Rajkamal Chaudhary (1929–1967) was the firebrand of modern Maithili and Hindi writing — a poet, novelist and short-story writer who, in fewer than forty years, produced a torrent of work that attacked the taboos and complacencies of his society. His collection Svaragandha is seen as the high-water mark of Maithili’s “new poetry”.
Unsparing, experimental and intensely modern, he dragged Maithili literature into the post-independence age and remains one of its most provocative voices.