Vidya Das - Oriya Stories (Great Writers)

ORIYA

Stories

ORIYA

Stories

Fakirmohan Senapati

Gopinath Mohanty

Kishori Charan Das

Manoj Das

Selected & Edited by
Vidya Das

Srishti
Publishers & Distributors

Srishti Publishers & Distributors

64-A, Adhchini Sri
Aurobindo Marg
New Delhi 110 017

First published in 2000 by Srishti Publishers & Distributors
Copyright Srishti Publishers & Distributors 2000
Copyright for each individual story in its
original language is held by the author.
Copyright for the English translations rest with
Srishti Publishers & Distributors

ISBN 81-87075-61-9
Rs. 145.00

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

FAKIRMOHAN SENAPATI

Rebati

Translated by Kishori Charan Das

Ananta , the Widows Son

Translated by Jayanta Mahapatra

Patent Medicine

Translated by Jayanta Mahapatra

GOPINATH MOHANTY

Ants

Translated by Sitakant Mahapatra

The Garden

Translated by Kishori Charan Das

Tadpa

Translated by Sitakant Mahapatra

KISHORICHARAN DAS

Saramas Romance

Translated by Sumanyu Satpathy

Godless

Translated by the author

The Hundred Sons

Translated by the author

MANOJ DAS

The Bull of Babulpur

Translated by the author

Farewell to a Ghost

Translated by the author

The Submerged Valley

Translated by the author

Glossary

Notes on authors

Acknowledgements

My grateful thanks to the translators and publishers for the stories of Fakirmohan Senapati; to the authors family, translators and publishers for the stories of Gopinath Mohanty; and to the authors and publishers for the stories of Kishori Charan Das and Manoj Das.

Fakirmohan Senapati: His stories were originally published in journals. They were subsequently compiled many times over by several publishers, including Friends Publishers, Cuttack. In a recent edition, Fakirmohan Granthabali - Galpamala, Cuttack: Friends Publishers, 1999, the researcher and editor Dr Kailash Patnaik cites the following publishing details: Rebati in Utkala Sahitya, nd Year, No. 10, October 1898; Randi Pua Ananta ( Ananta, the Widows Son) in Mukara , 8 th Year, No. 4, July 1913; Patent Medicine in Utkala Sahitya , 17 th Year, No. 5, August 1913.

Gopinath Mohanty: His stories were originally published in journals and were collected into a few volumes after his death. Pimpudi ( Ants ) and Bagicha ( The Garden ) in Chhai Alua, Cuttack: Friends Publishers, 1992; Tadpa in Baghei, Cuttack: Friends Publishers, 1995.

Kishori Charan Das: Saramara Romance ( Saramas Romance ) in Bhanga Khelana , Jeypore: Bikash Pratisthan, 1961; Bidharmi ( Godless ) in Laksha Bihanga , Cuttack: Jagannath Rath, 1968; Sake Pua ( The Hundred Sons ) in Manihara , Cuttack: Lark Books, 1970.

Manoj Das: Babulpurara Sandha ( The Bull of Babulpur ) in Manoj Dasanka Katha O Kahani, Cuttack: Friends Publishers, 1971; Bhutuni: Eka Bidaya ( Farewell to a Ghost ) in Lakshmira Abhisara, Cuttack: Grantha Mandir, 1971; Magna Upatyaka ( The Submerged Valley ) in Panchavimsati , Cuttack: Grantha Mandir, 1983.

My thanks to Rani Ray, without whose encouragement and insistence this volume would not have happened.

Introduction

Modern prose writing in Oriya began, as in other Indian languages, in the second half of the nineteenth century. In most parts of India, the complex interaction between two factors contributed to the emergence and shape of the new writing colonial modernism via European thought and literature and a growing nationalist consciousness as evidenced in the concerns of identity and socio-political change.

In Oriya literature, however, the former had little immediate influence, distanced as Orissa was from centres of power, and ignored by the British except for its natural resources. The reasons for this and the circumstances that led to the emergence of the literature, with its distinctive quality of rootedness, is often forgotten. Despite Orissas ancient artistic and cultural heritage and the fact that Oriya is almost a 1000 year old language with an established literary tradition, modern Oriya writing arose from an urgent need to preserve the language and prevent the submersion of an Oriya identity. That the language and the culture have shown such resilience is significant given the specific history of the state.

Long past the Kalinga and Utkal periods, Orissa was invaded in turn by the Mughals, the Afghans and the Marathas. It had no stable central power and was split into semi-independent principalities. This led to the gradual political amputation of Orissa into separate parts that were annexed to neighbouring states. When the British occupied Orissa in 1803, taking over from the extremely weakened Marathas, this vivisection was consolidated with the separation and attachment of Oriya speaking regions to the Madras, Bengal and Central provinces for reasons of commercial and administrative expedience. Other parts were governed as feudatory states, unconnected to these administrative districts.

Thus, by the middle of the nineteenth century, though bound together both linguistically and through abiding community, social and religious practices (the most visible cultural marker being the cult of Jagannath, with its seat Puri providing a sense of cohesion), the Oriya people themselves were dispersed and dispossessed.

The disintegration of Orissa had of course begun much before British rule and it had suffered greatly under the petty rulers and the terror tactics of the Marathas who came after the Mughals. But the livelihood of the people had continued much as before. The systematic destruction and upheaval that took place within a short time of British occupation was unprecedented. The trade policies virtually wiped out the cottage industries of handloom, leatherwork, filigree and other handicrafts that were the traditional livelihood of the Oriyas. And monopoly over the sale and manufacture of common salt took away the economic mainstay of the people of coastal Orissa. The revenue policies and the notorious Sunset Law that accompanied it ensured that the rich too were deprived of their lands and uprooted. Many in desperation got their lands settled in the name of temple authorities, relying on the British policy of not interfering with religious institutions and also, somewhat naively, on the honesty of the priests. Resistance of any kind, such as the famous Paika rebellion, only led to further deprivation and displacement. By the second half of the century, the people depended almost entirely on agriculture for their living. These Oriya areas, however, were largely treated as the backwaters of the provinces they were attached to, with no railway lines or irrigation systems being set up by the administrators to develop them.

Oriya literature had survived all these changes, though it had moved away from its unique origins in the voice of the masses without aristocratic support to a highly Sanskritised stage under the patronage of feudal courts. However, modern Oriya writing emerged only when it began to be felt that political dispersal could lead to the erasure of Oriya identity itself, and when administrative homogenisation threatened to become a linguistic and cultural one as well.