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 . 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 , 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 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 ´, 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 , 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. Goddess Sureswari dazzles with white Sing Deo and a pundit of much learning. tulips trembling on the creeper of her fine frame, ³Prematarangini´ which means ³a river of love´ sphurat malli mala lalitatanuvallari parisara, while deals with the separation and union of Krishna the Mahanadi rushes on to lie on the large lap of and the Gopis in a language charged with passion the eastern sea, prachipayodhi vipulankaviharasila. and power. This is highly ornate, pictorial poetry, Prataprudra¶s poet, Pt. Chintamani Nanda¶s a long love-song composed to a wide variety of Jagadisa Mahima Stavah is another solid metres, decorated with figures of speech of contribution to the world of Sanskrit hymns. alankaras like Utpreksha, Punarukti, Yamaka, If Prataprudra was a Sanskrit scholar, it Rupaka, Simhavalokana, Vyagragati, etc. and is all but natural that the Oriya kavyas namely Chitravandhas like Samputavandha, Chaturdasapadi (1918) attributed to him should

74 Orissa Review * May - 2006 carry on them the distinct stamp of his Sanskrit resembles Prataprudra¶s Chaturdasapadi in scholarship. If Upendra Bhanja¶s Vaidehisha content and form, Anangarangini and Vilasa and ¶ Rasa Kallola are Chandraprabha Kavya which drew the admiring written with the first letter of each line beginning attention of poet show the poet¶s with µE¶ and µN¶ respectively, Chandravati rare combination of tradition and modernity. parinaya is composed in chakaradyaniyama (each Anangarangini deals with the imaginary story of line beginning with the alphabet-¶Cha¶) which is love between Naravahana, Raja of Kausambi and rarer still in Oriya vocabulary. Based on an Chandraprabha. Anangarangini deals with the episode from the Mahabharata this kavya deals imaginary story of love between with the elopement and marriage of Chandravati, Rasananda,Yuvaraj of Kanchanapura and Duyodhana¶s daughter, with Shamva, Srikrishna¶s Anangarangini, princes of Kamanagara, while son. Like ³Prematarangini´, this is a pictorial, Chandraprabha Kavya delineates the live and musical kavya composed to as many as twentytwo marriage, separation and union between metres like Kalasa, Ramakeri, Rasakoila, Naravahana, Raja of Kausambi and Vasanta, Chakrakeli, Mangalagujjari, Chandraprabha, daughter of the fairy king, Shankarabharana, etc. The splendour of Chitraketu. The visible approach of description, the opulence of alankaras, and the Anangarangini¶s youth depicted by the florist mellifluity of its music make it one of the milestones Kalavati in Ch.II and the description of the spring- in the Riti Yuga Oriya poetry. Prataprudra¶s garden in Ch.IV of Anangararangini, the elaborate unpublished ³Chaupadi Ratna´ contains powerful depiction of the spring-forest, the sunset and lyrics on the Radha-Krishna love theme. The sunrise in Chandraprabha Kavya justify them as colophon verses of the originals of Chandravati jewels of Oriya poetry. While there is the Parinaya and Chaturdasapadi preserved at unmistakable shadow of the ornamental poetry Gourgan in manuscript form bear the name of of the Riti Yuga on Anangarangini, Chandraprabha Bhubaneswar Panigrahi. Thus these kavyas attributed to Prataprudra were definitely written Kavya is a splendid specimen of simplicity in by Bhubaneswar which BM Sing Deo later modern potery. Its theme is ancient but its published in the name of his father, Prataprudra. treatment brings it close to the poetry of Bhubaneswar Panigrahi¶s son, Dwija Nilambar, Radhanath and Nandakishore. In St.267-9, too, has left behind him a few significant lyrics Naravahana nostalgically reminisces : composed in medieval Vaisnavite mode. This rich The same scented breeze from the south tradition of poetry is fostered and sustained by The same warm song of the cuckoo, the natural loveliness of Sonepur, its rivers and The same flowers, the same bees streams, its hills and forests, its fields and groves White with pollen grains, and, above all, by the Mahanadi flowing down the same sweet air, loud on the stones and low on the sand, singing And yet since her departure with Tennyson¶s brook, µMen may come and men Something has happened to my heart. may go/ But I go on forever.