Tributes paid to poet

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Tributes paid to poet

Pithoragarh, March 15

The 225th anniversary of the Lok Ratna Pant Gumani, the first Kumaoni poet, was celebrated in Kumaon region today.

Members of the Loktantrik Sahitya Sanskriti Manch flayed successive governments for dilly-dallying on their demand to establish a separate chair to study the legendary poet’s literary works at the Kumaon University. “Due to certain reasons, we are celebrating the anniversary late by two weeks,” said a spokesman of the manch.

Lok Ratna Pant earned the sobriquet of ‘Gumani’ as he was the court poet of Chand king Guman Singh Dev of Kashipur. Pant was born on February 27, 1790, in Uprara village in the Gangolihat sub-division of present Pithoragarh district. “Gumani was also the first poet of Khari Boli, Nepali Hindi and Sanskrit in the Kumaon region,” said Mahesh Punetha, a Kumaoni poet and critic from the Loktantrik Sahitya Sanskriti Manch. — OC