Ninu Chapagain
The observation by some of the critics of Nepal that the great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909 – 1959) is in himself the whole of Nepali literature, is an exaggerated remark. But writers and scholars from abroad too have estimated Devkota quite high as a great icon, not only of Nepali literature but also of the global literature. Be it the remark of Doctor Miller—who was treating Devkota for stomach cancer that Devkota was a rare individual like Abraham Lincoln who takes birth after centuries, or be it the opinion of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Maltsev that Devkota was a ‘staunch nationalist’, a ‘true patriot of his country’ , a global citizen who was a ‘hearty lover of Russia’—they all have estimated Devkota quite high with an open-hearted praise for his writing, that crosses the boundaries of nationality and assumes a purely global character, vindicated by the fact that even years after his death, his creative power gives us a inner and eternal power. We can also consider the opinion of Russian writer Ludmila Aganina, who for the first time wrote Devkota’s biography in a foreign language:
A talented Nepali poet, a freedom-lover, a patriot, an architect of words, an anti-colonialist and a man of positive action, Devkota was a cordial friend of Soviet Union. A poet dies but his work is immortal. Devkota’s poems are living examples.
All these remarks foreground Devkota’s magical talent and great contributions.
Shiva Mangal Singh Suman, an expert of Hindi literature, has remarked that Devkota is in par with world’s best poets, and his absence cannot be easily compensated. For a nation to get a talent like him, it should be ready for a sacrificial penance. With this single talent in its hand, Nepali literature has become glorious on the stage of the global literature forever.
In this context, the opinion of Indian scholar Rahul Sankrityayan too is pertinent. He said:
Nepali poetry faced the obligation to meet India’s four century-long target in just one century; yet we cannot consider it immature owing mainly to this haste. One of its vindications is the great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota, in whom we not only find the conglomeration of three of our greatest poets—Prasad, Panta and Nirala—but in him, we also find the extended form of Ayodhya Singh Hariaudh, the author of Priyabrabas. On the other, we find in Devkota a different poet of high stature, who was never born in Hindi literature.
These exemplary opinions from foreign writers to some extent clarify the type of contributions Devkota made in Nepali literature.
Among the most remarkable contributions of Devkota, we can recall his pioneering role in popularizing romanticism at a time when classicism was at the helm of its influence in the history of Nepali poetry. His untiring commitment to its refinement, development and prosperity, his establishment as the central talent in the genre of poetry in his age, execution of the primal responsibility to lay the foundation of Nepali essay, and development of various facets of romanticism in Nepali poetry with new vigour and craftsmanship are unforgettable contributions of Devkota. His specialty rests in the fact that he raised himself above the plain of passive romanticism that was retrospective, removed from the society, and engrossed in nature’s eulogy and spiritualism. He gave a boost to the element of rebellion started by Siddhicharan Shrestha and Gopal Prasad Rimal, and after 1951, subscribed to Marxist philosophy and delivered high-order revolutionary romantic creations. He also holds the credit of making historic experimentations like popularizing folk metrical patterns and giving them a position of esteem in literature, and conferring ordinary people of Nepal and people from various castes and communities the role of the protagonists in his writings.
Devkota was the writer who enriched the archive of Nepali vocabulary by coining new words rooted in Nepaliness. Though he was still an idealist to a great extent, he incorporated issues related with the deplorable and economically poor Nepali populace, and their obligation to migrate towards Tibet (called ‘Bhot’ by the Nepalese) and India (called ‘Muglan’ by the Nepalese) for job, and the untold hardship they had to face there. The choice of such subjects and characters, in turn, made him an immortal poet.
Devkota also lent enough inspiration and support to Nepali people in their struggle for democracy. His contribution in developing Nepali literature against imperialism and colonialism, giving it a healthy development trajectory, is quite salutary. In fact, great poet Devkota was a staunch activist of the literary and cultural movement against feudalism and imperialism. He was an extremely diligent and hard-working personality with a high sense of self-esteem and a spirit of sacrifice, capable of combating poverty, scarcity and adversity. All his life, depending on private tutorials for making his ends meet, Devkota fought with various adversities and problems; however, the sacrifice he made in favour of the nation, its people and revolution will never be forgotten.
