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Krishna Chaitanya whom Edward Goldsmith, leading international campaigner on environment and winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize refers to in his book, The Way : An Ecological World View, as "possibly the greatest polymath of all time" and the national media have rated as "one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century" (Hindustan Times), "our nearest approximation to the Renaissance Man" (Indian Express), a writer who has made "singular contribution to the advancement of thought, art and science in our times" (Times of India) and as "one of the most prolific and luminous intellects of our times" (Economic Times), has written over forty books outline summaries of all of which are available in Krishna Chaitanya a Profile and Selected Papers edited by Suguna Ramachandran (Konark, 1991 ). The main categories are : A five-volume philosophy of freedom which critics have compared to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, the French Encyclopedists, Herbert Spencer, Bergson, Whitehead and Teilhard de Chardin; a ten-volume history of world literature; Indological works including a book on Indian culture, a history of Sanskrit literature, a literary study of the Mahabharata the most comprehensive book so far on Sanskrit poetics and a translation and commentary of the Gita; and books on Indian art. He got the "Critic of Ideas" award of-the Institute of International Education, New York in 1964, the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1978, Honorary Membership of the International Cultural, society of Korea, Seoul in 1982, D. Litt. (Honoris Causa) of the Rabindrabharati University in 1986, the Padma Shri in 1992 and the Kalidasa award of the International Institute of Indian Studies, Ottawa in 1993.

Premchand (1880-1936). Born in Lamhi village near Varanasi in north India as Dhanpat Rai, Premchand's realistic writings highlighted the social milieu through a multi-faceted portrayal of human nature. The 12 novels, 300 or so short stories (most of them collected in an 8-volume set called Mansarovar and in Soz-e-Watan), plays and numerous essays-all add up to make him not only one of the most prolific but also marvelously creative writers, who came to be regarded as the spokesman of the disinherited and the downtrodden. The Second Wife (titled Nirmala in Hindi) represents a high-water mark of Premchand's genius as a creator of realistic fiction.