Fakir Mohan Senapati belongs to the caliber of great writers like Premchand and Bankimchandra. He was self educated and studied assiduously in Sanskrit and English and in no time acquired proficiency in five languages. Fakir Mohan’s ‘one aim, one purpose and one desire’ was the upliftment and promotion of Oriya literature. Probably no other writer started serious writings at so late an age of 51 and produced so many masterpieces. He translated the “Ramayan” and the “Mahabharat” from Sanskrit to console his young wife when they had lost a child. His contribution to Indian literature as a nationalist and short story writer lies in the portrayal in realistic images, the grim life of the exploited and the down-trodden and giving new life to a nation’s language, literature and national awareness. He wrote at a time when the national liberation movement was becoming aware of the social and economic problems of the people and it can be said that he was one of the pioneers who introduced social realism into literature. He has worked as an administrator for about 25 years in many feudatory states. As an administrator, he showed remarkable skill shrewdness and sagacity.

Even in the heydays of British imperialism he dared make such ironical statements as “Dame Fortune left Orissa for Liverpool” and “ravenous kites, crows and king-fishers from England are swooping down upon the fish and fries of Orissa, a poodle that she is.”

His life was undoubtedly a saga of unsuspected human potentialities. The Department of Posts has been issuing commemorative stamps on great Litterateurs of this country. The invaluable contribution to Oriya literature by Fakir Mohan Senapati has found expression in the issuance of a stamp on him to commemorate his 150th birth anniversary.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India