There is no doubt that in his convictions about life, Devkota is not uniform in his writings. There are ample multiplicities, enough contradictions and many paradoxes in his literature. He was a poet, who responded to the calls of the changing epoch and moulded himself in tune with the imperatives of the dynamic age. Through the lane of spiritualism, we adopted materialism and with time, got influenced from dialectic materialism. In the first phase of his writing (1934-1946), he was a passive romantic humanist, while in second stage (1947-1951) he became a revolutionary romantic who supported capitalistic humanism. In the third phase (1952-1958), he presented himself as a revolutionary romantic, who supported socialistic humanism. However, he had not been able to completely give up the regressive tendencies he showed in the first phase of his life. He, at places, repeated such tendencies in his later-day writings too.
Some Popular Works of Devkota
Among the most discussed works of the great poet Devkota are Muna–Madan (short-epic, 1935), Shakuntal (epic, 1945), Sulochana (epic, 1945), Pahadi Pukar (long poem, 1948), Prometheus (epic, started in 1954 and published in 1959), and Krishi Bala (poetic drama, 1956). The first named three works represent the first phase of Devkota’s literary life. In these works, Devkota has presented himself as a spiritual idealist thinker. Of all the works written in this stage, Muna-Madan stands out because of its distinctive position in Nepali literature. It is characterized by Nepaliness, populism and originality. We shall turn to Muna-Madan later. Sulochana is a reformist epic that advocates love marriage and widow remarriage, and denounces violence against women. It is strewn with idealist and theist outlook that the struggle between the rich and the poor and between the old and new will take everyone towards destruction.
Though the patrons of ancient Hindu culture rate Shakuntal as the greatest of Devkota’s writings that showcases the highest order of Devkota’s poetic excellence, this work is among Devkota’s most inferior works in regards with its social pertinence and social values, although it is an important manifestation of Devkota’s spontaneity, grand imaginative faculty, comprehensive and grand-eloquent representation of nature, and witty and sharp poetic capacity.
Shakuntal is the best example of Devkota’s retrospective thinking. This tendency of seeking an escape from the deplorable present through a retirement to the old and the outdated story can be seen as Devkota’s conservative tendency to push the present time towards regression. In Pahadi Pukar (1948), Devkota has made realistic depiction of the Nepali society during the Rana regime, giving a call for struggle and revolution for one’s personal rights (human rights). Before this, none of Devkota’s writings had made such realistic depiction of Nepal’s social and political problems giving a clarion call for revolution. The epic Prometheus (started in 1954 and published in 1959), and the poetic drama Krishi Bala (1956) are the most important works of the third phase of Devkota’s poetic career. Both the works are laden with revolutionary fervour. They articulate the opinion that an armed struggle is inevitable for the liberation of the common people. Based on the love story between Usha and Kiran—a young man and a maiden from peasant families—Krishi Bala is a story of the struggle of the farmers for liberation from the feudal oppression. Some critics, who stress on the spontaneous poetic faculty of Devkota, have made an exaggerated presentation of Devkota’s Shakuntal—written in three months, and Sulochana—written in ten days, as works that stand synonymously with Devkota. But Devkota’s greatness as a poet is found to be resting on his poems like “The Lunatic” and in works like Muna-Madan, Prometheus and Krishi Bala, and not on any other work. If his poetic greatness is to be gauzed on the basis of his epics, it is to be sought in Prometheus, and not in Shakuntal or any other epic.
Like Shakuntal, Prometheus too is not free from retrospective tendencies, but in Prometheus, these tendencies are not aimed at resurrecting the past in the present context as in Shakuntal, but at guiding the present towards the future. Prometheus is a grand-narrative that is based on the high ideal of humanism, revolution and liberation. Shakuntal, Maha Rana Pratap and Prithviraj Chauhan were written with an aim to back Hindu Aryan culture and medieval feudal culture, but Prometheus was composed to support revolutionary activities depicting the struggle of the hero Prometheus with Zeus, who is anti-humanist and a draconian ruler. It airs the universal message that revolt should compulsorily brew against draconian and dictatorial regimes and leaders, and no matter how difficult a situation comes up, one should never be disheartened.
In his first phase of writing, as seen in Shakuntal, Devkota had back-fed the ancient Aryan civilization as ideal, and had become retrospective. However, in the third phase of his writing, though he turned towards the ancient age through Prometheus, he committed himself to the service of the future, accepting freedom, liberation and sacrifice as his ideals.