¶ Maharani Lady Parvati Devi and Yuvaraj The reign of Birmitrodaya Sing Deo Somabhusan have respectively left behind them witnessed the flowering of all branches of literture: two important kavyas namely, Syamantaka Mani poetry, novel, drama, biography, travelogue, (1928) and Gajendra Mokshana (1907). While translations, etc. Syamantaka Mani deals with the loss and Birmitrodaya is said to have written restoration of the jewel Syamantaka, Gajendra Chandraprabha Kavya (1902), Astapadi (1926), Mokshana depicts the story of the salvation of an and Anangarangini(1935). Whille Astapadi elephant crocodile from a Gajendra Mokshana

75 Orissa Review * May - 2006 claim a special place in Oriya poetry for its moving Bichhandacharan were sweating and struggling to simplicity spontaneity and spirituality. keep the banner of the Oriya language flying, here was a thin, little voice in a remote corner of Orissa Pt.Aditya Prasad Guru was primarily a lifting its lyric of patriotic protest. Sanskrit scholar who attempted three kavyas in Oriya. Kutiravasini (1931), Kokila Sandesa and Sonepur had a rich tradition of songs and ³Tarapurgarh´ (MS). While Kokila Sandesa is music. Niladhar Sing used to compose songs and written in the tradition of Duta Kavyas like sing them to the accompaniment of musical Kalidasa¶s Meghaduttam and Dhoyi µKaaviraja¶s instruments which he himself played. Birmitrodaya Pavanadutam, Kutiravasini, dedicated to sing Deo wrote half a dozen books containing hundreds of songs which continued the tradition Maharani Parvati Devi, is based on Canto VII of of kavisurya Baladeva Rath and Gopalakrushna Devi Bhagavatam. It tells the story of Sukanya, in Oriya Poetry. These songs contained in Sangita daughter of Raja Saryati, and her god-conquering Ratnahara (1925), Sangita Vallari (1931), chastity. Krushna Premodaya Champukavyam O Sangita Mayaraduta by Lakanath Misra Sudhasagara (1933), Sangita Mitrodaya (1934) resembles Guru¶s Kokila Sandesa. Both are and Sangita Kusumanjali are largely based on the love between Radha and Krishna, and composed Khanda Kavyas written on the same theme and to a wide variety of metres like µpuravi¶, µtodi in the same µKalyana Ahari¶ metre. But Misra¶s paraja¶, µkedara gauri¶, µbhatiari¶, µkamodi¶, Haripriya (1922) can be classed with modern µsaari¶, µmalhara¶, µpanchama varadi¶, poetry. It tells the story of Haripriya¶s µanandabhairavi¶, µsankarabharana¶, etc. They are disappearance and discovery against the scenic, set even in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, tunes. These sylvan setting of Sonepur.The treatment of nature songs, characterized by soft sentiments and lyrical in this kavya carries it close to the best of intensity, combine in them the lucid simplicity of ¶s nature poetry. Elizabethan love-lyrics with the intellectual titillation of metaphysical secular songs. Birmitrodaya¶s Harihar Panigrahi is a minor poet whose unpublished lyrics and chautisas and Malasri Agamani, Nirajana, Niti Saurabha, Asrudhara, alongwith Swarnapura Bedha Parikrama (1899) Archana and Santwana Puspamalya claim him a and Lady Parvati Devi¶s Humva Gita (1929) come place among Oriya poets. While the last three under this category of songs. Birmitrodaya are elegiac effusions on the death of Birmitrodaya compiled and published two collections of Sing Deo, the first three relate the poet to nature Sanskrit hymns, namely, Stotratarangini (1893) and human nature. Though of shorter stature than and Suvarnamerusatakam (1927) to which his celebrated father Gopinath Panigrahi, Harihara Niladhar, Prataprudra and Birmitrodaya have made significant contributions. will be remembered for his pan-Orissan sentiments expressed in Nirajana. In the midst of This tradition of poetry has come down drowsy autumnal fertility and dreamy to Kaibalya Charan Nayak whose ³Nala Charita´ voluptuousness, in the midst of what Keats would written in Riti Yuga style and ³Sakha Prasakha¶, have called, µmellow fruitfulness¶, the poet finds a romantic effusion are yet to be traced. Marudhara (1961) and Sandhyatara (1969) Orissa condemned to starvation and slavery. contain around fifty devotional lyrics which show Where is the trade across the seven seas ? the the poet¶s disenchantment and disillusionment with poet asks ruefully. At a time when the Oriya the world and his theocentric mindset. One of his language was under attack when poets like longest poems in Sandhyatara is µChandli Chule¶ Gangadhar, Radhanath, Bichitranand, which takes the reader on a delightful trip round

