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

, the play Nagmandala of

Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the ...

, and poems of Bertolt Brecht and Pablo Neruda. He has also adapted plays from Jean Giradoux,

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

and

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

. He has written tele-scripts on Punjabi poets from Sheikh Farid to

Shiv Kumar Batalvi Shiv Kumar Batalvi (23 July 1936 - 6 May 1973) was an Indian poet, writer and playwright of the Punjabi language. He was most known for his romantic poetry, noted for its heightened passion, pathos, separation and lover's agony, due to that he ...

. He is the president of Punjab Arts Council, Chandigarh. In the past, he has held the office of the President, Punjabi Sahit Akademi,

. He was awarded

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

in 2012.

Well known poems

"Candles", "Hanere vich sulagdi Varanmala", "Aiya Nand Kishore", "Hanera Jarega Kiven", "Fasla", "Koi Daalia Cho Langeya Hawa Bann Ke" and others.

Filmography

Surjit Patar has written dialogues of the Punjabi movie '' Shaheed Uddham Singh'' and ''Videsh'', the Punjabi version of Deepa Mehta's movie '' Heaven on Earth''.

Awards

* 1979 Punjab Sahitya Akademi Award * 1993:

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

for ''Hanere Vich Sulghdi Varnmala'' * 1999: Panchnad Puruskar by Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad, Kolkata * 1999 Bhartiya Bhasha Prishad, Kolkata * 2007–2008 Anad Kav Sanman * 2009:

Saraswati Samman The Saraswati Samman is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any of the 22 languages of India listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. It is named after the Hindu goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. The Saras ...

by K.K.Birla foundation. * 2009 Gangadhar National Award for Poetry, Sambalpur University, Orissa * 2012: Padma Shri Award in the field of Literature and Education (fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India) * 2014 Kusumagraj Literary Award-2014

References

External links