Role of Panchasakha in the Socio-Religious Life of the People of Odisha
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Role of Panchasakha in the Socio-Religious life of the people of Odisha Akhay Mishra Odisha India Abstract Odisha displayed remarkable socio-religious harmony through the different times of her history. Right from the ancient period, Odisha, assumed to be a melting point of different religions and cultures. By the time when the Muslims started ruling over Odisha, Jainism, Buddhism, Sakti worship, Sun worship, Saivism and Vaishnavism all mingled together to influence the religious life of the people. This has been reflected in the social habits, food, dress and ornaments; and dance, music and festivals. A resume of such a socio-religious harmony was displayed in the period of Panchasakha. Odisha in the medieval period marks an era with the past in respect of the evolution of society. The Hindus gradually accommodated the newcomers viz., the Muslims and they became parts of Odishan society. The absence of racial conflicts exhibits the better social and religious understanding of the people belonging to all the segments of medieval Odisha. Introduction The bhakti movement influenced the whole country at different times, and had a definite impact not only on religious doctrines, rituals, values and popular beliefs, but on arts, culture and the state systems as well. The social protest and popular movement in medieval Orissa not only had a close bearing on the bhakti movement, it influenced almost the entire body of the contemporary society and culture. In this article, there is an attempt to discuss the role of Panchasakhas in Odia culture. Their influence on the ruling class of contemporary period has also been noticed. Numerous social changes that appeared in medieval Orissa like the growth of education and moral upliftment with the emergence of the Bhagavata Ghara, development of Pala, goti-pua dances, performance of suangas and organisation of Dola Yatra bear the unmistakable marks. When Hindu religion was full of dogmas, superstitions and rituals and when the caste rigidity, the system of untouchability became unbearable, during that period (1470-1550 A.D) there flourished a band of five comrades generally known as Panchasakha in Odisha and they www.ijellh.com 375 were Balaram Das, Jagannath Das, Ananta Das, Jasobanta Das and Achyutananda Das.1 By 1510, a great Bhakti philosopher Sri Chaitanya from Nabadvipa of Bengal visited Puri with the Vaishnava message of love and settled there till 1533 A.D.2 Sri Chaitanya was closely associated with the Panchasakhas and other Odia followers during his long stay in Puri. It is evident from the MadalapanJi3 and different writings of Achyutananda Dasa4 and Sudarshan Dasa5 that the panchasakhas participated in the sankirtan of SriChaitanya. He introduced the Nagara Sankirtana where there were no discriminations based on caste or social class, and the songs of the kirtanas were not only in classical Sanskrit but also in the popular languages such as Bengali and Oriya, encouraging ordinary and low-caste people to participate more directly. Chaitanya also accepted low-caste people as his followers, embraced fishermen and honored “ex-Muslim” devotees such as Haridasa, Rupa and Sanatana etc. So the Panchasakha were deeply influenced by Sri Chaitanya. They followed the path of Bhakti adopting mantra, tantra and yantra in their sadhana; they manifested mystic power and could change their body into different forms. Chaitanya has referred to these five friends as Panchasakha and stated that the Panchasakha are like Pancha Atma, i.e., five souls (Atma- Tattva) and are in no way lesser than Avataars of Vishnu. However, there is an interesting belief about the origin of Panchasakha which relates them to the Mahabharata in the Dwapara-Yuga, and is also stated in Shunya Samhita written by Mahapurusha Achyutananda. Here, Mahapurusha describes Panchasakha literally meaning „five mates or friends‟. Towards the end of Mahabharat era when Lord Krishna was leaving the mortal body, Nilakantheswara Mahadeva appeared and had a conversation with Lord Krishna. He revealed that the Lord‟s companions Dama, Sudama, Srivatsa, Subala, and Subahu would reincarnate in the Kali-Yuga and will be known as Ananta, Acyutananda, Jagannatha, Balarama and Yasovanta, respectively. Thus, the believers of the Panchasakha consider that these five saints were the most intimate friends of Lord Krishna in Dwapara- Yuga, who came again in Kali-Yuga to serve Him. Shri Chaitanya was the first to establish the Bhaaba-Mishrita Naama Marga (the path of chanting the holy name with proper feelings and faith). He first introduced this method for all the simpleminded people and made many realize that God- realization can also be achieved by simpler method of pure devotion without undergoing difficult method of austerities. It is he who first disclosed the importance of the Mahaa Mantra Hare Krisna Hare