Mahakavi Devkota: a Myth-taker & a Myth-maker

Abstract

Laxmi Prasad Devkota is simply hailed as the Mahakavi in Nepal that means he is the greatest poet of Nepal. He had a romantic inclination that a reader may easily notice while going through his writings. Of course, he had an immense knowledge of the romantic tradition of the West but at the same time he was a great scholar of English, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Nepali literature. Due to his vast range of knowledge, he has been able to draw numerous mythologies from various places and use them in his writings. But he is not just a taker of foreign myths because he even twisted them at many places. He was very playful of his subject matters and styles. Another interesting thing about Devkota is that his writings do not just take and break foreign myths; he also makes new myths in his own way. This is why this paper argues that Devkota is a taker, breaker, and a maker of myths.