Odisha Review Classical Status to Odia Language Classical Language : Odia Subrat Kumar Prusty Government of India has established four criteria Odisha has largest number of pre-historic for grant of classical status to the modern Indian sites. Lots of Paleolithic stone implements have language. The classical status to any language been found in various sites of Odisha. Similar sites brings fame to the language and provides greater of copper Bronze Age and Iron Age are available opportunities for research and development. in plenty. The latest archaeological excavation has taken place in 2013 at Harirajpur. The findings In this context, one can judiciously think of excavation includes human skeleton, broken about giving this classical status to Odia language. potteries, carbon, earthen pots, agricultural stone The ancientness of the Odia language is being implements, animal bones, flooring of houses, proved from its soil which speaks about two types remains of hearth, which claim to be 4000 years of language from very beginning. The old. The Tel river civilization throwslight on a great development of Odia can be seen through its civilization existing in Kalahandi, Balangir, spoken and written forms. The spoken languages Koraput regions in the past that is recently getting are expressed in two ways. One preserved explored. The discovered archaeological wealth through folk forms and the other preserved of Tel Valley speaks of a well civilized, urbanized, through cave paintings. The songs sung at the time cultured people inhabiting on this land around of birth, death and other functions are preserved, 2000 years ago. The Radhanagar Fort of Jajpur stories are painted through cave paintings both was the centre of circle on the periphery of which represent the creativity of the underlying literature. lay places like Kayama, Deuli, Tarapur, Vajragiri, The Gudahandi painting of Kalahandi district and Langudi etc. These sites yield inscriptions the cave art of Khandagiri and Udayagiri are the mentioning the names of Tapussa and Bhallika. great achievements of this primitive architecture. All over the world Tapussa and Bhallika are th Towards the 13 century A.D. the deities made regarded as the first disciple of Buddha. On the at Konark not only limit the language to the time basis of the new findings, Dr. Monica Smith of and space but also spread to the distant countries the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University like Bali, Java, Sumatra, Thailand, Cambodia, of California, claimed that the fortified city is Malaya and Philippine. Borobudur temple of Sisupalagarh of Odisha, flourished from around central Java and the Angkor Wat temple of 5th century B.C and probably remained well after Cambodia are the fine examples of Odisha- the 4th century A.D. Researchers say the items influenced Indian architecture. found during the excavation point to a highly 4 March- 2014 Classical Status to Odia Language Odisha Review developed urban settlement. Very early in Sahajayana by Lashminkara, the princess of Kalingan history, the Kalingas acquired a Sonepur and sister of Indrabhuti. It is believed reputation for being a fiercely independent people. that the great Buddhist saint Padmasambhava went Ashoka’s military campaign against Kalinga was to Tibet from Odisha to propagate Vajrayana one of the bloodiest in Indian history on account Buddhism and founded a new religion named of the fearless and heroic resistance offered by Lama. the Kalingas to the mighty armies of the expanding Mauryan Empire. In the maritime history of India, Odisha (ancient Kalinga) played a significant role in Odisha in ancient days had illuminated spreading Indian culture to other parts of the Indian sky of knowledge so brilliantly with its own world. The picture of a Giraffe on the Sun Temple unique luster that the Rig Veda in its tenth Mandala of Konark speaks of the trade relation of Kalinga had to advise its followers to be cautious of with African countries in the 13th Century. The Odisha where indigenous people find their object picture of elephants in Odisha temple being carried of worship in wooden logs. Odisha is the land of by a boat speaks of the vigorous internal maritime Jagannâth culture which is the principle of Sarva activity. The maritime trade has been entrenched Dharma Samanvaya. Jagannâth is a wooden deity in the socio cultural and religious life of Odisha (Saura). He is the Dakhinakâli for the Saktas and for centuries. The traditions like Taapoi episode Vairaba for the Saivites. He is Mahâganapati for of Khudurukuni Osha, Nisha Mangala Osha, the Gânapatyas and at the same time He is the Somanatha Brata Katha, Boita Bandana on Suryanârâyan for the Sauryas. His festivals are the next day morning of the Diwali and of a Purânic origin and the rituals are an admixture morning of Karttika Purnima, the