Extremely Popular Poet
Great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota is among those poets, who have been extremely popular among Nepali people, and among the patrons of international literature. Till date, no other Nepali writer has been found to share his stature. A few reasons that raised his popularity to this pinnacle are his extraordinary creative faculty, astonishing talent, honesty of giving his experiences an original expression in a powerful way, generation of high quality revolutionary literature in favour of freedom, equality and economic justice, excellent artistry that surpasses all his contemporaries, history of fearlessly plunging into anti-Rana and anti-monarchy movements for democracy, brutal critique of the selfish and wrong tendencies of the leaders, staunch patriotism, generation of works that embolden Nepal’s national unity, the worthy message against colonialism and imperialism articulated in international seminars, the tendency to side with the poor and the needy in all circumstances, and the liberal habit of prodigally spending all his earnings for friends without even saving for future etc.
Devkota’s short epic Muna-Madan, published in the first phase of his literary life, has played the most instrumental role in giving Devkota this degree of popularity. Muna-Madan (1935) is an epic that presents the deplorable economic condition of the lower middle class of Nepal during the Rana regime. The epic makes a heart-rending depiction of the life of lower middle class people. Those days, people had no option but to go to Tibet or India for work and earn whatever they could to run the family. Muna-Madan presents the same predicament, in which Madan, the protagonist, goes to Tibet (Bhot) for work. The epic underscores the national and economic problem resulting out of such emigration. Muna-Madan can be considered a document that throws light on the realistic status of the economic deplorability of the entire Nepali populace, Nepali measures to combat the same, the selfish and intriguing nature of the rulers, the helplessness of the Nepali people and the essence of their hardship. In the tradition of Nepali epics, Muna-Madan stands out as unique and original, especially on the question of the subject it treats and the style of expression it uses. For the first time, an epic addressed the life of the working class people, their life style and their struggle. Earlier, people from the same class were given the central position as protagonists. In one hand, the epic depicts indifferent natures of friends who leave the protagonist Madan in a sickly state on his way back from Tibet; on the other hand, there is the tale of the magnanimous character of a poor Tibetan peasant who takes Madan to his home, treats him, and sends him home without taking a penny for his service and hospitality. Devkota’s other epics, however big they might have been, have not been able to surpass Muna-Madan.
A Mythical Hero in His Lifetime
Probably due to his excessive popularity, everything related with Devkota, including his writing, his food habits, and his general behaviour, became popular anecdotes for people. His liberal nature and his magnanimous humanity have become a point of discussion for everyone. His capacity to deliver fluent lecture on poetry and enrapture everyone with his speech, the power to write poetry any time, the habit of gifting away all his clothes and reaching home half-naked in cold season if he saw any unclad person shivering, distributing all his salary to poor and beggars spotted on the way and returning home empty-handed, his habit of smoking all the time, getting his fingers burnt with his own cigars, remaining engrossed in thoughts all the time, inability to distinguish whether he was starving or well-fed, forgetting to return home from medical store with drugs for ailing children and a few more of such anecdotes are taken as hearsay stories connected with Devkota. In popularizing such hearsays about Devkota, the most instrumental things were the strong curiosities, interest and fondness of Nepali people in his grand, liberal and attractive personality. Besides Devkota, there has been no other writer in Nepali literary arena, who has enjoyed so much of attraction from the general populace.
A Spontaneous Poet
Poet Devkota is famous for his rare capacity to write verses in all circumstances, and on all issues. There are many examples of his spontaneity in Nepali literature. In his short-lived life, he has bequeathed a pile of works. In his life of fifty years, he spent forty years in the service of literature. Sources say, he wrote around 85 books in this duration. His works are powerful enough to shock anyone, both in quantity and quality. In a short period of three months, he wrote the 557 page long epic Shakuntal, divided into 24 cantos. When some sort of doubt was expressed on this extraordinary capacity, he challenged the same by saying that he would make another epic ready in ten days, and the result was Sulochana, taking everyone by surprise. Divided into fifteen cantos, the epic Sulochana was in fact a product of sixty hours of engagement. He surprised everyone by writing the short epic Kunjini in a single day. There also is a saying that he wrote twelve stories in a single night. He wrote the short epic Ansu, consisting of 93 slokas in just one hour and twenty minutes. He believed that he could write one epic in a day. He had a strange capacity to converse all day long in metrical verses, and talk whole day on poetry. Therefore, he was not just known as a spontaneous poet; people said he was a switch, which on being pressed could emanate poetry. Barring a few, most of his works are of high quality, and people cannot easily relegate them to the rank of inferior works.