Krisna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare! Like the Puranas and Tantric texts, the Panchasakha literature also abounds with it. They were the first to take the Hindu Sanskrit texts into the reach of the common people, by translating them into the local language, Odia. This was first done by www.ijellh.com 376 Sarala Dasa‟s translation of the Mahabharata in the mid-fifteenth century, followed by Balarama Dasa‟s Jagamohan Ramayana, Jagannath Dasa‟s Bhagabat Purana, and Acyutananda Dasa‟s Harivamsa. The second aspect is their form of Odia Vaisnavism, which sees God as the‟ Shunya Purusha‟ and the nature of the soul as being able to merge into the Absolute. According to the Panchasakhas, Lord Jagannath is the „PurnaBrahma‟, and all the Avatars of Vishnu emanate from Him, and also enter into Him at the end. Jagannatha was the chief god of the devotional sect. The chief ideal of the Panchasakhas was that, as Bhakta they would be faithful, humble, learned, selfless, active, benevolent and affectionate. The Panchasakhas were against the caste system, they considered all beings as one. They translated the Sanskrit Classics into local language, Odia. Anyone could become a Vaisnava, even Muslims. Chaitanya‟s path of devotion was known as Raganuga Bhakti Marga, but the Panchasakhas differed from Chaitanya and believed in Gyana Mishrita Bhakti Marga. The Panchasakha converted ancient Hindu texts into prose (of simple language) easily understandable by the people of Udra Desha (Odisha). The Panchasakhas believed in a concept of God as Sunya (emptiness, void, zero) called Shunya Purusha or Shunya Brahman. This Shunya signifies a transcendental principle that eludes the conceptual nexus applied to human thinking as described in the Upanishads. The Panchasakhas project the deity Jagannath as the embodiment of the Shunya Purusha. Balarama Das Among the Panchasakhas who flourished in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, the eldest and the most radical was Balarama Dasa who was born in 1473 A.D., at Puri.6 He is sometimes called Matta Balarama because of his disregard for social conventions in favor of ecstatic Bhakti. Balarama Dasa wrote the famous Jagamohana or Dandi Ramayana, as well as a number of other works entitled Gita Abakasa, Bhava samudra, Gupta Gita, Vedanta Sara, Mriguni Stuti, Saptanga yogasara tika, Vedanta sara or Brahma tika, Baula gai gita, Kamala locana chotisa, Kanta koili, Bedha parikrama, Brahma gita, Brahmanda bhugola, Vajra kavaca, Jnana chudamani, Virat gita, Ganesh vibhuti, Amarakosha Gita, Lakshmi Purana. Balarama Das‟s "Jagamohan Ramayana" is one of the three most important epics in Orissa. It is purely in Odia composition. The work subsequently acquired the name of Dandi Ramayana, as it became a popular work and the contents were being recited or sung by the danda or road-side. Sanskrit Ramayana was read out by the Pundits in a high mandap (altar) of the temple or of a village where the king, zamindars, and Brahmins of high class came to listen to the sacred text. When poet Balarama Dasa wrote the Ramayana in Oriya and as it www.ijellh.com 377 became popular and began to be sung and recited outside the humble house in the danda (common street between two rows of houses). In his notes, "Balarama Dasa, as a national poet, has sung for the people and by making Orissa a miniature world by itself has taught his countrymen to love the land of their birth. Balarama Dasa condemned the priests responsible for degrading religion to mere means of making a livelihood. In his Ramayana he exposed the greedy and exploitative attitude of the priests. When Rama, Laxman and Sita had been to Gaya to offer Pinda, the priests also did not spare them from collecting dakshina7. Sugriva, Hanuman and Bibhishan were the ideals of the poet because of their honesty, sincereity and helpful attitude. When the city of Ayodhya was reconstructed, Rama himself invited these three persons to the ceremony celebrating the inauguration of the city. The poet said through Rama that the persons who help selflessly at the time of danger, their foot-prints are more important than the greatest religious activity like Yajna.8 The poet did not surrender to the views of superiority of Brahmins, on the basis of merely their birth in the Brahmin families, and if they were ignorant of true dharma, i.e. social equality. He believed only those were the real Brahmins who knew Vedas, religion, and were engaged in right deeds and recognised the self of others. Those who lived only in the shrines and exploited people in the name of religion were not, according to Balarama, the true Brahmins.9 The poet did not find any djstinction between a Brahmin and a Chandal and to him all were human-beings of the same blood and flesh. To prove this he went on describing the close friendship between Purushottam Rama and Guhaka, a tribal chief of the forest. Both of them were so close that Rama delivered the message of killing Ravana first to Guhaka.