Garhwali, Kumaoni, Himalayan Literature

Umadatt Naithani : The Founder Member of Garhwali Sahitya Parishad and a Garhwali language poet
Bhishma Kukreti

Umadatt Naithani is one of the Garhwali language creator who worked more for organizing the conferences for reading poetries and discussion on Garhwali literature . Ummadatt Naithani is remembered for his translation of Shrimad Geeta and Meghdoot .
Umadatt Naithani was born in 1921 in a Himalayan village Bhetuli , Maniyarsyun, Salan of Pauri Garhwal. Umadataa Naithani worked with Public Works Department Delhi.
Umadatt was a social worker and he organized Night Classes for Garhwalis in Delhi . Umadatt is also one of the founder members of Garhwali Sahitya Mandal founded in 1943. The organization used to organize meeting and conferences of literature creative of Garhwal. Garhwali Sahitya Mandal used to publish handwritten Garhwali language magazine ‘ Girish’ and Umadatt used to contribute in writing and distributing the same.
Apart from publishing Garhwali language poems here and there, Umadatt is famous for his translation of Shrimad Gita and Greates poet Kalidas created Meghdoot . The flow of his translating two Sanskrit classics was the specialty of Umadatt Naithani and he was always in demand for reading his poems of Meghdoot or Gita in Garhwali literature conferences of Delhi. One example :
Takh dyakha vain, dwee sena beecha
Apna hi apna kwee gair neecha
Bhai Bhatia swara va syala
Jethu jawain sab dekha bhala
The wordings of Naithani create flow in the poems and readers become more interested in reading translation of these classics than the original ones.
Umadatt also wrote ‘ Garhwali Vyakaran ‘ a gramar book on Garhwali language and Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna regretted that it is great loss to Garhwali language that the book could not be published by Umadatt Naithani due to his sudden death.

Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti, Mumbai, India, 2009