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Orissa Review * November - 2005

Palm - Leaf Manuscripts : The Proud Possessions of Orissa Jayanti Rath

Orissa is the land where dry leaves speak about moments of love. Here passion has been every aspect of life, starting from poignant emotion translated both in words and forms. The Orissan of love to the hard rules of arithmetic, from canons artists have shown their excellence in these of law to the riddle of Tantra, Mantra and Yantra. miniature paintings in the palm-leaves. Unique in It may sound incredible, but it is true in every sense their style and forms, they constitute as significant of words that the palm-leaf manuscripts vividly part of the glorious Orissan tradition and are depict the theme of religion, architecture, medicine, similar to the tradition of dance and sculpture. The astrology, astronomy, grammar, details about war, features of the human figures as well as the flora arms and armoury, and fauna are sharp geography, trade and well- routes, occult proportioned and practices, temple display the same rituals, crafts, precision and literature and so on. neatness which one The illustrated can find in the motifs miniature paintings drawn in the textiles on the palm leaves in the typical also provide a living Orissan tie and dye record of the tradition. Women saratorial styles, are usually cosmetics and coiffure, dance forms, myths and represented with full bossoms and big bottoms legends and above all, our rich heritage of socio- and slender waists and are stylistically very close cultural traditions. to the finely chiselled sculptures of Konark temple. The very thing that Oriya alphabets have Epigraphic evidence of the use of palm- no headmarks like that of Bengali or Nagari Script leaf for writing goes back to the sixth century A.D. can safely be attributed to the long and continuous The Kurud Charter of Maharaja Narendra issued practice of writing on palm leaves. The stones of from his camp of victory at Tilakeswar records Konark, Muktesvar and Rajarani display the the renewal of the grant of village Kesavaka. This union of couple, the Amaru Sataka, the Gita- village had been formerly granted in a palm-leaf Govinda palm-leaf manuscripts describe the charter to one Bhasrutaswami by the previous

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Orissa Review * November - 2005

king, but as the palm-leaf was destroyed in fire, of the scribe and the date of copying just as we Maharaja Narendra regranted it in a copper plate have today the name of the author and the charter in favour of Sankhaswami, son of publisher and the date of the publication of a Bhasrutaswami. Maharaja Narendra was a printed book on its title page. In recording the Sarabhapuriya king of South Kosala in the 6th date in the colophon, the scribe followed the anka century A.D. or the regnal year of the Raja of . The colophon There are also many sculptural evidences sometimes mention the Oriya Sala or Sana year regarding the use of palm-leaf manuscripts. The of an era which started on the twelfth day of bright fortnight of the Bhadra month of 593 A.D. During earliest of these can be found in the Parsuramesvar the reign of Akbar, Hijra or Amali Era was temple at Bhubaneswar which was built during introduced in the manuscripts. In a few latter the rule of Sailodbhava dynasty (7th Century A.D.). Similar representations can be observed manuscripts, the Christian era called Samvatsara in the Muktesvar temple (10th century A.D.) and and the Christian month are given in colophon.The also the famous Sun temple of Konark (13th Saka Era (Starting in 78 A.D.) has also been used. Sometimes the year has been given in a riddle or century A.D.). Another important sculptural chronogram. evidence is an image of Buddha found at a temple in Haripur near Khurdha. In this sculpture one In case of illustrated palm-leaf finds in the pedestal a scholar studying some holy manuscripts, the introduction was always made scriptures in the shape of a stringed palm-leaf with the picture of Ganesha, the god of learning manuscript placed on Vyasasana. There is a and well being with the words Shri Ganeshaya beautiful presentation of a scribe writing with a Namah (Salutation to Ganesha) and Shri Shubham stylus on a palm-leaf in a sculpture of Jagannath astu (let it be auspicious). Some Chitrapothis also temple of Dharakot. had the picture of Sarasvati, the goddess of learning on the front page. If the manuscript The entire Buddhist scripture contained erotic text, (Rati-bandha) - it invariably ³Avatamsaka Sutra´ was written on palm-leaf manuscript and it was presented to Chinese had a picture of Kandarpa, the God of love. In emperor Te-Song by Subhakara Deva, the many of ¶s Kavyas, the poet is Bhaumakara king of Orissa with his own shown paying his obeissance to Rama, Vishnu and autograph. This was an event of eight century (798 other Gods. A.D.). Palm-leaves and stylus were adopted as The oldest datable palm-leaf manuscript the sole writing material for writing the charya- now exant in Orissa State Museum is a copy of Songs which are believed to be the oldest Oriya the poetic work µAbhinava ´ by Kavi literary works. These were composed in a period Chandra Ray Divakara Mishra, inscribed by one between 9th to 12th century A.D. Between the Sri Sridhara Sharma. The date of the manuscript Charya Songs and ¶s Mahabharata, has been established as 6th April, 1494. The poet no Oriya literary works have come to notice has offered the work in the name of Gajapati except some prose writing and a poem called Purushottama Deva. ³Kalasa ´. During this period, however, Orissa produced an enormous amount of Sanskrit The concluding portion of the manuscript literature, which includes books on astronomy, is called Pushpika or Colophon. It gives the name astrology, medicines. grammar, religion and law.