A Multi-dimensional Talent
Devkota has laid his hand on a myriad of genres like poetry, short epics, full-length epics, children’s poetry, songs, essays, stories, novel, poetic drama and plays, along with commentaries, prefaces, comments, reports and memoirs. This is an evidence of the multi-dimensional personality he owned. As a literary journalist, he also edited Yugvani and Indreni. He was the chairman of various literary organizations. He too was an activist of the political party Nepali National Congress, and all his life, he remained a tutor. He also worked as a job-holder, teacher and professor. He took part in Nepali people’s struggle for democracy all his life. He played a great role in expanding the horizon of Nepal’s struggle for democracy, first as a member of its advisory committee and second, as the representative of Nepali intellectuals in the advisory body. The speeches he delivered about the need to establish democracy at the earliest, about true and false democracies, and about Nepal’s nationality as representative of writers in All Party Conference, and as the chairman of the grand gathering organized to welcome Dr. K. I. Singh prove that he was a true supporter of people’s rule.
Devkota was a person who paid keen interest in the educational and academic development of the Nepali people. He played a crucial role in the foundation of Tribhuvan University and Nepal Academy, and he was a member of both these institutions. Though for a short span, he served Nepal and its citizens at the capacity of the Minister for Education and Autonomous Governance. These are some facets of Devkota’s public life.
In private life too, Devkota was no less magnanimous. He was a person without hypocrisy. He led a liberal, diligent, honest, simple and modest life with a high sense of self-esteem. On this ground, playwright Bal Krishna Sama said, “Devkota was greater than all his works; it will be unjust to bind his unparalleled personality within the limits of his works.”
Poet Who Raised the Esteem of Nepali Folk Metres
At a time when classical metres were normally employed and folk metres were sidelined, Devkota wrote Muna-Madan and a few other works in folk metres. Muna-Madan and such other works are befitting answers to those poets who considered ornate classical metres as the only medium capable of expressing lofty, grand and great ideas. With the conviction that jhayure—a Nepali folk metre—is the true metre of the people, Devkota showed the guts to use this metre in Muna-Madan and a few others of his profound and popular works like Kunjini (1945), Basanti (1952) and Mhendu (1959). He also wrote many songs and poems in folk metres. This way, he played a crucial role in raising the esteem of Nepali folk metres connected with Nepal’s joy and sorrow, which were sidelined by scholarly and educated modern practitioners. The jhyaure metre Devkota used in his works has become a means to connect the general Nepali people with poetry. The short epic Mhendu, composed in a folk metre called ‘Bhote selo’ has played an important role for national integration by linking Nepali literature with the folk culture of various communities living in Nepal.
A Poet Who Promoted National Integration
Putting a break on the tradition of choosing protagonists from the socially, economically, politically and culturally dominant people and lifting their characters high, Devkota tried to place the common characters and subject of various communities as central to his writing. The epic Muna-Madan, for the first time in the history of Nepal’s epic tradition, gave a high placement to a character from a tribal community of Nepal. By depicting a Tibetan man to have more liberality, humanity and sense of service than a Bhrahmin or a Chhetri, Devkota presented a new trend. He made this initiative even more extended in his later works and represented characters from tribal communities as heroes. Gurung in Kunjini, Sherpa in Luni and Tamang in Mhendu have been given the status of heroes, giving categorical message that the nation called Nepal doesn’t belong to the community of the rulers alone; it equally belongs to people of various communities, and all communities are entitled to the same rights and opportunities. This is a historic contribution Devkota made in Nepali literature.
