OrissaMatters

Eminent journalist and socio-cultural analyst of Orissa Sri Subhas Chandra Pattanayak has shown in his book Sri Jaya Devanka Baisi Pahacha that the finest bard of love had never authored Gita-Govinda.

According to Sri Pattanayak, Sri Jaya Dev of the 12th Century Orissa, erroneously depicted as Sri Jayadev or Jayadeva, was not a Baishnav as he is being projected; he was a social revolutionary and proponent of Sahajayana sect of Buddhism. He had authored his love lyrics to provide a supportive literature to this cult, which was essential in his time to check spread of Brahminic apartheid in his motherland, Orissa.

The lyrics having immense Sahajia impact and being matchlessly popular, agents of Brahminism, in course of time, had tried to transform them into Brahminic literature through interpolations and by editing them in a style conducive to their own cult and by captioning the interpolated compilation as Gita-Govinda when, in fact, the poet was so much against the cult of Govinda that he had never used that name even for once in his lyrics, Pattanayak maintains.

His lyrics supporting female factor in consonance with Sahajayana were so much threatening to patriarchal political system that they were banned from the temple of Lord Jagannath by the great patron of Brahminism in Orissa, Emporer Purushottam Dev. The Emperor had replaced the lyrics of Jaya Dev with a book captioned as Abhinav Gita-Govinda of which he had claimed to be the author; but which was allegedly authored by a Brahmin namely Dibakara Mishra wherein attempts were tactfully made to transform Sri Jagannath from Buddha of Orissa to Krishna of Dwaraka in order to terminate the Buddhist flow of philosophy till then active in his abode, Sri Mandira.

People of Orissa had revolted against this conspiracy and had compelled the said Emperor to withdraw his own order and work and to restore recital of the lyrics of Sri Jaya Dev before the Lord as before.

Purusottam Dev withdrew his work but the selected Brahminic interpolations continued in the guise of orders he had allegedly received from the Lord in dreams.

Agitation of the public could somehow be managed with his son and successor Emperor Prataprudra Dev promulgating an ordinance to the effect that no other song than that of Sri Jaya Dev can ever be recited in the temple.

Unable to write off the Buddhist impacts of this revolutionary poet, Brahminism in Orissa had played a trick. It had interpolated 72 verses on his original works and given it a misleading title called Gita-Govinda, editing the same in a style to usurp him for Brahminic Vaishnavism. The Bengalis, without knowing the truth on Sri Jaya Dev, have joined the bandwagon of claiming him for Vaishnavism as well as for their homeland. In the process, the immortal love lyricist has been buried under baseless legends.

Sri Pattanayak has shown how both these segments, the chauvinist section of the Bengalis and the agents of Brahminism are wrong in their claim over Sri Jaya Dev.

The book is unique. It has completely dismantled the fort of Bengali claims over Sri Jaya Dev. It has, for the first time, exposed how the Central Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi has been misused in the matter of Sri Jaya Dev. It has, for the first time, freed Sri Jaya Dev from legends on the basis of historic perspectives. It has brought to records all the relevant but missing episodes of Orissan history for the first time through interpretative research. It has shown how Radha, now a Hindu Vaishnav deity, was created by Sri Jaya Dev as Nayika of Buddhist Sahajayan. It has shown how Orissa is the place where Buddha was born. It has shown how Buddha became Sri Jagannatha. It has shown how Sri Jagannatha is in reality the female factor. It has opened up new avenues for research on the now extinct Mahodadhi Civilisation of Orissa. It has opened up new vistas into research on extinction of Buddhism in the soil of its origin, Orissa, vis-a-vis the role of Asoka.

Over and above the most perspicacious discussion on Sri Jaya Dev and his times, Sri Pattanayaks book contains the Oriya translation of his lyrics in poetic form with the most measured meticulousness typical of the acclaimed wordsmith.
Smt. Sabitarani Kanungo,
Former Professor in Sanskrit and President,
State Selection Board, Govt. of Orissa.
Editors Note:

A more analytical book than this in the subject so far is not available.
Published originally by reputed publishers Bharata Bharati, Gajapati Nagar, Sutahat, Cuttack-753001 in 2005, it is going to be available shortly in the net.