OrissaMatters

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

With this site exposing how Buddhists all over the world have failed to honor canonical instruction for paying homage to Gurudev Buddha in the place of his birth at least once in life, as they are misled by a historical mischief placing his birthplace in Nepal, there was a short-lived but acrimonious shrill of protest in a section of global media following which a new wave of academic activities has commenced flowing with incisive interest to find out if Orissa’s claim is correct.

We are sure, the truth must prevail and the future world shall surely accept Kapilavastu of Tosala, converted to present day Kapileswar near Bhubaneswar, as the real birthplace of Buddha; because that is his birthplace.

Intellectuals who are seriously pursuing this issue are active in different parts of the glove. One of these truth seekers is Sri Ajit Kumar Tripathy, an IAS officer, currently the Chief Secretary of Orissa. He has published two booklets on Buddha’s birthplace abridging the research work of late Pandit Chakradhar Mohapatra, who was the first to revive the status of Kapileswar as the birthplace Kapilavastu of Buddha.

Produced with clarity and in eloquent English, the two booklets, while acknowledging the contributions of Mohapatra, inasmuch as the author telling us that he “does not claim any original research on the subject of birthplace of Gautam Buddha but he has arranged the materials systematically often using the same language in the book of Sri Chakradhar Mohapatra” (preface to Goutam Buddha and Kalinga), it is clear from the steps Tripathy has taken that he has gone through the findings of Mohapatra quite seriously and juxtaposing them with materials and observations of eminent scholars beyond Mohapatra, has been convinced that yesterday’s Kapilavastu is today’s Kapileswar and therefore, by systematically abridging the arguments Mohapatra in his two booklets has advanced, he has added authenticity to his finding.

Students of history all over the world would be glad to note that Tripathy’s step is a positive step towards making history arrive at the truth in the matter of Orissa being Buddha’s birthplace.

As initiator of global debate in this matter we offer our thanks to Mr. Tripathy.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Describing how Orissa had attacked and subdued the Muslim Bengal, Dr. K. R. Quanungo writes in ‘The History of Bengal, Muslim Period’ at pp.48-52, that, Tughral Tughan Khan was no doubt out-generalled by the king of Orissa who had drawn the enemy far away from their frontier and must have concealed more than one surprising party along the whole route of the enemy’s advance. A greater disaster had not till then befallen the muslims in any part of Hindustan. The Muslims, says Minhaj [the historian Minhaj-i-Siraj who had also joined the war that was, to him, a ‘holy war’], sustained the overthrow, and a great number of those holy warriors attained martyrdom.

Relying on Havel, who noted in ‘Indian Sclupture and Painting’ that the war horses and elephants sculptured at Konarka depict the “pride of victory and glory of triumphant warfare”, Dr. K. C. Panigrahi writes in ‘History of Orissa’ at pp.413-414 that King of Orissa, Langula Narasimha “began his campaigns against Muslim Bengal in 1243 A.D. His victory over the Muslims of Bengal and his acquisition of the southern districts of Western Bengal must have enormously raised his prestige in the eyes of the contemporary Hindu Rulers, and augmented his resources, which in all likelihood enabled him to undertake the construction of a stupendous structure like the temple of Konark, designed to exhibit his power, prestige, opulence, devotion and perhaps to commemorate his victory also”.

But despite this truth recorded by history, Bankim Chandra of Bengal had overreached over a Bengali claim over Konarka through throwing an article in a school textbook in Bengali that Narasingh Dev belonged to Bengal and the Sun temple was an epitome of Bengali architecture!

Bankim Chandra’s trick was just an instance of how taking advantage of the British rule in Bengal when Orissa had kept them at bay and was the last land to have been annexed by the British but the first land to have raised a revolution against them in the entire country of India, the Bengalis had tried to misappropriate every gem of Oriya culture to create for themselves a fabricated cultural heritage. Their false claims over Sri Jaya Dev, creator of Radha and author of Sahajiya love lyrics squeezed into the Geet Govind as well as on Chaurashi Siddhacharyas, authors of Charyagitis (Bauddha Gan o Doha) have been exposed in these pages, wherein their mens rea behind this cultural dishonesty has been discussed.

