Chittadhar Hridaya

Hridaya's home was renovated in 2010 with Indian assistance to house a museum dedicated to the poet and his works. The Chittadhar Hridaya Memorial Museum opened on 20 July 2013. It contains photographs, books, sketches, personal belongings and household items. The room where Hridaya lived and worked has been maintained in its original form. Located in the historical section of Kathmandu, the house is also a specimen of traditional Nepalese architecture with Newar windows of carved wood. It encloses a typical courtyard containing shrines and a well.

On 8 November 2008, a statue of Hridaya was erected at Kalimati crossroads in downtown Kathmandu. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal unveiled the life-sized image. Chittadhar Marg, a street in central Kathmandu, was named in his honor by Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Coinciding with World Poetry Day, the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature celebrated the centenary of Chittadhar Hridaya on March 21, 2007.

Nepal's Postal Services Department issued a commemorative postage stamp bearing a portrait of Hridaya on 31 December 1992 to mark the tenth anniversary of his death.

Hriday suffered a stroke leaving his right hand and leg paralyzed. He taught himself to write with his left hand and continued to produce poetry and essays. On 9 June 1982, Hridaya collapsed while presiding over a meeting of Nepal Bhasa Parishad.

The title of Kavi Keshari (Lion among Poets) was conferred on him by King Mahendra of Nepal in 1956. He wrote primarily in Nepal Bhasa but has created works in Nepali and Hindi too.

In 1951, Hridaya got together with other prominent poets and writers and established Nepal Bhasa Parishad (Nepal Bhasa Council) to promote institutional development of Nepal Bhasa. It was inaugurated on 7 June 1953 by Buddha Maya Kansakar, the wife of poet Yogbir Singh Kansakar, amid a ceremony at the home of Tara Bir Singh at Chhetrapati. Its office was later moved to his own home at Nyata Tunchhen. Hridaya subsequently bequeathed the property to the council.

Hridaya was editor of Nepal Ritupau published by Nepal Bhasa Parishad from 1952 to 1956. He also lobbied with the government to have Nepal Bhasa included in the school and college curriculum. It was included in the course of study at the high school level in 1954, at the intermediate level in 1960, bachelor level in 1962 and Master's level in 1979.

It was completed in 1946 after his release from prison, and published from Kolkata in 1949. The epic has been described as providing an aesthetically pleasing and doctrinally sound comprehensive account of the Buddha's life, and also a magnum opus in Nepal Bhasa literature.

Following his release from prison on 11 November 1945, Hridaya produced a flurry of works in different genres. He was a pioneer in writing modern short stories. His Six Short Stories published in 1947 was a landmark in contemporary Nepal Bhasa literature.

Hridaya dedicated his life to serving his mother tongue, rejecting a flourishing ancestral business and suffering imprisonment by an autocratic government. In 1941, he was jailed for five years by the Rana regime for writing a poem in Nepal Bhasa in a crackdown against the language.

Hridaya began his sentence on January 20, 1941. His fellow inmates poets Siddhicharan Shrestha and Phatte Bahadur Singh had also been imprisoned for producing works in Nepal Bhasa.

While in jail from 1941 to 1945, Hridaya came into contact with artist Chandra Man Singh Maskey. Hridaya trained under Maskey in secret, as he hid his writings from the prison guards. He has produced a number of paintings in water color, pencil and ink. They depict Buddhist and Hindu deities and genre scenes. The color illustrations in Sugata Saurabha were done by Maskey.

The anthology contained a poem entitled Mother which he had written while mourning his mother's death. He had signed the poem "Motherless child" which the government took to mean that it had deprived the Newars of their mother tongue. For this reason, the poem was deemed subversive; and in 1940, he was sentenced to six years in jail.

In 1933, an anthology of poems by Hridaya entitled Padya Nikunja was published from Kalimpong, India by SP and DP Upasak. He wrote under the pen name Hridaya to avoid harassment by the government. The government did not like his literary activities, and all the copies were confiscated by customs at Chisapani Gadhi before they could reach Kathmandu.

Hridaya wrote his first poem Buddhopasakya Pap Deshana which was printed in 1925 in Buddha Dharma magazine published from Kolkata, India. In 1930, he signed a petition to open a public library, and was arrested and fined along with the rest of the signers.

The family owned a business house in Lhasa, Tibet. Hridaya did not join the ancestral occupation but worked to develop Nepal Bhasa literature. In 1920, he was married to Gyan Prabha Kansakar.

Chittadhar Hridaya (Nepali: चित्तधर हृदय; born Chittadhar Tuladhar; 19 May 1906 – 9 June 1982) was a Nepalese poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest literary figures from Nepal in the 20th century.