76 Orissa Review * May - 2006 the religious and historical places of Sonepur. Misra¶s famous Kosalanandakavyam (1929). Kaibalya Charan¶s MS ³Mahapathara Yatri´ ³Swarnapurarajavansanucharitam´ which the contains a cluster of divine poems expressive of poet rightly calls the ³Second Kosalananda´. It is the poet¶s world-weariness and stoical surrender a poetic, historical record of the Chauhan Rajas to divine dispensation. The last poem of Sonepur beginning with Madangopal and µMahapathara Yatri¶ which paints the pathetic ending with Birmitrodaya. picture of a dying man casting longing lingering looks behind closes with the emboldening sense Damodar Misra Sastri¶s µSwarnapura of self-realization with which he ³puts out to sea´ Chauhana Kirttidarpana´ is a historical kavya in in the hour of sunset and evening star. Oriya serialized in Hiteisini. It traces the history of the Sonepur Chauhans in simple, Satyanarayan Bohidar was a poet with a lyrical poetry. Unfortunately this rare works has difference. Author of µKosali Bhasakosh¶, his not been published in the form of a book. works namely Tik Chahnra (1975). Ghavghavo, Ghuvkudu etc. are written in Kosali or Sambalpuri Pt Aditya Prasad Guru¶s ³Tarapurgarh´ language. The ease and facility with which Bohidar in Oriya, Syenagirih and Purascharana vamna weaves the local idioms into the tapestry of his Champuh in Sanskrit, too, are historical kavyas poetry is indeed amazing. which trace the history and legends surrounding Sonepur. Of the other poetical works of Sonepur, mention may be made of the monumental Travel Literature ³Buddha Purana´ in several volumes by Nakula At a time when there was hardly any Nayak, ³Papakshaya Mahatmya´ by travelogue in Oriya literature, Sonepur created a Dharmananda Meher, ³Rama Lila´ by Gandhar host of travel literature. Some of them were Vaisya, ³Anutapa Tarangini´ by Pt.A.PGuru, written in the form of dialogic kavyas which lend Purana Kathasara by Parvati Devi, credence and objectivity to history. Swarnapura Ratnasimhasana Prasasti, by Damodar Sastri, Gunadarsha (1921) by Damodar Sastri is the Ratnasimhasanotsava by Gopinath Panigrahi and historical geography of Sonepur in the form of a Kalika Purana by B.M. Sing Deo. Champu Kavya gadyam hudyam Historical Literature ashesasavdanihitam padyam . Lokananda and Bijoy Chandra Mazumdar who was a Sadananda, fictitious merchants from Prayag, poet and a historian wrote ³Sonpur in the begin their tour of Sonepur State from the left Sambalpur Tract´ (1911) and Orissa in the bank of the Mahanadi, cross over the Panchara Making (1925). Sri Ramchandra Mullick wrote Pragana and visit the places of interest on the right ³Samkhipta Kosala Itihas´ (1931) and ³Odisa bank till they enter the town. Maharudrayaina Itihas´ which are pure history. ³Sonepur Itihas´ Kavyam (1920) like Biswanath Rath¶s by Pt.Aditya Prasad Guru and ³Sonepur Panigrahanapadapapah (1919) and Jagannath Chauhana Vansa Itihas´ by Biswanath Rath, too, Mishra¶s Utasavatarangini Champuh (1910), is are prosaic attempts at pure history. But the works another historical kavya by Damodar Misra who by Pt.Gopinath Panigrahi Vidyaratna like Upahara deacribes the journey of Maharaja Birmitrodaya Puspanjali (1910). Kumara Janmotsava (1927), through the scenic Sonepur. His visit to Sambalpur Ekadasi Udyapana (1928) constitute the poetical and Benaras. His trip round the temples of history of the Chauhan rulers of Sonepur. They Benaras, the performance of the Maharudra set out to celebrate an occasion but end up as Yajna and his return journey are described with history. Gopinath Panigrahi¶s master-piece is a the fidility and sincerity of a distinguished count - historical Sanskrit epic of the order of Gangadhar who draws in his first hand experience.

