Dr. Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya was a famous Indian writer and one of the pioneers of modern Assamese Literature. He was born on October 14, 1924 in Assam. He was first ever recipient of the Jnanpith Award given to an Assamese writer, in the year 1979 for his novel Mrityunjay (Immortal), followed by Indira Goswami in 2001. He was also a recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award in Assamese in 1961 for his Assamese novel Iyaruingom(Iyaruingam), which is considered a masterpiece of Indian literature. In 2005, a translation of the work published by Katha Books with the title Love in the Time of Insurgency was released. Another famous novel written by Dr. Bhattacharya is Aai(Mother). He was the President of Asam Sahitya Sabha (Assam Literary Society) during 1983-1985.