Tirath couldn’t get formal education but with his wisdom he compensated this shortcoming with deep study of Western Literature, Philosophy, Economic, History and Social Science and authored more than 40 books.
Shri Tirath Basant was born on 7th September 1909 at Lukman village of district Khairpur Sindh. He was very famous Sindhi writer for his book “Kanwar” biography of legendary Sindhi saint and spiritual Singer Bhagat Kanwar Ram Sahib. This was not his first attempt of writing a biography as before this he had translated autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru in Sindhi with title “Jawahar Jivani” and was felicitated for this with an award from Sindhi Adabi Board. In the years to come Tirath Basant also presented biography of Shri Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, titled “Gandhi Ji” in three volumes and published in 1972 and 1978. He is also credited with bringing many plays of Shakespeare into Sindhi and even one “Chitra” of great Rabindranath Tagore.
Basant was not so lucky as his mother had passed away even before he reached to the age of two years hence he was cared by his grandmother, who used to be a religious woman and surrounding area of residence were also a bit over loaded with famous spiritual locations. Under the influence of all these, from early childhood, Tirath Basant found within self a kind of temptation for the world different from the normal physical world. He left the home at the tender age of ten years so there was no question of acquiring formal schooling or traditional education. This was his wisdom that he compensated this short coming with deep study of Western Literature, Philosophy, Economic, History and Social Science, which was also essential for him as for the livelihood he was taking tuition of students pursuing for B.A., M.A. or even a degree in science.
Tirath Basant had introduced self to the literary world with English articles published in eminent publications like “Sindh Observer “and “Advance India”. Jagityani inspired Tirath Basant for writing in Sindhi for his newspaper “Roshni” and within no tome Tirath Basant was on the list of writers of “Fuleli”, most popular Sindhi Magazine published from Hyderabad and was renowned for very high standards of writing. Tirath Basant served the Sindhi Literature for a period of about half century and expressed his excellence in almost all the horizons of literature – be it essays, stories, biography, drama, criticism or even poetry (though a very little poetic work of him is known). Every literary creation of Tirath Basant has set new standards of writing. He has credit of more than 40 books though the complete list of his books is not available.
Hamlet, Heroes and Hero Worship, King’s Lady are among the list of books translated by Tirath Basant, who had a great influence of famous saint ‘Mira Bai’ and had presented her life with new vision in the form of drama titled “Mira”. One thing which needs to be mentioned here essentially is that Tirath Basant has used the Sindhi Phrases and proverbs in his writing very effectively.
Some of his books are: Changiyun; Chitra; Gandhi Ji; Jawahar Ji Jivani; Jivan Jawala; Kanwar; Khushboo; Manuu; Mira; Sahitya Saru; Sahitya Suraj; Sarangi and Vasant Varkha.
He was honored with Sahitya Academy Award in 1959 for his book ‘Kanwar’, the biography of Bhagat Kanwar Ram.
Tirath Basant, the true devotee of Sindhi literature breathed his last on 30th September 1994 in Delhi.
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Courtesy: All Sindhis Hope Association (ASHA)