77 Orissa Review * May - 2006

But on top of all is Gopinath Panigrahi¶s Rani is bound to be uneventful. But, Dasgupta Brata Charita (1915) which is a remarkable discovers in Amulyamani more than a Rani. She travelogue in prose at a time when Oriya literature is an ideal mother, a devoted wife and a fine was quite poor in prose. The occasion in the specimen of Indian womanhood. The book deals thread ceremony of Somabhusan Sing Deo, with Amylyamani¶s early years in the Kalahandi Birmitrodaya¶s son, but it sends the writer to palace, her married life, her children and different places of Orissa and beyond, which come grandchildren, her role as a wife and a mother out aggressively alive in Panigrahi¶s journalese. and her last days. While Part-I takes us round Puri, Sareikela, It is said that Pt.Gopinath Panigrahi had Boudh, Athgarh, Dhenkanal, Kasipur, Kuchinda, attempted a book of biographies and called it Calcutta etc, we are set on a guided tour round ³Satcharitra Samadara´ which is lost to posterity. the temple town of Sonepur in Part-II. What Jagannath Misra Tarkatirtha, does in Dramatic Literature Utsavatarangini Champuh, Gopinath Panigrahi Sonepur had a rich tradition of dance and Vidyaratna does in Brata Charita. But, what is music and drama. Imagine a Yuvaraj freely mixing remarkable and delightful about Panigrahi is his with the public and uninhibitedly acting his part sinewy prose and graphic visual descriptions with them on the stage. And this was possible at which are the hall-marks of travel literature. Sonepur in the second decade of the 20th century. It is said that B.M.Sing Deo had written The Yuvaraj was Somabhusan Sing Deo. His a book Bharata Bhramana, which confined an Sridama Daridrya Bhanjana (1920) is the only interesting account of his travels across the play available on Sridama¶s grinding poverty, his country, now unfortunately lost. unflinching devotion to Lord Krishna, Lord Krishna¶s unshakable friendship with Sridama- all Biographical Literature these are depicted in the drama. Bhagia Panda is ³Here in this country´, wrote a newly created character in this mythological play, B.C.Mazumdar, ³we cremate the body, we do which lends dramatic relief, through frolicking not raise a monument´. Yet he raised one in humour, to this otherwise serious play. The Chohan Rulers of Sonpur (1925) brief life- dialogues are written in Hindi, Hindi mixed with sketches of Niladhar, Prataprudra and Oriya, Oriya mixed with Sambalpuri. In the Birmitrodaya in pure panegyrics. B.C.Mazumdar Foreword, B.M.Sing Deo refers to one-actor was closely associated with the Sonepur Durbar. titled ³Mayasavari´ by Somabhusan which is not He had seen the Rajas within close range. Had available. he wished, he would have built soild biographics Gopinath Panigrahi is said to have on the rulers, but he did not choose to do so. attempted some poetic plays, namely ³Subhadra May be because, truth is dangerous and to sing Parinaya´, ³Sachala Harana´ and ³Rukmini the praise is less problematic and more profitable Harana´ which have walked into oblivion. than to launch a perilous voyage on the discovery of the µwhole man¶. Fictional Litérature But unlike Chohan Rulers of Sonpur, Life It has already been said that Birmitrodaya of Rani Amulyamani Devi (1915) contains a full- had a poetic talent, but his works on prose fiction fledged biography, even though here, too, we do like Bhagna Kankana (1920) and Nilakuntala not see anything shocking or revolting in the Rani. (1927) are milestones in Oriya fiction. At a time The Rani was, of course, on her own the true when Oriya literature had only a handful of novels representative of Indian womanhood - an to show, it was here at Sonepur that these novels ardhangini to Rajarsi Prataprudra. The life of a were written to enrich the literature of the State.