It has also been discussed in these pages that the sculptures of Konark, the love lyrics of Sri Jaya Dev and the Charyagitis of Chaurashi Siddhacharyas are intricately linked to and influenced by Orissa’s now extinct Mahodadhi Civilization.

The sea in Orissa region was famous as the Mahodadhi. But the Bengalis, under circumstances hinted to above, as in the aforesaid three instances, have succeeded in changing the name of Mahodadhi to Bay of Bengal.

This wrong done to history needs correction.

The Mahodadhi civilization of Orissa was so developed that in whole of India, it was only Orissa the people of which were the pioneers amongst Indians to establish their colonies and dominions in far away lands beyond Indian limits where geographical names akin to names of Orissa give ample evidences in this regard.

Dr. Nihar Ranjan Roy informs us in ‘Brahminical Gods in Burma’,

“The ancient name attributed to old Prome is Srikshetra, so often mentioned in the Mon records as Sikset or Srikset, and by the Chinese pilgrims as Si-li-cho-ta-lo; and Srikshetra is the holy land of Puri on the ancient Kalinga coast”.

“Likewise” he also informs, “the earliest colonization of the Malaya Peninsula and Java had probably been made from Kalinga, for the Hindus of the Peninsula and the islands were and are still known as Kling.”

“The two examples from Tholan, now housed in the Rangoon Museum”, he says, “are decidedly Indian in form and composition as also in execution, done no doubt locally by Indian artists or by artists trained under Indian masters. They seem to have very intimate artistic affinities with the most recent finds of Brahminical and Mahayanist divinities from Orissa by Rai Bahadur Ram Prasad Chanda, B.A., now housed in the Indian Museum.”

Melaka, one of the thirteen States of Malaysia, was founded 2 degrees north of the equator by the shore of the Straits between Singapore to its south and Kuala Lumpur to its north by an Oriya prince, probably Hamvira (known there as Hang Tuah), which as far back as the early 15th century, had become a metropolis with traders and merchants of very many nations from east and west having there their business negotiation centers. It was developed by its founder for this purpose and also as a common shelter for seafaring traders and the response was so worm that as many as 84 different languages were being spoken there at the height of its glory. Melaka is a typical Oriya word (as in MELAKA PADICHHI RAJA YOTAKA) and the place where the prince of Orissa, its founder, breathed his last and took his final rest is famous as Tanjung Keling. When people of the place mean Kalinga (Orissa) by Keling, Tanjung means to people of Orissa even today the moving throne of the king and it stands for the chair on which seated the Gajapati Maharaja of Puri visits the temple or chariots of Sri Jagannatha.

A letter received recently from Sri Ramroop Jugurnauth of Mauritius is very significant. He writes, “My ancestors came to Mauritius more than 150 years ago. I made searches for my roots and I came to know that my ancestor came from Orissa. I also have in my possession some handwritten documents in an ancient Indian language. An Indian friend of mine forwarded it to the BHU (Language Dept). There they confirmed it to be an ancient Oriya. I therefore consider myself a cut-off branch from Oriya culture”. He further writes, “My family name Jugurnauth is infact Jagganath and it itself suggests my Oriya origin”. The pictures below are pages of handwritten Oriya manuscripts preserved by his family for 150 years in Mauritius.

Be it Mauritius or Melaka, be it Singapore or Ceylon, it is Oriyas of India that had established their colonies and commercial empires because they alone had the best of ships and shipping activities.

Even the British have admitted it. Writing to W.B.Bayley, Secretary to Government in the Judicial Department, in his Report dated 3 May 1817, E. Watson, 4th Judge, Calcutta Court of Circuit has unambiguously told of the ships of Orissa that they “were by far the best that I ever saw in any part of India”.

