Prabhat Nalini Das

Prabhat Nalini Das received a BA in English (Honours) from Ravenshaw University and an M.A. in English at the University of Allahabad. She earned another Masters in English at the University of Minnesota where she received the Fellowship Association of the University of Minnesota Prize from the Department of English.[5] She was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by Ravenshaw University in 2011.[6]

Das was born to Krishna Priya Devi and Radha Krishna Das, professor and head of the Physics Department at Ravenshaw University. She married Bidhu Bhusan Das, and had three children, Prajna Paramita, Oopali Operajita, and Ashutosh Sheshabalaya.[7]

Prabhat Nalini Das taught at Ravenshaw University, and Sailabala Women's College, Cuttack, before becoming head of the Department of English at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She was also Lady Shri Ram College's Vice Principal and, for a period, its Acting Principal. She was appointed the first Director/Dean of Humanities of IIT Kanpur. She was, afterwards, head of the Department of English at Ranchi University, a senior research fellow at the American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad, and founder-professor and head, Department of English, Utkal University for almost nineteen years. Das also served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong, with independent charge of its Kohima campus, in Nagaland. She was a Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute - University of Birmingham, located at Stratford-upon-Avon as recipient of a British Council Fellowship. A lifelong feminist, Das shattered many glass ceilings during her career.

Das was a pioneer in the revival of the Orissa ikat saris and southern Orissa's Berhampur silk saris, as well as its tussar (raw silk) saris. She began designing her own saris at 23, in 1951, starting off at the "Mata Matha" in Cuttack. Part of her collection of saris was requested for display at The Smithsonian during the Festival of India in the US, in 1985.

Prabhat Nalini Das was a member of the governing council of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in the late 1970s, nominated by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. She was an expert on the selection and advisory committees of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which selects candidates for India's elite civil services; the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Central Sahitya Akademi, the Jnanpith Awards Selection Committee, and the National School of Drama. She was on the board of directors of the Life Insurance Corporation of India for one term. Das was a special advisor on education, women's rights, arts and culture and development to Maharaja Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo during his tenure as Chief Minister of Odisha. She was a Founder-Trustee of the Centre for World Solidarity and an advisor to the Centre for Youth and Social Development. She also served as an Advisor to the Indian Institute of Public Administration.[8]

Together with her husband, Professor Bidhu Bhusan Das, she supported and patronized Odissi dance and music, set up an international film screening and appreciation society, both in Ravenshaw College in the early 1950s, and, later, in Bhubaneswar; and encouraged and patronized Oriya and English theatre, again, right from 1951 onwards. They helped Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Guru Pankaj Das and Guru Deba Prasad Das, when their career trajectories were evolving, starting in 1951; and, later, in substantive ways, when these gurus sought their help and advice over a protracted period of time. Das and her husband produced several plays at Ravenshaw University. As well, Professors Bidhu Bhusan Das and Prabhat Nalini Das started the first ever film appreciation society in Odisha, at Ravenshaw University, in the early 1950s, exposing their students to the finest international and national cinema. They were patrons of many theatre movements in Odisha; and the Bhubaneswar-based Renaissance Theatre Group, which had a very successful run for almost three decades, producing several national theatre festivals each year at Rabindra Mandap, Bhubaneswar, was patronized and set in motion by both Bidhu Bhusan Das, who was its president, and Prabhat Nalini Das.[9]

Das translated several major Oriya works into English. Four days before she died, her translation of Sitakant Mahapatra's poems, Till My Time Come - Twenty Poems from SAMUDRA - Odia was released.[10]

• Prabhat Nalini Das (1969). The Captive and the Free: Essays in Criticism and Aesthetics. Lark Books.
• Bidhu Bhusan Das; Trilochan Misra; Prabhat Nalini Das (1994). Eye to Orissa. Information & Public Relations Department, Government of Orissa.

Translations

• Manoranjan Das (1993). The Wild Harvest. Translated by Prabhat Nalini Das; Jatindra Mohan Mohanty. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 81-72014-36-8.
• Manoranjan Das (2000). Nandika Keshari: (Sarala Award Winning Play). Translated by Prabhat Nalini Das. Prachi Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-85824-12-3.
• Gopinath Mohanty (2015). Amrutara Santana - The Dynasty of The Immortals. Translated by Bidhu Bhusan Das, Prabhat Nalini Das and Oopali Operajita. Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. ISBN 978-81-260-4746-8.
• Sitakant Mahapatra (2018). Till My Time Come (Twenty Poems from SAMUDRA - Odia). Translated by Prabhat Nalini Das. Lekhalekhi, Bhubaneswar. ISBN 978-81-931588-9-0.