Naresh Chandra Dev Varma
A Tripura writer who has spent decades studying and writing in Kokborok and leads the Kokborok Sahitya Parishad, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2026.
Naresh Chandra Dev Varma has written about the grammar, society and culture of the Tripuri people for most of his life. In 2026 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of literature and education, from Tripura [1].
Clerk and scholar
Dev Varma was born on 31 October 1944 and went to primary school in a village near Bishramganj, Sepahijala district [2]. He studied at MBB College, Agartala [2]. He began work as a junior assistant in the agriculture department, moved to the Tripura Legislative Assembly secretariat and retired in 2002 as a joint secretary [2].
Kokborok
Kokborok, the Tripuri language, is spoken by nearly 15 lakh indigenous people in Tripura [2]. From a young age Dev Varma wrote about its grammar in Kokborok, Bengali and English, and he has studied Tripuri language, society and culture in depth [2].
He has written 34 books, 11 of them in Kokborok, many of them translations, and has edited old texts and manuscripts [2]. He is president of the Kokborok Sahitya Parishad, sits on the state’s advisory committee on the language, taught in Tripura University’s Kokborok diploma course, and advised the National Book Trust on Kokborok [2]. He was also president of the Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram from 2015 to 2022 [2].
His honours from the Tripura government include the Tripura Bhushan (2024) [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2026: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2026 investiture ceremony brochure: citation for Naresh Chandra Dev Varma — Press Information Bureau, Government of India. Accessed 12 October 2026.
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