Kripa Sagar

Who was Kripa Sagar?

Kripa Sagar was a Punjabi poet. He was a major figure of Punjabi literature in the late nineteenth century.

Born Kripa Das on May 4 1875 in the village of Pipnakha in the outskirts of Gujranwala, now a major town in Pakistan, Kripa Sagar was successively a teacher, an editor, a banker, an officer of the University of the Punjab, and a publisher. He ran his own publishing press from Ram Gali, Lahore. He wrote poetry concurrently with these other careers.

Sagar wrote on Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Punjab. His major works include Lakshmi Devi, "Maharaja Ranjit Singh", "Dido Jamwal", "Rai Raiyan", and Man Tarang. He succumbed to illness on May 19 1939 at Ramgali Lahore.

A "Smriti Granth", or memorial book, was prepared by Punjabi University to commemorate him, and was presented to his wife Krishna Devi on December 9, 1962 at Patiala, India.

Lakshmi Devi, his epic work, is inspired by "Lady of the Lake" by Walter Scott. It is interwoven with Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s conquest of the hill provinces of Bandral. He wrote it while posted in Jammu. Finished in 1915, it was first printed in 1920. He is also known for the poem "Jelum da Pani", with its subject the Jhelum River. It was written in Urdu, and was published in his collection Man Tarang.