Background
Kanungo was born on 6 June 1912 at village Mallipur (Kishannagar) in Cuttack district of Odisha. He was the only son of Keshub Chandra Kanungo and Peera Dei.
Kanungo was born on 6 June 1912 at village Mallipur (Kishannagar) in Cuttack district of Odisha. He was the only son of Keshub Chandra Kanungo and Peera Dei.
He was also a veteran freedom fighter and notable educationist. He was awarded with India"s fourth highest civilian honour "Padmashree". He died on 22 June 1990.
He had his primary education at village Naganpur and secondary school education at the famous Ranihat Highschool, Cuttack, of which he was the first ever student.
Later he got a scholarship to study at Ravenshaw Collegiate School. However, in 1930, when he was in Class-X, Mahatma Gandhi"s call inspired him to leave his studies and join the Indian Freedom Movement.
Kanungo was appointed by the daily newspaper The Samaja to cover Mahatama Gandhi"s Harijan Padayatra from Puri to Bhadrak in 1934. During this period Gandhiji taught, advised and groomed Binod Kanungo in the art of news reporting.
Later he worked with the eminent Gandhian Gopabandhu Choudhury and joined The Samaja as an Assistant Editor.
He was jailed for his participation in the freedom struggle. In 1952 he fought the first general elections in India and lost. In 1954 he set his sight on compiling the monumental Oriya encyclopedia Jnanmandal.
The first volume was released on 2 December 1960 by Harekrushna Mahatab, the then Chief Minister of Odisha.
He compiled and edited major part of the Jnanmandal at his Barabati Stadium office at Cuttack. He single handedly built the reference centre, which was visited and extolled by a great many dignitaries during his time, including Pranab Mukherjee, who later became President of India.
Jnanmandal has been hailed as one of the best edited and most lucid encyclopedia in any of the modern Indian languages. During his lifetime he created the Jnanmandal Foundation which is carrying on his work till today.
After his death, the Foundation has created and published different kinds of multi-volume encyclopedias both for young and adult readers.
In the meanwhile, two more editions of Jnanmandal has been released. The latest and third edition (10 Vols) has been published this year id est (that is) 2014. lieutenant consists of thousands of topics in popular Oriya comprising all branches of human knowledge and is profusely illustrated.