Gopinath Mohanty was a distinguished Oriya novelist and short story writer with more than twenty-two novels, eight short story collections, three plays, two books on tribal culture and seven works of translation to his credit He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel, Amruta Santana, in 1955, and the Jnanpith Award in 1977. In 1981, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He spent the major part of his professional life as an administrator when he undertook extensive research into the life and culture of the tribal people of Orissa. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the San Jose State University.