Keshav Jagannath Purohit (केशव जगन्नाथ पुरोहित) (b. 1923) is a Marathi

Marathi people

The Marathi people or Maharashtrians are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. Their language Marathi is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages...

 writer from Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He wrote using the pen name Shantaram (शांताराम).

Purohit was born in 1923 in the town of Chamorshi

Chamorshi

Chamorshi is a town and a tehsil in Gadchiroli district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.It is located on the near the left bank of the Wainganga River, a tributary of the Pranahita River which meets the Godavari River.-Geography:...

, which used to be in Chandrapur District

Chandrapur District

Chandrapur District is a district in Nagpur Division of the Indian state of Maharashtra.It is located at the boundary of Andhrapradesh. The district was formerly known as Chanda District. In 1964, it was renamed as Chandrapur. It was the largest district in India until it was split into the...

 and is now in Gadchiroli District

Gadchiroli District

Gadchiroli district is an administrative district in Maharashtra, India. The town of Gadchiroli is the administrative headquarters of the district....

. After attending Jubilee High School in the town of Chandrapur

Chandrapur

Chandrapur is city and a municipal council in Chandrapur district in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is also the headquarters of Chandrapur district....

, he received college degrees, including a doctorate, in English literature from Nagpur University.

Purihit taught English literature for 40 years in different colleges in Nagpur

Nagpur

Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...

, Amravati

Amravati

Amravati is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India and the seventh most populous metropolitan area in Maharashtra. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Amravati district...

, and Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, and served for some years as the principal of Ismail Yusuf College

Ismail Yusuf College

Ismail Yusuf College, or simply IY College, is the fourth oldest college of Mumbai, India. Established 1924, is one of the oldest colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai. The college, situated on a hillock in Jogeshwari in the midst of sylvan surroundings...

 in Mumbai before retiring.

In 1989, he presided over Marathi Sahitya Sammelan

Marathi Sahitya Sammelan

Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan is a conference for literary discussions by Marathi writers. Though the conference has sometimes been held in a town outside the Indian state of Maharashtra, it is typically held annually in one of the towns in Maharashtra where Marathi is the mother tongue...

, which was held in Amravati.

Literary work

Purohit has written over 30 books on various topics.

He coordinated Marathi Vishwakosh (मराठी विश्वकोश) and coedited with Sudha Joshi Wisawe Shatak (विसावे शतक), a collection of worthy short stories in Marathi written by different authors of the twentieth century. He also compiled Pratinidhik Laghu Nibandh Sangrah (प्रातिनिधिक लघुनिबंध संग्रह). He translated into Marathi Ibsen's Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

Vikings of Helgeland, naming the translation as Helgelandche Chanche (हेल्गेलंडचे चांचे).

Santryancha Baag (संत्र्यांचा बाग) (1942) and Manamor (मनमोर) (1946) are two early works of Purohit.