A Distinguished Patron of Nepal’s Nature
Nepal is a country endowed by nature’s unparallel beauty. Here, nature manifests itself in various forms—from extremely beautiful ones, to the extremely horrific ones. In the works of Devkota, these myriad of manifestations and forms find their depiction as central subject. He was a great patron of nature. In fact, he spent all his life depicting Nepal’s natural beauty in his works. The grand, lively and dynamic representation of Nepal’s nature can be detected all over his works. The works of no other Nepali poet have made such power representation of the dynamism of nature that changes every moment and manifests in innumerable forms. Special mention may be made of the horrific and macabre face of nature that finds special place in his works. Devkota too had attained specialization in personifying nature. It was a specialty on his part to enter the internal worlds of the society and individuals through nature. In words of critic Basudev Tripathee, in Devkota we find the traits of all the five major romantic poets of English literature. It can therefore be said that these were the reasons that made Dekvota famous as a great lover of nature.
A Great Patron of Humanism
Devkota is the most distinguished Nepali poet, who had great faith in humanism. In all turns of his literary career, he remained a humanist. His humanist stand appears to be growing firmer in later days, and it makes a transition into a concrete form of humanism from an abstract one. Ludmila Aganina, the Russian author who wrote Devkota’s biography in the Russian language, has characterized Devkota as a person greatly concerned with the future of his country, and anxious about the future of the entire planet. According to her, it is quite easy to kneel down before a discouragement, but man has to live as man anyway and should cater joy and hope to others with one’s own enthusiasm. Only then, a title like the ‘human’ becomes worthy of an individual.
In one of his poems written in Moscow, Devkota had said, “Life becomes life, only if it comes to be of some use to others.” To author Somnath Ghimire ‘Byas’ who approached Devkota to request him to write preface to his book Ashouch Bigyan, Devkota had advised: “We need not write about gods and landlords anymore; we must henceforth write about human beings.” On being asked why other works he wrote were not as popular as Muna-Madan, Devkota had answered that it was mainly because, Muna-Madan was more human-centred than other works he wrote. According to Indian scholar Rahul Sankrityayan, Devkota’s heart was committed to love for man, and he was easily moved by the hardship of the poor and the needy. In fact, Devkota’s importance rests in his service to humanity. He has repeatedly said, “My ambrosia is service to man,” “I want to see all my brothers settled,” “We need to light a lamp, for the world is still too dark,” and “Work is worship says Laxmi Prasad.”
Devkota’s conviction about art makes his stand on humanism clearer. He believes that art has its connectivity with life. In his famous speech delivered at Tashkent during the Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference, he had said:
From the people awakened by the great struggles for life and against destruction, for equality of status and against military invasion, for national freedom and against colonialism and imperialism, literature has started receiving strong support. In this condition, literature can no longer remain a means of pleasure for a particular class. It has now become a powerful social and national weapon.
Devkota had strong belief that literature should ensure the welfare of the society. In his essay titled “Sahitya ra Shivatva” (Literature and Eternal Truth), Devkota writes: “Literature that harms the society is poison; it’s not true literature. We consider that literature is a stream of creation emanating from enlightened people inspired by an objective of ensuring a balanced development of the heart and the mind.” The support literature’s its existence rests on the harmonization of social views, development of the heart, and through it, the expansion of the intellect. It is the reflection of the age, and its progress is grounded on its use and eternal validity.” In his views, the main parameter to judge the eternal utility of literature is the degree in which it inspires man to move ahead along the path of progress through the acts of profound influence. These are some of his opinions about literature. A few of these sayings are enough to depict the greatness of his humanist thinking.
A Poet with Universal Sensitivity
Devkota, in the third stage of his poetic career, wrote many poems cantred on international problems. “Sade” (Beast), “Shanti Geet” (Peace Song), and “Asia” are some of his poems in this category. He has written poems denouncing problems like arm-race among the imperialist nations, war for colonization, and production of nuclear weapons, and in support of equal existence, world peace, and national independence. His vision about a universal language, global humanism, high estimation of the people of Russia and China, and the praise of Mao Tse-tung too are examples of internationalism inside him. Seizing the vein of the real problem of his days, he appealed all the writers of the world to stand united against imperialism and colonization. He took parts in some international seminars and delivered highly influential speeches. In those speeches, he not only criticised imperialism, colonization and wars among the imperialist nations; he also stressed on the need for unity among the oppressed countries. He is a poet of Asian universalism. Writing about an awakened Asia, he has written:
We are awakened Asian children; we’re Nepalese, the children of the dusk
We too are rightful heirs to the round home of the globe; we claim our share in a plate full
We are patrons of sacrifice; we are Nepalese—the universal human.
