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Ashapurna Devi

Indian writer (1909–1995)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ3347897
Source-derived summary

Ashapurna Devi (Bengali pronunciation: [aʃapurna debi]; 8 January 1909 – 12 July 1995), also Ashapoorna Devi or Ashapurna Debi, was a prominent Indian novelist and poet in Bengali. In 1976, she was awarded the Jnanpith Award and Padma Shri by the Government of India, D.Litt. by the Universities of Jabalpur, Rabindra Bharati, Burdwan and Jadavpur. Vishwa Bharati University honoured her with Deshikottam in 1989. For her contribution as a novelist and short story writer, the Sahitya Akademi conferred its highest honour, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, in 1994.

Biography

Ashapurna Devi was born in a Baidya family on 8 January 1909 in North Calcutta. Her ancestral house is Gupta Bari, Begampur, in Hooghly district of West Bengal. Her birth name was Asha Purna Devi (Gupta). Her early childhood was spent in a traditional and extremely conservative family. Female children of the house were not allowed to go to school.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Ashapurna Devi” as indian writer (1909–1995). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ashapurna, Devi and Indian.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 1995, 1976, 1989—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1909-01-08. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Ashapurna, Devi and Indian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ashapurna Devi”, the useful work is to connect “indian writer (1909–1995)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3347897. VIAF identifies the subject as 115356129. The Library of Congress control number is n85093268. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1995, 1976 and 1989.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ashapurna Devi”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ashapurna Devi primary sources, Ashapurna Devi archive and Ashapurna research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ashapurna Devi”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ashapurna Devi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.