| Nityananda Mahapatra | |
| Birth Date: | 17 June 1912 |
| Birth Place: | Bhadrak, Bihar and Orissa Province, British India |
| Death Place: | Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India |
| Office: | Member: Odisha Legislative Assembly |
| Constituency: | Bhadrak |
| Term Start: | 1957 |
| Term End: | 1971 |
| Predecessor: | Mahamad Hanif |
| Successor: | Harekrushna Mahatab |
| Death Cause: | Respiratory Failure |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Occupation: | Writer, politician |
| Party: | Orissa Jana Congress |
| Awards: | Sahitya Akademi Award,1987 |
| Notable Works: | Gharadiha |
Nityananda Mahapatra (17 June 1912 – 17 April 2012)[1] was an Indian Odia politician, poet and journalist.
He was imprisoned three times by the British Raj between 1930 and 1942 for nationalist activities.[2] He came to literary prominence as editor of the Odia magazine Dagara,[3] and as a short story writer after independence.[4] In his political career Mohapatra served as a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from 1957 to 1971[5] and as state Minister of Supply and Cultural Affairs from 1967 to 1971.[6]
He died on 17 April 2012 at around 9:45am at Kharavelanagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, from complications of respiratory failure. He had been in a coma at the Aditya Care Hospital following a breathing problem. He was three months short of his 100th birthday.[7]
Mohapatra has translated the Ramavataram (also known as the Kamba Ramayanam), the Tamil version of the Ramayana, into Odia.[8] Other works that he translated into Odia include Ramana Maharshee and Swarajya Sanghitaa.[8]
Mahapatra received the Odisha Sahitya Academy Award in 1974[9] and the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 1987 for his novel Gharadiha.[10]