Orissa Review * May - 2006 The Literary Heritage of Sonepur Dr. Pabitra Mohan Nayak Sonepur lying nestled in a cosy bower surrounded Jalandharippa, Raja of Lanka (Sonepur), who by long lines of sky-blue, forest crowned cliffs was one of the exponents of the Natha cult was forming pre-eminently the base of a triangular plot, the propounder of Sahajayana Buddhism whose washed by the perennial flow of the Mahanadi ³Advayasiddhi´ is the medieval form of Acharya and river Tel is a veritable poet¶s paradise. In the Rajanish¶s modern method of Yogic practices words of Sir Richard Temple: from sex to salvation. The mystic poetry of the ³A real variety to the scene was afforded Natha cult which flourished from 8th to 11th whenever caught the golden colours of the eastern century largely influenced the Panchasakha sky, the rapids made a merry noise as they hurried literature of Jagannath, Balarama, Yasowanta, along. The effect of the rocks was doubled by Achuyta and Ananta. The Natha literature of the reflections of teak trees, laden with their yellow Sonepur seems to have set the tone and temper blossoms, hung over the margin of the stream. of the literature the successive ages pursued. We were one day on horse-back, another day in Sasisena Kavya by Pratap Rai of the 17th boats, it was from the midstream that the best Century is a milestone in Oriya literature. At a views presented themselves. When the river was time when Oriya poetry was characterized by winding through mountain gorges, the hill-sides ornamental richness and figurative intricacies, here widely parted, would allow the water to broaden was a kavya marked by sweet simplicity and fluid itself into a small lake, the voyager issuing from it beauty. And the author of this singular kavya was by the river passage, would turn a corner and a son of this soil. There are enough internal find himself in a fresh lake, whence he might enter evidences to show that the author belonged to another and yet another - each lake differing from Sonepur garjat. The kavya deals with the love, its neighbour.´ marriage and elopement of Ahimanikya, minister¶s These lovely sights and sounds created son and Sasisena, daughter of the Raja of the appropriate artistic atmosphere where poets, Amaravati near the present Chandikhol of novelists, dramatists, painters, musicians, etc. of Cuttack. It was here at Kamantapur (Sonepur) no mean merit flourished. Here at Sonepur. that the real drama of their love-life is enacted against the tantric background of this land of Sat The growth of literature at Sonepur can Bahen. It was here that Ahimanikya, trapped by be traced to Charyapada, to Matsyendranath and Jnanadei Maluni, one of the seven tantric sisters, Daripada of the Natha cult. They wrote esoteric was transformed into a sheep by day and a youth poetry in language known as Sandhya bhasa. The by night. The kavya end with the transformation local idioms they used are still in currency in this of the sheep into Ahimanikya under royal orders area. Lakshmikara, daughter-in-law of and the reunion of the love-lorn lovers. Jnanadei 72 Orissa Review * May - 2006 expresses her disdainful horror in her response be saved by the grace of god. This is what we to the king¶s command to bring the sheep. ³What find from canto to canto. The most remarkable an idea´, exclaims the cunning Jnanadei, ³a sheep aspect of this voluminous kavya is the in the house of a gardener, a horse in house of a transcendental vision of God seen by a hunter potter and a monkey in the house of a weaver ;´ through a strange bird in canto XVII.´.. No hands The Chauhans who ruled Sonepur for /No feet.. No beak/No colour, No shape/No about three hundred years kept up the tradition nose, no ears... Its body filled the sky, the earth of the Somagupta kings whose copperplate and the underworld. And he looked into his body charters carry lines of highly ornate poetry. In the and saw the bird.´ This immanent us of the poet¶s Maranjmura copper plates of Yayati, Sonepur- mystic English contemporary Wordsworth in on-Mahanadi has been depicted as a metropolitan ³Tintern Abbey´ - city washed by the moon-lit, foam-crested, A sense sublime restless waves of the confluence sanctified by its Of something far more holy water, decorated with rest-houses, deeply interfused resounding with the beaming, blooming lotus-faces Whose dwelling is the light of amorous women with anticing side-long of setting suns glances. And the round ocean and the living air During the reign of Niladhar Sing Deo And the blue sky and in the (1841-91) there lived at Sonepur three great mind of man devotional poets namely, Chandramani Das, We see this cosmic vision again in Bhima Bhoi and Bhubaneswar Panigrahi. Srikrishna Sudhamruta where the asta patavamsis Chandramani Das was a siddha yogi seated on the Garuda witness Krishna¶s Gopa whose samadhi pitha is visited by thousands of Lila far down in