Re‐Appraisal of Text, Tradition and Temple: Contemplation in Socio‐Ethno‐Cultural Trend of Odishan Un‐known Kamā ‐sutrā Colophons Santosh Kumar Mallik1 1. Department of History, Nayagarh Autonomous College, Utkal University, Nayagarh, Odisha, India (Email: [email protected]) Received: 24 July 2017; Revised: 02 September 2017; Accepted: 11 October 2017 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5 (2017): 391‐402 Abstract: This essay explores the notion of textual tradition in Odia unknown Kamsutra and its proper understanding through the medieval illustrated manuscripts and several colophon; which is dealing with the behavioural activities of ‘royal family members’ or ‘particular individuals’ generally related to t he ‘sexual activities.’ Such as the process of any creativeness ‘monumental activities’ or may be the production of any art form for the public sphere as well as for individual interest, these large numbers of manuscript played a significant role to reframe the ideas. As per the assumption of economic‐historian clearly point out that; the surplus of revenue mostly converts to the ‘pleasure’ (?) and ‘passion’ (?) through the various way; it may be the literary/illustrated manuscript played a important role to producing such ‘erotic literature’ which are painted/scribed in palm leaf rather than construction of gigantic traditional temple style Odisha. There are some cultural inquisitiveness persons of the royal family, rich class community has more or less associated with the development of cultural legacy, which one chiefly the production of the sexual related literature, paintings, sculpture, and the engraving or illustrated manuscript as the medium of representation for the public ‘or’ individual. In essence of the courtly culture in medieval period their patrons donated for enriching the literature as well as illustrated manuscript tradition in portable form like palm leaf. This is basically observed in Odisha the form of pothi or tala patara pothi’s .These described about the sensual pleasure as well as the nayaka and nayika played the important role basically from mythic character and they performed as several sexual‐poses or ‘bandha’. This essay highlights the theme of courtly culture and its member’s behaviour regarding sexuality. The outstanding contribution of classical literatures and erotic illustrated manuscript’s idea; how touched the public sphere and in the later stage became more important like Kamasutra, which is only restrict in the higher class community and how these Odia manuscript became a passionate for every sphere basically the commoner or mass. Keywords: Sexual Behavior, Erotic Fantasy, Erotic Icons, Illustrated Manuscript, Literature, Odia Colophon, Kings Introduction This essay is about medieval Odishan courts and the activities of its members and every individual’s reflection in illustrated manuscript. It approaches the court from a ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5: 2017 broadly conceived ‘social history’ perspective. That is, it seeks to understand medieval Odishan courts first and foremost as societies, logical social formations composed of individuals whose relationships were governed by particular codes of behavior and modes of thought (Ali 2006). Its primary concern will be with courtly culture – and in particular the emphasis in courtly sources on beauty, refinement and love. It will place these themes, however, within the context of the court as a social institution, focusing on its organization and structure, protocol and the relational dynamics of its members (Ali 2006). Ultimately, this approach hopes to add something to our knowledge of both the sociology of early Indian courts as well as their impressive cultural achievements (Ali 2006) in Odishan context. Michel Foucault’s contribution to the study of manners has been less direct, partly because he never took up the topic directly, and partly because his approach is less assimilable to normative historical and sociological inquiry (Arditi 1998; Bryson 1998). In his uncompleted History of Sexuality, Foucault began to develop his ideas about pre‐ bourgeois forms of discipline in the West. Foucault concluded that it would not suffice to follow the threads of pre‐bourgeois notions of ‘flesh’ and ‘desire’ which sexuality itself had tried to lay claim to. Instead, it was necessary to begin with the larger ethical frameworks in which sex had always been placed‐not merely around interdictions regarding sex itself, but its place in a larger sense of now individuals should constitute relations with themselves and others (Foucault 1980 and 1985). Sheldon Pollock has recently provided a more sophisticated approach to the relationship between aesthetics and power which