78 Orissa Review * May - 2006

Bhagna Kankana is a historical novel him translate into Oriya great Sanskrit classics like based on the intrigue between Ajayagarh had Ratnavali (1894), Abhijnana Sakuntala Nataka Bishnugarh Raj families. The distinction of this (1898, Vikramorvasi (1910), Rutusamhara novel lies in the Jaina background against which (1915), Naisadhiya, Charita (1921), Sisupala the quiet words of wisdom uttered by a little Vadha (1928), Dasa Kumara Charita (1928), ignominious girl Johan in the gathering gloom of Kalika Purana (1929), and Uttara Rama Charita the evening. ³Sorrow breeds sorrow. The Kavya (1930) Sing Deo acknowledges the help compassion of Lord Mahabir removes sorrow of Bhubaneswar Badpanda, Fakir Misra, and leads the soul through endless joy towards , , etc. without Nirvana. What is sorrow, prince ?´ which the major works of Kalidas, Sriharsa, Bhavabhuti,Dandi, Magha,Markandeya would While Bhagna Kankana is a historical have remained Greek to the ordinary Oriya novel, Nilakuntala is a sociological fiction, which readers. reflects the dwindling values of the rural society of those days. The centers of activity are Binodpur Under BM Sing Deo¶s patronage BC and Bishnupur and the merit of the novel lies in Mazumdar translated Gita Gobindam into Bengali. the seamless integration of the main plot with the Lady Parvati Devi, it is said, had translated under plot. Nilakuntala projects the picture of the Bhaktikavyam and Pt.Gopinath Panigrahi, contemporary society: the misguided youth, the Malatimadhavam and Mruchhakatikam, but these village touts, the simple, unsuspecting, invaluable translation have become extinct with unsophisticated Savara society, the gossips in the the passage of time. river ghat, the evils of poverty and the benefits of It may be mentioned here that great education - all these are realistically portrayed in works like Gangadhar Misra¶s the novel. The justice dispensed is poetic. The Kosalanandakavyam which is one of the three denouncement is harden, it is too sudden to be historical Sanskrit Mahakavyas of the country, credible. And yet this novel will live for the life it Gopinath Tunga¶s Virasarvasvam which is the mirrors. quintessence of twentyseven shastras of , Translation Niladri Mahodayah which is the only complete and comprehensive compendium on the µPuja The appetite of Birmitrodaya for Sanskrit padhhati¶ of Lord Jagannath, Pt.Harihara Rath¶s classics was whetted by the pundits who Birmitrodaya Mahabharata in three volumes, etc. surrounded him. They were Pt. Krupasindhu would not have seen the light of day without the Mishra,. Jyotisalankara. Pt. Ramachandra Padhi, royal patronage of Sonepur. The Sonepur Chair Siddhanta Tilaka, Pt.Gobinda Rath, of English at Revenshaw College and the Post- Jyotischandra, Pt Gopinath Panigrahi, Vidyaratna, graduate Department of Calcutta University Pt.Kasinath Mishra, Kavyavinod, Pt. Damodar founded by Sonepur Durbar have immensely Misra, Sastri, Pt.Aditya Prasad Guru, contributed to the cause of language and literature Kavyatirtha, Pt. Chintamani Nanda, down the years. Vidyabhusana, Pt.Devaraj Misra, Sahityopadhyana, Pt. Brusabha Misra, Vidyalankara etc. Maharaja BM Sing Deo might have also received inspiration from Prataprudra and Amulyamani, his parents who were well-read Retd. Registrar, Berhampur University, Plot - 22, and well-versed in Sanskrit literature. This made Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar.

79