Kunwar Viyogi

The year 2018 saw publication of Viyogi's work in English, Rosary of Sonnets, a two-volume anthology of more than 300 sonnets. He writes of wringing life's worth living out of the dismal bounties he was bestowed.

While pursuing his graduation, Viyogi applied for the Defense Forces—Army, Navy, and the Air Force—and was selected for all three. He opted for the Air Force and joined the Air Force Flying College for training as a pilot. The nature of his job took him across India and he served as a squadron leader in New York for about one and a half years. Though Viyogi excelled as an Air Force officer, he took premature retirement due to the demise of his wife who lost her life to breast cancer. He withdrew from the life that he had known with her, moved to Bhilwara, Rajasthan, and gave up all his literary musings. He then devoted his time in training students pursuing IAS and MBA. In 1992, Viyogi returned to Jammu and joined the Kashmir Times as the editor of its Dogri edition. He wrote editorials, essays and poems. He again retreated to Rajasthan. In 2001, Viyogi was conferred the Sahitya Ratan Award by the Nami Dogri Sanstha for his invaluable contribution to Dogri. From 2012-15, he worked to publish and reprint his work.

Dogri-Pehliyaan Banga – A sonnet sequence of 200 sonnets, 1987

Viyogi wrote "Ghar" [Home] in 1980. He used ghar as a peg and strung together 238 four lines verse embracing a wide variety of subjects and ideas and feelings into a long poem.

Kunwar Viyogi (4 September 1940 – 2015), born Randhir Singh Jamwal, is the only Indian Air Force officer to have received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his long Dogri language poem titled "Ghar" in 1980. He used "Ghar" [Home] as a peg and strung together 238 four-lines verses embracing a wide variety of subjects and ideas and feelings into a long poem. He is also the youngest poet in the history of Sahitya Akademi to have received this honour. Viyogi is noted for introducing the sonnet, a relatively new and unexplored genre for Dogri writers, into Dogri literature.

Kunwar Viyogi was born on 4 September 1940 in the Samba district to Poorakh Singh Jamwal, who served as an inspector in the Jammu and Kashmir Police department. His mother, Pushpa Devi, was a home maker, and mother to five brothers and three sisters. Viyogi was the eldest. Most of Viyogi's siblings served the country by either joining the army or the air force. All his sisters were married to defence officers.