Although I met Dr Ananta Charan Sukla in 1978 after I joined the Sambalpur University as a lecturer in English, I was already familiar with his achievements as a scholar. While an undergraduate student of English literature at the Ravenshaw College, I came across his Odia translation of Aristotle’s Poetics and went through portions of the book. The information that the book has been translated into Odia from classical Greek filled me with an awed respect for Dr Sukla.
When I first met Dr Sukla at his residence at Jyoti Vihar in Burla I learnt that he was the Editor of the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics (JCLA). The issue of the journal he showed me wasdedicated to the famous American critic and comparatist, René Wellek and featured a long letter written by him. The journal carried articles from eminent scholars from several countries and explored a wide range of subjects relating to comparative literature and aesthetics. In 1978, Jyoti Vihar seemed to be far away from everywhere. In spite of the constraints a very small town imposes upon ambitious academic projects, Dr Sukla managed to bring out his international journal regularly. I found this to be an amazingly impressive intellectual feat.
About four years later Dr Sukla joined the Department of English, Sambalpur University, as a senior faculty member. Around the same time that he became my colleague I went abroad to prosecute higher studies and returned to Sambalpur University several years later. On returning to the University, I found Dr Sukla as active as ever. He had established his reputation as an eminent comparatist in India and abroad. I now found opportunities for interacting with him closely and associating myself with his academic projects. He asked me to go through the manuscript of his short introduction to Indian aesthetics and copy-edit it. For me this was a great and exciting learning experience and I felt grateful to him for a lucid exposition of a subject about which I knew next to nothing. This book was translated into Italian and published from Italy. Dr Sukla received review copies of latest publications from many foreign publishers and generously lent me some of them. This helped me keep up with the latest developments taking place in the academic world elsewhere and enabled me to overcome the feeling of being cut off from current scholarship.
In short, he was our window to a larger academic world. My friend Sushant K Panda (now no more) and I stood by Dr Sukla and lent him all possible support when he went through a difficult time in the university and in a small way ensured that his academic activities did not suffer on account of professional crises.
My contact with Dr Sukla grew less frequent after I shifted to the Utkal University in 1996 but our relation remained cordial and warm. After he retired from university service he settled in Cuttack and continued to bring out his Journal and published acclaimed books on his chosen area of research. He seemed full of energy and a zest for life when I recently met him at a function held at the Department of English, Ravenshaw University. He was very happy when I informed him that we have decided to translate into English an essay he had written on comparative literature in Odia for a volume to be brought out by the Jadavpur University, his alma mater.
Dr Sukla has left us but he will continue to enrich the academic world through his internationally acclaimed publications and inspire youngerscholars with the example of a life dedicated to the pursuit of learning and advancement of knowledge.
(The writer is a retired Professor of English, Utkal University. He is a noted translator and has authored and edited numerous books)