First Bridge of Literary-Cultural Ties with China
The first most important writer to connect Nepal and China through literary-cultural means was Laxmi Prasad Devkota. He contributed in this respect in various ways. His short epic Muna-Madan is the first and one of the finest works ever written, based on the long tradition of cultural and economic relation of the Nepalese people with People’s Republic of China—their neighbour in the north. In it, Devkota has not only prodigally eulogized the natural beauty of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet; he has also described the beauty of the women of Lhasa, besides its social prosperity. That time, Devkota even proposed the construction of Kathmandu-Lhasa Highway. He believed that such a highway was necessary for Nepal’s national security and sovereignty. We can safely say, such a viewpoint that advocated a connectivity of Nepal with Tibet was quite visionary.
Devkota toured China in the first week of September in 1953, and met Mao Tse-tung. The poem “Mao Tse-tung” he wrote immediately after, and his “Suputra e Chinka” (O Great Progenies of China)—written in praise of the great Chinese people—can be mentioned in this regard. Expressing his honour for the people of China, he writes:
O great progenies of China!
You have spilled blood; so the roses have blossomed
See, the east is red! The dark night has waned
The awakened hearts are twinkling with light
You have now reached the pinnacle of success
Erasing from earth the night—a blot on the earth’s face!
In this poem, Devkota has not only praised the Chinese people, he has also expressed his promise and commitment to registering victory over the domestic enemies of Nepal. He writes:
We have come to share
The joy of your warmth, divine light and successful ascent of the mountain peak
A touch of yours tells us, we shall defeat
our domestic foes
who are still too blind to see the dawning age.
Devkota’s high opinion about Mao Tse-tung is not less attractive and significant. In his poems, the poet has addressed Mao Tse-tung as a great architect of the East, and as a mountain peak. According to his own acceptance, no one else had influenced him in the past with his power to tame imagination as much as the honour and gravity of Mao did. He writes ahead:
His presence radiates a peaceful, human glory
He has articulated the rocking of a sea through the voices of millions and billions
And on that October Day, a deep, revolutionary commotion emanated;
A day when liberation snapped all manacles tying it
and appealed the awakened East to rise and celebrate the festivity of joy.
She is a manifestation of Power—informed by her own struggles and experiences.
At a time when the earth’s glory was growing dimmer and duller
You were a lofty peak that reflected the sunrays
in a peaceful atmospheres of the great heights.
In the first part of the poem, he writes:
I have seen the great builder of the East
A strong and ever-smiling man
whose eyes are quite keen;
He must cover more earth and sky than the ordinary people
(From him, measureless greatness is emanating)
And he has manifested only in a faint degree
the greatness that exists inside him.
He has kept imagination under his grip.
The way his honour and gravity influenced me is something
no one in the past had done.
These poems by Devkota have, in fact, connected Nepal and China in an extremely intimate fashion. Devkota’s contribution in this regard has remained unsurpassed.
Devkota and Lu Xun: Some Similarities
There is similarity in the ideological convictions that underscore the writings of Devkota and China’s great writer Lu Xun. Lu Xun delivered innumerable works denouncing cannibalism, and advocating for a social system that has freedom, equality and brotherhood in it. Lu Xun’s story “A Mad Man’s Diary” and Devkota’s poem “The Lunatic” rest on the same subject matter. In the poem, Devkota writes:
When I see the tiger daring to eat the deer, friend,
or the big fish the little…
When man regards a man
as not a man, friend…
I look at this inhuman human world
with eyes like a lashing flame of fire.
These lines remind us of Lu Xun, who wrote against the tradition of man eating the flesh of man. Both have denounced the practice of man eating another man, and have, in fact, expressed their vision of a humanely world. This too is a great step towards binding Nepal and China together. This vindicates the fact that great writers—be from any country in the world—always write in favour of the development of a humanely world.
[Ninu Chapagain (b. 1947) is a critic and Marxist thinker of high repute. His seminal publications include Yatharthavadi Rachanadrishtri ra Bibechana, Marxvadi Chintanma Saundarya, Uttaradhunikta: Bhram ra Wastabikta, Dalit Saundarya Sashtra ra Sahitya etc., while there are more than a dozen of volumes he had edited. He is the Chairperson of Devkota-Lu Hsun Academy. ]