Laxmi Prasad Devkota

Laxmi Prasad Devkota was a chain smoker throughout his life. After a long battle with cancer, Devkota died on 14 September 1959, at Pashupati Aryaghat, along the banks of Bagmati river in Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu. Prior to his death, Devkota's income was terminated by the Nepal Academy of Literature and Art because he attended the Afro-Asian Writers' Conference, which was held in modern-day Tashkent, without first seeking permission from them. He also spoke at the ceremony, praising well-known figures for their contributions to Nepali literature, including Bhanubhakta Acharya, Lekhnath Paudyal, Pandit Hemraj, and Somnath Sigdel. Devkota claimed in an interview that he hadn't received pay for the previous eight months and that as a result, he had been unable to purchase the medication he needed to treat his disease; moreover, he was struggling to even buy food. Devkota's personality was vibrant and assertive despite the fact that he was battling cancer, but his room was disorganized.

Laxmi Prasad Devkota was not active within any well-established political party, but his poetry consistently embodied an attitude of rebellion against the oppressive Rana dynasty. During his self-exile in Varanasi, he started working as an editor of Yugvani newspaper of the Nepali Congress, leading to the confiscation of all his property in Nepal by the Rana Government. After the introduction of democracy through Revolution of 1951, Devkota was appointed member of the Nepal Salahkar Samiti (Nepali: नेपाल सलाहकार समिति, lit. 'Nepal Advisory Committee') in 1952 by King Tribhuvan. Later in 1957, he was appointed as Minister of Education and Autonomous Governance under the premiership of Kunwar Inderjit Singh.

Devkota had the ability to compose long epics and poems with literary complexity and philosophical density in very short periods of time. He wrote Shakuntala, his first epic poem, and also the first Mahakavya (Nepali: महाकाव्य) written in the Nepali language, in a mere three months. Published in 1945, Shakuntala is a voluminous work in 24 cantos based on Kālidāsa's famous Sanskrit play Abhijñānaśākuntalam. Shakuntala demonstrates Devkota's mastery of Sanskrit meter and diction, which he incorporated heavily while working primarily in Nepali. According to the late scholar and translator of Devkota, David Rubin, Shakuntala is among his greatest accomplishments. "It is, without doubt, a remarkable work, a masterpiece of a particular kind, harmonizing various elements of a classical tradition with a modern point of view, a pastoral with a cosmic allegory, Kālidāsa's romantic comedy of earthly love with a symbolic structure that points to redemption through the coinciding of sensual and sacred love."

Devkota, inspired by his five-month stay in a mental asylum in 1939, wrote a free-verse poem, Pagal (Nepali: पागल, lit. 'The Lunatic'). The poem deals with his usual mental ability and is considered one of the best Nepali language poems.

Considered his magnum opus, Muna Madan has remained widely popular among the lay readers of Nepali literature; it remains the most popular Nepali book since 1936; the book was also translated into Mandarin; it was well received by China and considered successful.

In the late 1930s, Devkota suffered from nervous breakdowns, probably due to the deaths of his parents and his two-month old daughter. Eventually, in 1939, he was admitted to the Mental Asylum of Ranchi, India, for five months. With financial debts later in his life and being unable to finance the weddings and dowries of his daughters. He is once reported to have said to his wife, "Tonight let's abandon the children to the care of society and youth and renounce this world at bedtime and take potassium cyanide or morphine or something like that [sic]."

Departing from the Sanskrit tradition that dominated the Nepali literary scene at the time, and being inspired from the Newar language ballad song Ji Waya La Lachhi Maduni, he wrote Muna Madan (Nepali: मुनामदन) (1930), a long narrative poem in a popular Jhyaure bhaka (Nepali: झ्याउरे भाका) folk tune. Muna Madan is undoubtedly the best-selling book in the history of Nepali literature. The 2003 film Muna Madan, which was Nepal's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Academy Awards, was based on this poem. The work received immediate recognition from the Ranas—the country's rulers at the time. Muna Madan tells the story of Madan, a traveling merchant, who departs to Tibet in a bid to earn some money leaving behind his wife, Muna. The poem describes the thematic hardships of the journey: the grief of separation, the itching of longing, and the torment of death.

Laxmi Prasad Devkota (Nepali: लक्ष्मीप्रसाद देवकोटा) (1909-1959) was a Nepali poet, playwright, and novelist. Honored with the title of Mahakabi (Nepali: माहाकवि) in Nepali literature, he was known as a poet with a golden heart. He is considered to be the greatest and most famous literary figure in Nepal. Some of his popular works include the best-selling Muna Madan, along with Sulochana, Kunjini, Bhikhari, and Shakuntala.

Devkota was born on the night of Lakshmi Puja on 13 November 1909 (27 Kartik 1966 BS) to father Teel Madhav Devkota and mother Amar Rajya Lakshmi Devi in Dhobidhara, Kathmandu. His father was a Sanskrit scholar, so he attained his basic education under the custodianship of his father. He started his formal education at Durbar High School, where he studied both Sanskrit grammar and English. After finishing his matriculation exams from Patna at the age of 17, he pursued Bachelor of Arts along with Bachelor of Laws at Tri-Chandra College and graduated from Patna University as a private examinee. His desire to complete his master's degree was left incomplete due to his family's financial conditions.