Maya Dwaraka and look back devotees all the year round. His best known work and yet find him behind them. is Sudhasara Gita (1940) consisting, like the Chandramani Das wrote ³Tandava famous Bhagavat Gita, of 18 Cantos. It is based Nruttya´, ³Bhsramana Gita´ ³Halia Gita´, on the Pinda-Brahmanda tattwa of the ³Prabhati´, ³Balagopala Chautisa´, ³Gupta Panchasakha school of poetry. But, while this Gopibhasa´, etc. some of which are yet to see intricate tattwa is made complicated by the the light of day. He was a Vaishnavite poet who Panchasakhas it is conveyed in simple, intelligible loved bhajans and kirtans. And yet the god he language by Chandramani Das. ³Narada Gita´ worshipped was Rama and Krishna and Machha written in the form of a dialogue between Uddhava and Kachha and Narasimha - all rolled into one. and Narada is Yogasastra turned Kavyasastra. And that one even is disembodied Brahman. These Yogas are quite different from those Bhima Bhoi began where Chandramani delineated in the Gita and yet this unpublished had left. His god was Mahima, the Sunya Brahma kavya closes with the beatific vision of anantasayi or the Void. Tribals are animists. They woship Vishnu which reminds us of the Viswarupa in the ³rocks and stones and trees´. And yet here was Gita. an unschooled tribal rebel who declared an ³Bhavataraka´ which is another unremitting, uncompromising battle against unpublished but unparalleled work by this saint idolatry, against brahminical orthodoxy and royal poet seems to have been influenced by Ram Das authority. Setting up his ashram at Khaliapali near Dadhyata Bhakti. It comprises thirty cantos and Sonepur with the patronage of Raja Niladhar Sing is an episode on sin and salvation. From men to Deo, Bhim Bhoi became the Mahima Swamy of animals, from animals to reptiles-each one can West Orissa whose monotheistic bhajans set to 73 Orissa Review * May - 2006 the tune of the castanet ring in the raptured ears Padmavandha, Rathavandha, Gomutrachhanda, of his million devotees in West Bengal, Andhra, etc. scattered throughout with uncontrolled Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Bhima Bhoi prodigality. the last four cantos are sometimes was a prolific poet who, at once, dictated four detached from the kavya and sung as morning bhajans to four scribes. Of his writings mention hymns which, in their lucidity of expression, depth may be made of Srutinisedha Gita, Adi Anta Gita, of feeling and melodic beauty, have hardly any Astaka Bihari Gita, Brahma Nirupana Gita, parallel in Oriya poetry. Besides ³Prematarangini´ Bhajanamala, Chautisa Madhuchakra, Manu written in 30 cantos, kavyas like ³Bhagavata Sabha Mandala, Brahma Chalaka, Mahatmya´, ³Astapadi´ and a few lyrics and Stutichintamani and ³Mahima Vinod´, a chautisas based on the Krishna cult by ponderous poetic itinerary of Mahima Swamy yet Bhubaneswar Panigrahi are a precious treasure to be published. Besides, he has dictated of Oriya poetry. In one of these songs, Krishna, numerous bhajans and chautisas which are still on hearing Radhas grief-stricken separation, lying scattered here and there. In Brahama bursts into one of the most ornamental utterances. Nirupana Gita Bhima Bhoi defines Brahman as Nira niraja nayanaru nivara Purusa and Prakruti, light and darkness, Varaja vasa khedajalu uddhara knowledge and ignorance, master and slave, sea Dharadharastana vinayavistara and sky, good and evil, death and immortality. Tara kesa mukha poti re. But the magnum opus of Bhima Bhoi is his Stuti Chintamani which has no parallel in Oriya poetry. Raja Niladhar was himself a poet, a it elevates pure personal suffering to the height of painter, a composer, and a musician. The lyrics a kavya like Wordsworth¶s ³Prelude´. Here in he wrote were simple, sweet and passionate and Orissa a wail of agony was, for the first time, were largely influenced by the prevalent taste of considered subject matter for poetical composition Vaishnavite poetry. in Bhima Bhoi¶s hands. We, therefore, sometimes Rajarsi Prataprudra Sing Deo (1891- strongly feel this unlettered genius of an 1902), Niladhar¶s son and successor, was well- unimportant Garjat of those days should have versed in Sanskrit literature and culture. He had been, in all earnest, given the honour of composed several hymns in Sanskrit included in inaugurating the modern age in Oriya poetry. Stotratarangini (1893) comprising astakas, There was another neglected talent of dasakas, dwadasakas on pattamaheswari, here Sonepur - Bhubaneswar Panigrahi- whose is nityajnanananda sudhamvonidhirupa, an ocean ³Prema Tarangini´ kavya can rival the best of of eternal wisdom and bliss. Somalesvari is Upendra Bhanja, ³Kavi Samrat´ of Oriya poetry. Padmasina, trinayanayuta proditaditya kantih, a Born to an humble brahmin family of Gaurgaon, three-eyed goddess seated on a lotus and shining Bhubanear Panigrahi was a court-poet of Niladhar like the sun.