THE EDITORS
G. N. Devy is the chief editor of the PLSI series. He taught at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, till 1996 before leaving to set up the Bhasha Research Centre in Baroda and the Adivasi Akademi at Tejgadh. There, he worked towards conserving and promoting the languages and culture of indigenous and nomadic communities. Apart from being awarded the Padma Shree, he has received many awards for his work in literature and language conservation.
Debi Prasanna Pattanayak is former Founder-Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. His publications include A Controlled Historical Reconstruction of Oriya, Assamese, Bengali, and Hindi (1966), Multilingualism and Mother-tongue Education (1981), Orissa, Oriya and the Multilingual Context (2003) and Language, Education, and Culture (2014). He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1987 for his contribution towards adding Bodo to the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. He has also played a significant role in promoting Odia to the status of classical language. At present, he is the Chairman of Institute of Odia Studies and Research, Bhubaneswar.
Mahendra Kumar Mishra is a prominent folklorist and a practitioner of multilingual education in Odisha. He has several awards and honours to his credit and is the author of Saora Tales and Songs (2005), Oral Epics of Kalahandi (2007), Oral Poetry of Kalahandi (2008) and Aznul: Saora Tales (2004).