Binode Kanungo single-handedly produces first encyclopaedia in Oriya called Jnanmandal

Kanungo (above) and the inside of his library: Storehouse of knowledgeFor the last 28 years Binode Kanungo 70, has steadily toiled away with meagre financial resources in a small, ill-equipped office in Cuttack to single-handedly produce the first encyclopaedia in Oriya calledJnanmandal. Thirty volumes of the proposed 75-volume project, intended to cover 15,000 subjects in 20,000 pages, have already been published and he plans to bring out the remaining 45 volumes by 1983.Kanungo, who never received any higher education himself, says he is inspired by the desire to "democratise knowledge" and bring science to the doorstep of the common man. To do this he has almost completely shut himself off from the outside world, spending all his waking hours clipping and filing information from 20 daily newspapers and 200 journals which are ultimately compiled into his Jnanmandal volumes.The project, whose total cost will come to about Rs 20 lakh, has received virtually no money from the state Government or any other official agency. The encyclopaedia makes no profit from sales either. Although Jnanmandal has 2,000 regular subscribers and 4,000 copies of each volume have been printed, each volume is priced at only Rs 15.However, Kanungo says even this price smacks of "rich man's socialism"; so, he has started work on an even cheaper set of books for children entitled 365-Days Books. He explains. "Every day is an anniversary of some big event. So I planned to provide them a book-a-day, recording and explaining in simple, interesting style that event." The 25 books brought out so far in this series have all become immediately popular with school children.Yet another project is a three-volume history of the Freedom Movement in Orissa for which he has collected hundreds of rare photographs. In fact, Kanungo discovered his vocation as a chronicler and encyclopaedist back in 1942 when he was jailed for his participation in the Quit India campaign. He still preserves the 10,000 pages of handwritten notes on the events of that period which he recorded while in prison.An active member of Gandhi's Seva Sangh, his life-long commitment to do something for the common man also took birth then, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. He also got the idea of bringing out an Oriya encyclopaedia while he was in jail; in 1954 he began compiling material and the first volume was published in 1961.Kanungo derives his greatest satisfaction from the fact that Jnanmandal has demonstrated the possibility of accurately communicating scientific information in the common man's language. "After successful completion of 30 volumes the argument that no science, medicine, law or intricate knowledge of modern technology could be expressed adequately in Oriya has lost validity," he says.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 13, 2013 14:05 IST--- ENDS ---

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Binode Kanungo single-handedly produces first encyclopaedia in Oriya called Jnanmandal

For the last 28 years Binode Kanungo 70, has steadily toiled away with meagre financial resources in a small, ill-equipped office in Cuttack to single-handedly produce the first encyclopaedia in Oriya called Jnanmandal.

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