festivals like of tribal rituals and Sâkta’s nyasa and mudras Panchuka of Kartika Purnima and Bali Yatra, and many more. His majority of rituals are based imprint clear testimony of our glorious maritime on Uddiyan tantras which are the refined versions heritage. Baliyatra literally means a ‘Voyage to of Mahayan tantras as well as Shabari tantras, Bali’, and celebrates an ancient maritime tradition which have evolved from Tantrik Buddhism and and the connection with Bali. During the ceremony, tribal beliefs respectively. Of his mantras the men, women and children are dressed up in incantation Oum is Vedic and Hlim, Slim, Klim traditional costumes launch tiny boats made from are Tantrik. His Kaibalya (Mahaprasad of rice) banana peels, paper or Solapitha with lighted is of a Jaina origin and Nirmalya is of Saivite origin. lamps inside, and Odia women perform the rite of ‘Boita Bandâna’. The festival is similar to Odisha became a centre of Buddhism. the ‘Masakapan Ke Tukad’ festival of Bali, to The three Buddhist schools: Vajrayan, the ‘Loi Krathong’ festival of Thailand Kalachakrayan and Sahajayana reformed in th (ritualistic floating of model boats), to the Odisha by Odia people. By 7 century A.D., ‘Bon Om Touk’ Water Festival of Cambodia, King Indrabhuti of Sambalpur introduced it as and to the ‘That Luang’ Festival of Laos all of Vajrayana, which is supposed to have travelled which involve around the same time of the year. to other parts of the country and Tibet. Acharya Pitupada (8-9th C AD) achieved a great reputation When we talk of the recorded history we as a scholar and a saint at Ratnagiri and straightway come down to language. Recording promulgated Kalachakrayana, a new vehicle of of history or for that matter any recording Buddhism. Vajrayana was changed to necessarily requires a language. Since all the March - 2014 5 Odisha Review Classical Status to Odia Language languages of the world have not developed at the is one and the same.” [Linguistic Survey of same time, the historical recording or the recorded India, Vol-V, P-368-369]. history of different regions of the world vary from each other in matters of time. Odisha as well as The following observations by L.S.S O’ India did exist in some form or the other much Malley, who knew not only all these languages before the invention of script and a written but also Sanskrit, both classical and Vedic, may language. Odia is one of the most ancient be of interest to the readers. According to O languages of India. Eminent linguists and scholars Malley- “The great majority of the people like John Beams, G.A. Grierson, L.S.S O Malley, speak Oriya or as it is sometimes called Odri Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, John Boulton, Dr. D.P. or Utkali, the language of Odra or Utkala, Pattanayak and others have time and again argued both of which are ancient name for the country in favour of the antiquity of Odia language. now called Orissa, Oriya, with Bengali, Bihari and Assamese forms one of the four speeches As to the peculiarities of Odia as a which together make up the eastern group of language as distinct from its sister languages like Indo- Aryan Language. Its Grammatical Hindi, Bengali and Assamese. As early the 1870s Construction closely resembles that of Bengali, Sir John beams has said that, “At a period when but it has one great advantage over Bengali Oriya was already a fixed and settled language, in the fact that, as a rule, it is pronounced as Bengali did not exist, the Bangalis spoke a vast it is spelt. x x x. The Oriya Verbal system is varieties of corrupt forms of Eastern at once simple and complete. It has a long Hindi”.[Beams, Sir John, “Comparative array of tenses, but the whole is so logically Grammar of four Indo-Aryan Language”, arranged, and built on so regular a model, Vol 1.pp-120]. According to G.A. Grierson – that its principles are easily impressed upon “In the case of living rational beings, this noun the memory. It is particularly noticeable for of multitude is the word Mâne, which is said the very complete set of verbal nouns, present, to mean literally ‘men’. In the other nouns it past and future. When an Oriya wishes to is usually some word meaning ‘all’. In the varb, express the idea embodied in what in Latin as is also the case of Bengali, the singular of would be called the initiative, he simply takes the first and second persons are only used by the appropriate verbal noun and declines it the uneducated, or when respect is not in the case which the meaning necessarily intended. xxxx. Each letter in each word is requires. As every infinitive must be some clearly sounded, and it has been well described oblique case of a verbal noun, it flows that as ‘comprehensive and poetical, with a Oriya grammar does not know the so called pleasant sounding and musical intonation, and infinitive mode at all.