Jagannatha Dasa Chaitanya Jayadeva Foremost Composers Gita Govinda
Jagannatha Dasa Chaitanya Jayadeva Foremost Composers Gita Govinda
Jagannatha Dasa Chaitanya Jayadeva Foremost Composers Gita Govinda
The history of Odia literature has been mapped by historians along the following stages, Old Odia
(900–1300 CE), Early Middle Odia (1300–1500 CE), Middle Odia (1500–1700 CE), Late Middle Odia
(1700–1850 CE) and Modern Odia (from 1850 CE till the present). But this crude categorization
could not skillfully draw the real picture on account of development and growth of Odia literature.
Here, we split the total periods in different stages such as: Age of Charya Literature, Age of Sarala
Das, Age of Panchasakha, Age of Upendra Bhanja, Age of Radhanath, Age of Satyabadi, Age of
Marxism or Pragati yuga, Age of Romanticism or Sabuja Yuga, Post Independent Age.
The beginnings of Odia poetry coincide with the development of Charya Sahitya, the literature thus
started by Mahayana Buddhist poets.[4] This literature was written in a specific metaphor named
"Sandhya Bhasha" and the poets like Luipa, Kanhupa are from the territory of Odisha.The language
of Charya was considered as Prakrita.
The first great poet of Odisha is the famous Sarala Das who wrote the Mahabharata, not an exact
translation from the Sanskrit original, but a full-blown independent work. Sarala Mahabharat has
152,000 verses compared to 100,000 in the Sanskrit version. Among many of his poems and epics,
he is best remembered for his Sarala Mahabharata. Chandi Purana and the Vilanka Ramayana are
also two of his famous creations. Arjuna Das, a contemporary to Sarala Das, wrote Rama-Bibha, a
significant long poem in Odia.
Towards the 16th century, five poets emerged, though there are hundreds year gap in between
them. But they are known as Panchashakhas as they believed in the same school of
thought, Utkaliya Vaishnavism. The poets are: Balarama Dasa, Jagannatha Dasa, Achyutananada
Dasa, Ananta Dasa and Jasobanta Das. The Panchasakhas are very much Vaishnavas by thought.
In 1509, Chaitanya, an Odia devotee of Vishnu whose grandfather Madhukar Mishra had emigrated
to Bengal, came to Odisha with his Vaishnava message of love. Before him Jayadeva, one of
the foremost composers in Sanskrit, had prepared the ground by heralding the cult of Vaishnavism
through his Gita Govinda. Chaitanya’s path of devotion was known as Raganuga Bhakti Marga, but
the Panchasakhas differed from Chaitanyas and believed in Gyana Mishra Bhakti Marga, which has
similarities with the Buddhist philosophy of Charya Literature stated above. At the end of age of
Panchasakha, the prominent poets are Dinakrushna Das, Upendra Bhanja and Abhimanyu Samanta
Simhar. Verbal jugglery, obscenity and eroticism as the characteristics of Shringara Kavyas, became
the trend of this period to which Upendra Bhanja took a leading role. His creations were Baidehisha
Bilasa, Koti Brahmanda Sundari, Lavanyabati were proved landmark in Odia literature. Upendra
Bhanja was conferred with the title Kabi Samrat of Odia literature for the aesthetic poetic sense and
verbal jugglery proficiency. Dinakrushna Das’s Rasokallola and Abhimanyu Samanta
Simhara’s Bidagdha Chintamani are prominent kavyas of this time.
The first Odia printing typeset was cast in 1836 by the Christian missionaries which heralded a great
revolution in Odia literature, instead of palm leaf inscription. The books were being printed and the
periodicals and journals were published. The first Odia Magazine of Bodha Dayini was published
from Balasore in 1861. The main object of this magazine was to promote Odia literature and to draw
attention to the lapses in government policy. The first Odia paper, The Utkal Deepika made its
appearance in 1866 under the editorship of late Gouri Sankar Ray with the help of late
Bichitrananda. The publication of these papers during the last part of the 19th century encouraged
the modern literature and acted as a media to provide a wide readers range for the writers, The
educated intellectuals came in contact with the English Literature and got influenced. Radhanath
Ray (1849–1908) is the prime figure, who tried to write his poems with the influence of Western
Literature. He wrote Chandrabhaga, Nandikeshwari, Usha, Mahajatra, Darbar and Chilika were the
long poems or Kavyas. Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843–1918), the prime figure of modern Odia Fiction
Prose is the product of that generation. He was considered the Vyasakabi or founder poet of Odia
language. Fakir Mohan Senapati is well known for his novel Chha Maana Atha Guntha. It is the first
Indian novel to deal with the exploitations of landless peasants by the Feudal Lords. It was written
much before the October revolution of Russia or much before the emerging of marxist ideas in India.
With rise of freedom movement, a literary thought emerged with the influence of Gandhiji, and
idealistic trend of Nationalism formed as a new trend in Odia literature. Much respected personality
of Odishan culture and history, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Dash (1877–1928) had founded a school at
a village Satyabadi near Sakshigopal of Odisha and an idealistic literary movement influenced the
writers of this age. Godabarisha Mohapatra, Kuntala-Kumari Sabat are the other renowned names of
this age.