Manoj Das
Utkal Divas is celebrated on 1st April. ‘Utkal’ is the ancient name of the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the 8th largest state in the country by area and 11th largest by population. Odisha is famous for its ancient heritage sites and picturesque scenery. From beaches to pilgrimage sites, millions of tourists from all over the world come here every year. Puri Beach Festival and Jagannath Rath Yatra are famous all over the world. Odisha is the first state in India to reform its power sector in 1996. It has abundant deposits of high grade iron ore, bauxite, chromite, manganese ore along with other minerals like coal, limestone, dolomite, tin, vanadium, lead. Along with this, precious graphite, gold, gems, diamond and all ornamental stones are also found here.
Odisha was established as a province in British India on 1 April 1936. Then it mainly consisted of Oriya speaking areas. Among the cultural attractions of Odisha, the Jagannath Temple of Puri, the Lingaraj Temple of Bhubaneshwar and the Sun Temple of Konark are prominent, whose architecture and splendor are incomparable. The famous stone utensils of Nilgiri (Baleshwar) are famous in the country and the world. Whereas the clothes of Sambalpuri give a new dimension to the artistic grandeur. Puri beach of Odisha is famous all over the world for its sand sculpture. The sand sculptures of Puri give a message to the world.
Odisha especially has a continuous tradition of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Part of the revival in Hinduism was due to Adi Shankara, who declared Puri as one of the four holiest places or Char Dhams in Hinduism. Hence there is a syncretic mix of the three religions as the Jagannath Temple of Puri is considered sacred by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.
Presently, the majority population of this state is Hindu. As of the last census, it is the state with the third largest Hindu population in India and has been a center of rich faith-cultural heritage of Hinduism. For example, there were many famous saints of Hinduism in Odisha. Sant Bhim Bhoi was the leader of Mahima Sampradaya movement. So is also the great poet Sarla Dash, who wrote the Mahabharata in Oriya. He not only translated the Sanskrit original but also revealed the meaning. The ‘Sarla Mahabharata’ has 152,000 verses as compared to 100,000 verses of the Sanskrit version. On the other hand, Chaitanya Das, who was a Buddhist-Vaishnava and the author of “Nirguna Mahatmya” and Jayadeva who was the author of Gita Govinda, also belonged to this holy place. Similarly Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was a modern Hindu saint of tribal heritage.
Five more poets emerged in the 16th century – Balram Das, Jagannath Das, Achyutananda Das, Ananta Das and Jasobanta Das. Although there was a difference of hundreds of years between them, but they are known as ‘Panchshakha’. Because they believed in the same ideology- ‘Utkalya Vaishnavism’. Talking about magazines, the first Odia magazine “Bodh Dayini” was published from Baleshwar in 1861. The main objective of this magazine was to promote Odia literature and draw attention to the shortcomings of government policy. Similarly the first Odia paper, “The Utkal Deepika” was published in the year 1866 in the editorial of Late Gauri Shankar Rai.
Talking about literature, Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843–1918) is also called Vyasa Kavi or the founder poet of Odia language. All the poets of modern Odia fiction are carrying forward the same tradition. Fakir Mohan Senapati is best known for his novel “Chha Maan Aath Gunth”. It is the first Indian novel to draw attention to the exploitation of landless farmers by the feudatories. This novel was written long before the October Revolution of Russia and much before the emergence of Marxist ideas in India. Similarly Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das (1877–1928) founded a school called “Satyabadi Banbidyalaya” at Sakshigopal near Puri and an idealistic literary movement influenced the writers of this era. Godavarisha Mohapatra, Kuntala-Kumari Sabat were other famous people of this era.
Odia music is the traditional classical music of this state that flourished as a service at the Jagannath Temple in Puri. It was later developed by great musicians like Jayadeva, Upendra Bhanj, Dinkrishna Dash, Banamali Dash Kabisurya Baldeba Rath, Gopalkrishna Patnaik and others. Odissi music has a history of more than 2000 years. Due to the rich culture of Odisha, the music here has been equally rich. It includes several categories. Five of these are famous. Tribal Music, Folk Music, Light Music, Light Classical Music and Classical Music.
Similarly, Odissi dance of Odisha has a rich-glorious tradition of more than 2000 years. It is also mentioned in the Natyashastra of Bharatmuni. Which was probably written around 200 BC. Although the dance form almost became extinct during the British period, it was revived after independence. “Mahari Nritya” is one of the important dance forms here. This dance originated in the temples of Odisha. “Gotipua dance” is another form of dance in Odisha. Gotipua in Odia colloquial language means single boy. The dance performance performed by a single boy is known as ‘Gotipua Nritya’.
Talking about food, the famous kitchen of Jagannath Puri is considered to be the largest kitchen in the world, in which one thousand chefs are there. They work by burning firewood on 752 earthen chulhas to feed more than 10,000 people every day. “Chhena Poda” is the famous sweet here, which originated from Nayagarh district. Pakhaal, a dish made of rice, water and curd, is very popular especially in summers. The natives here are very fond of sweets and no feast is considered complete without sweets.
The handloom sarees here are famous all over the world. There are four main sarees- Sambalpuri Ikat, Sambalpuri Bandh, Sambalpuri Bomkai and Sambalpuri Saptpar. Oriya sarees are also available in other colors like cream, maroon, brown and rust. The tie-and-dye technique used by the weavers of the state to create the motif on these sarees is unique. This technique gives an identity of its own to Oriya sarees. That is why Odisha is called the soul of India because of its culture, historicity and heritage.
(The author is Manoj Das, General Secretary, Anandam Foundation.)