Suryakant Tripathi came off an upper-caste Hindu family on 22 January, 1896 in Midnapore district of West Bengal. He was the son of a Pandit Ramsahaya Tripathi, a Government serviceman who was very arrogant tyrannical person. He was a born genius. After matriculation he did not take any formal education in his early days. But through his natural intelligence he acquired huge knowledge in Sanskrit, Bengali, and English literature.
Suryakant Tripathi `Nirala` was as if burdened with bad luck and his life was full of tragedies. In his early age his mother died .He moved to Gadhakola in Lucknow to which his father originally belonged. He married Anohar Devi at a very young age but she died when he was only 20 years old. After some years his only daughter died who was widow. Tripathi also had to face deep financial crisis. When he was in Bengal he was deeply influenced by Ramakrishna Paramhans, Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. After his marriage his wife insisted him to learn Hindi. Learning Hindi he started to write in Hindi language instead of Bengali. He was very rebellious both in his content and writing style. He firmly stood against the corruption of social Establishment and authority. He protested against the social injustice and exploitation through the writings. For that he had to bear with several criticisms. In his last part of life he was the victim of Schizophrenia. A recurrent aspect was his excessive random altruism, especially remarkable given that he himself was supposedly penniless and bore a recognizable mercurial temperament.
Suryakant Tripathi `Nirala` wrote 12 anthologies of poetry. Apart from that he penned six novels, many short stories, essays and criticism. He was immensely inspired by Indian Renaissance, which flourished in Bengal and tried to usher new verse in the modern age. He also made his mark in painting. He drew many sketches. He translated many famous Bengali literary works into Hindi. He died on 15th October 1961 in Allahabad.
Suryakant Tripathi `Nirala` was the one of the famous poets of Chhayavaad movements. He mixed the philosophy of Vedanta, nationalism, mysticism, and love for nature and progressive humanist ideology in his works. He started to use blank verse in his poems. He took the pseudonym, Nirala for his literary works. His created lines sting in the deepest wells of ones empathy and the sting linger just long enough till the wells overflow.
Suryakant Tripathi `Nirala`s major works are, poetry - Aradhana, Saroj Smriti, Parimal, Anaamika ,Geetika, Kukurmutta, Adima, Bela, Naye Patte, Archana, Tulsidas.NOVELS-Apsara ,Alka ,Prabhavati ,Nirupama ,Chameli Choti ki,UchchhrankhaltaKale, Karname .Story- -Chhaturi Chamar,Sukul ki Biwi,Sakhi ,Lily ,Devi .Essay- Prabandha-Parichaya, Prabandha-Pratibha ,Bangbhasha ka Uchcharan ,Ravindra-Kavita-Kannan ,Prabandh-Padya ,Prabandh-Pratima ,Chabuk ,Chayan ,Sangrah .Prose -Kullibhat, Billesur Bakriha .Translations Anand Math ,Vish-Vriksh ,Krishna kant ka Vil ,Kapal Kundala ,Durgesh Nandini ,Raj Singh ,Raj Rani ,Devi Chaudharani ,Yuglanguliya ,Chandrasekhar ,Rajni ,Sri Ramkrishna Vachnamrit ,Bhatrat Main Vivekanand ,Rajyog .