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Orissa Review * November - 2005

Several commentaries were written on well- popular ones being the versions of Adhyatma known Sanskrit works. There were also an Ramayana by Gopala Telenga and Haladhara Das outpouring of literary works, the best known of and Vichitra Ramayana by Viswanath Khuntia. which are Anargha Raghava of Murari Mishra, Another popular manuscript of this period was Gita Govinda of Sri Jayadev and Sahitya Darpana Sishu Shankar Das¶s Ushabhilasha, based on a of Viswanath Kaviraj. story of Sarala Mahabharata. New poetic forms By the fifteenth century the art of palm- also emerged during this period viz, Janana (song leaf writing had attained great excellence. The of prayer), Chautisa (songs which followed the innumerable copies of Sarala Mahabharata were thirty-four consonants of Oriya alphabets) and Poi written on palm-leaf manuscripts and spread (referring to the number of verses in the poems), throughout Orissa. By the way, the great poet and i.e. Dasa Poi - meaning a ten-verse poem. the great monarch, Gajapati Kapilendra Dev of Orissa lost her independence in 1568 Suryavamsi dynasty, who ruled Orissa at that time A.D. and was successively overrun by Afghans, became indelible in history. The manuscripts of Mughals and Marathas. Till the British conquest Bhagabata of the poet Jagannath Das, had still in 1803, Orissa was a veritable cockpit of rival far greater influence over the common people of warlords. There was no peace and security. In Orissa. Balaram Das¶s Jagamohan Ramayana the absence of a stable central power, Orissa was also accepted with much reverence for its broke up into a number of semi-independent lucid style. Practically speaking, these three were principalities under local Rajas. The feudal chiefs the most widely read books in Orissa by that time. patronized art, music and literature as pastimes. With the advent of Shri Chaitanya to Orissa in The brilliant literary figures of this period 1510 A.D. and the spread of Vaishnavism, the was Upendra Bhanja, who was a prince himself. Oriya Bhagabata achieved unprecedental A prolific poet, he created volumes of literary popularity. Community houses called Bhagabata works. He was the master of ornate poetry and Gharas or Bhagabata Tungi sprang up in the each of his work is an example of his mastery villages of Orissa where copies of Bhagabat were over some particular versifying skill or other. kept and recited daily. The reading of the chapters Through clever manipulation of words and with a of the holy scriptures became a daily ritual in the liberal use of puns, alliterations, assonances and homes of Oriya people. Thus, the Bhagabata figures of speech, he built up a body of poetry Pothi brought profound vibration in the entire which was gaudy and grandeloquent and at the social life of Orissa. same time pedantic and unintelligible. He During the sixteenth and seventeenth composed songs, Kavyas, epics, fictional poems, centuries a large number of Kavyas or long rhetorical compositions. Chitra-kavya (picture- episodical poems were written in Oriya, all based poem) and even a dictionary of verse for the use on Krishna theme. of poets. ³Vaidehisha Vilas´, µKoti Brahmanda The most outstanding of these Kavyas are Sundari, µPrema Sudhanidhi¶, µLavanyabati¶ are Bhakta Charan Das¶s Mathura Mangala, Rupa some of his memorable works. Goswami¶s ³Bidagdha Madhava´ and Dina The style of Bhanja prevailed till the Krushna Das¶s Rasa Kallola. Several other second half of the 19th century. All the poets who translations of Ramayana also appeared, the more emerged after Upendra Bhanja followed his style.

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Orissa Review * November - 2005

The name of Brajanath Badajena, an eminent poet In the Jagannath temple of Puri, a letter is of post-Bhanja era can be cited as an example. written on palm-leaf on behalf of Rukmini to be During this said period, thousands of palm-leaf delivered to Jagannath on the eleventh day of manuscripts were copied for large scale bright fortnight of Jyestha month (also known as circulation. Numerous Chitra-pothis were also Rukmini Harana Ekadasi). In Orissa, horoscopes prepared during this period, though many of the of new born babies are also written on palm- extant chitra-pothis seem to have been done leaves. Similarly, the invitation sent to the deities, towards the later part of the 19th century A.D. known as µDiyan Nimantrana´ as well as the Though paper was in use during this time, poets ceremonial invitation to the bride-groom from the did their writing on palm-leaf as this was bride¶s family is generally written on palm-leaf in considered sacred. The Oriya script used in Pothis Orissa. did not undergo much of a change from its fifteenth Thus, the tradition of palm-leaf writing is century form. still alive. In the past, the palm-leaf manuscripts Oriya printing was introduced by were the medium of learning, while in the changing Christian missionaries after the British conquest scenario of present, it has become the object of of 1803. An Oriya type-face was devised in analysis and retrospection. 1804. Today, the use of palm-leaf and stylus has References : been diminished a lot. Now at the outset of twenty-first century, when the world has become 1. Chitra Pothi - Dr. J.P. Das, New Delhi, 1985. technocratic, the use of fragile palm-leaves has 2. Illustrated Palm-Leaf Manuscripts of Orissa become irrelevant. But the age-old practice of (A selection from Orissa State Museum), writing on palm-leaf has not been extinguished Bhubaneswar, 1984. from our cultural heritage. Writing on palm-leaf has many ritual uses in Orissa. On Raksha Panchami day (fifth day of the dark of fortnight of Bhadra month), painting of Batuka Bhairava (an aspect of Siva) is done on doors with an Jayanti Rath is the Asst. Curator, Orissa State Museum, invocation to Siva written on it. Bhubaneswar-14.

Pattachitra

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