Biography

Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi (Meitei: ꯕꯤꯅꯣꯗꯤꯅꯤ; born Sana Wangol ; 6 February 1922 – 17 January 2011), better known as Binodini, was a writer, poet, and princess from Manipur. She worked in multiple genres, including fiction, essays, drama, screenplays, lyrics, and ballet scripts often addressing themes such as patriarchy and colonialism in Manipuri society. A social activist and pioneer of post-modernism in Manipur, she is regarded as a cultural renaissance figure. She received the Padma Shri in 1976, and her historical novel Boro Saheb Ongbi Sanatombi (1976) won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979. The novel was subsequently translated into English as The Princess and the Political Agent and published in 2020.