distances itself from theories of legitimating and ideology (Pollock S. 1998). In a number of important articles Pollock has attempted to theorize the relationship of Sanskrit kavya and political power in South Asia. He begins with the important promise that the massive and sophisticated corpus of Sanskrit literary culture which suddenly appeared in the second to fourth centuries of the Common Era in India and quickly and volubly spread over a vast geographical space ‐ usually treated as a self‐evident expression of classical ‘culture’ ‐ actually a historically produced phenomenon in dire need of some account, explanation and analysis. Pollock argues that Sanskrit, through the medium of kavya, came to define a global cultural formation or ‘cosmopolitan’ that at once transcended political boundaries and religious affiliations, uniting intellectuals and their masters in a common aesthetic culture which stretched across a wide geographical expanse. Imperial Influence in Odishan Context Odisha had a thousand‐year‐old temple‐building tradition where the “Odia builders and sculptors built like giants and finished as jewellers” (Mohapatra 1995). On faceless, cold stubborn stones the anonymous artists carved out myriad delicate images and patterns pulsating with life. From the stone to the seasoned palm leaf, from the chisel to the lekhana or iron stylus, it seems to have been only another step, a different but parallel endeavour (Mohapatra 1995). One hallmark of Odishan culture has been to treat all art‐creations‐literary, performing and visual‐as integral to each other. Forms 392 Mallik 2017: 391‐402 and figures that were carved on stone were also etched on palm leaf; they were described in words and the words were set to music which accompanied the dance‐ forms (Mohapatra 1995). The main finding of Odishan traditional culture this remarkable continuity and integration of the literary, visual and performing art‐forms. The Gupta imperial structure survived, often tenuously, until the middle of the sixth century. Its gradual collapse, under both internal and external pressures, saw an even larger wave of royal families appear on the historical record, each issuing grants of land and naming their ancestors. The earliest records of some of these families, like the Aulikaras of Mandasor, the Maitrakas of Valabhi, the Panduvamsins in Mekala, the kings of Sarabhapura, and the Maukharis of Kanauj, suggest that they had once been subordinate to the Guptas, and asserted independence after their collapse. Other families, like the Kalacuris in Malwa, the Gurjara kings of western India, the Vardhanas or Pusyabhutis of Sthanvlsvara, the kings of Gauda and Vanga, the eastern Gangas in central Odisha at Kaliriganagara, the Sailodbhavas in Korigoda, and the Manas in Odra, appeared for the first time. In the Gupta period, possibly Odisha was part of the Gutpa Empire. As Sanskrit literature was patronized by the Guptas, Odisha also must have witnessed production of Sanskrit work on palm leaf. Several grants were given during the rule of the Mathara, the Sailodbhavas, the Bhaumakaras, the Somavamsi and Bhanjas and all of these grants are narrated in Sanskrit both in poetry and prose. Before rendering them in copper plates it would have been considered necessary to get them done on palm leaf for approval of the patron king. The basic intention of the Odishan illustrate colophon in the court of king and noble person identified the prestigious job and the surplus of the economy engaged in the scribed the colophon, it may be related to kings life, kavyas, form of eroticism descriptions, local kamasutra, tantric, philosophy, literature, and shilpa etc,. Important manuscripts are also preserved in mathas, temples, palaces of kings, Bhagabata Tungis and with Zamindars, Brahmin pandit and Karana families and some others are preserved in the state museum of Odisha. The essay relocates the theory of Pollock and the interpretation of the Kavyas and its implication of the medieval kings, such type of procedure are happened in the Odisha during the medieval time frame. The regulatory of the social dilemma and the concept of sexual theme became the part of the literary as well as the production of courtly culture. The literature became standardized to the patrons of the king or rich class community who were passionate of the sexuality and sexual behavior in the courtly atmosphere. Whereas, they lived a social hierarchy system and the surplus of revenue, which one convert and it’s consume in the production of manuscript tradition, which are based on the social themes including the erotic fantasy. There are large number of illustrated manuscript on palm leaf are found throughout Odisha. Those manuscripts are divided into religious