While the literary accomplishments of Group Captain Randhir Singh popularly known as Kunwar Viyogi in literary circles are many and noteworthy, the poet’s most unique and path-breaking contribution is exposing Dogri literature to the lyrical melody and disciplined form of Sonnets, a relatively new and unexplored genre for Dogri writers.

Credited with penning more than 2000 sonnets in Dogri, English, and Hindi – a record number that even beats renowned English poet William Wordsworth’s 523 and Shakespeare’s 154, the Sahitya Akademi awardee created his 22 original masterpieces, ranging from Sonnets, Poems, Songs, Ghazals, Short Stories, Rubaiyan, Essays and much more.

Without receiving any formal education in the craft, the celebrated writer penned all his masterpieces at a time when this form of poetry was considered a forte of European literature.

Viyogi’s genius lies in the fact that he crafted each sonnet with such perfection and originality of thought that it speaks volumes of the fine quality of work the poet puts into creating his masterpiece.

Inspired by Shakespeare, Viyogi’s sonnets are aesthetically composed, lucid, simple, and somber. Diction, an important aspect of sonnets, has been reigned with such perfection that it captures the essence of each line and quenches a reader’s thirst for a rich poetic experience.

Widely regarded as the ‘Father of Dogri Sonnets’, Viyogi’s writing captured complexities of societal norms, passion for freedom and self-determination, zest for life, and deep compassion for women with such ease and grace that it reflected in his distinctive style of narrative which was free from pretension and replete with simplicity. A magnanimous stream that attempted to introduce a new and uninhibited form of literature, Viyogi’s sonnets are also an attempt to rid the Dogri and English language of their claustrophobic garb.