Nowhere any of the British authorities has recognized so eloquently any marine activity of Bengal even though they had there their seat of power.

So, it was wrong on part of the British to have named the sea that was under shipping activities principally of the people of Orissa as Bay of Bengal.

This offense the British colonialists and their Bengali collaborators have committed against the people of Orissa by obliterating the ancient name of Mahodadhi and by replacing it with Bay of Bengal shall have to be changed in respect of Orissa region.

This should be the program of Oriyas on the occasion of celebration of the birthday of Madhubabu (Kulabruddha Madhusudan Das) today.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

To me personally Ram of Ramayana is no incarnation of any God. I am perhaps the first post-independence Indian to have said this not only in these pages, but also in national media.

To me, poet-philosopher Valmiki had created him for propaganda of patriarchy as the guiding force of society as he had understood. And, in retaliation to that Vyasa had created Sri Krshna as an epitome of matriarchy in Mahabharata.

All those who do not accept matriarchy as their guiding philosophy, honor Ram and the social system he stood for. Those who do not accept patriarchy as their guiding philosophy do not put premium on Ram.

But politico-philosophic antagonism notwithstanding, the place of Ram and Ramayana in India�s social life is so wholesomely high that Ram Sethu can be safely said to be the symbol of India�s unique emotional unity. Hence any attempt at vandalizing Ram Sethu, to me, is an affront to national oneness of India.

The UPA government under Dr. Man Mohan Singh, working under the shadow of Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, in the name of economic progress, is busy in destroying everything that we would like to term as supremacy of our people. The latest example, as we have maintained, is the nuke deal with USA. The deal, which according to US authorities is a �bonanza� for their traders and is designed �clearly in the interests of the United States�, is clamped on us by Singh in course of which it has been established that his government takes our Parliament for granted.

According to World Nuclear News document, �INSIDE BRIEFING: USA brings India in from the cold�, in approving the ‘Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006’ on 9 December 2006, the USA Senate, conscious of the damage the deal will cause to India and apprehensive on that premise of the opposition it may face from patriotic Indians, had made it mandatory that for proceeding further in the matter, �the Indian parliament must agree to the text”.

To quote WNN, for the said Act�s applicability, �once President Bush has signed the document and it becomes law, four further agreements must be made:

�A specific agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding safeguards of nuclear materials.
�India-specific trade guidelines must be drafted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 45-nation cartel which has restricted nuclear trade to NPT signatories since 1992.
�The USA must conclude a ‘123’ agreement with India on nuclear cooperation. Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954 requires an agreement for cooperation as a prerequisite for nuclear deals between the USA and any other nation.
�The Indian parliament must agree to the text�.

It is a shame that Singh has kept our people in dark about this stipulation and knows as he that Indian Parliament will never agree to the text, has tried to evade voting in the Parliament. Treating our Parliament as just a referral point and taking it for granted as in this particular matter is nothing but an instance of denigration of the supremacy of our people by the UPA government.

The same mindset is evident in the matter of Ram Sethu. The religious sentiment of majority if Indians will not only be affected by official assault on it, but in the words of former Union Minister Prof. Murali Manohar Joshi, “the project could be a serious security risk for the country and seriously affect its environment���.the canal will expose the coast of Kerala to tsunamis, and wash away India’s precious Thorium deposit.”

Led by non-Hindus, it is understandable that the UPA government may slough over the religious sentiment attached to this Sethu; but how can it proceed without convincing the people on factual reality that Joshi�s apprehensions are misplaced and /or baseless?

UPA has played much havoc with our people. We will not tolerate if Ram Sethu is vandalized in sharp disregard to its emotional, environmental and nationally integral importance.

Chief of orissatoday.net, Sri Manoj Padhi has claimed that the Kandhamal communal riots could have been avoided had the Chief Minister of Orissa heed to progressive advice.

In a Press note issued from Plano,TX,United States of America, he has informed that in January 2006 he had attracted attention of the Chief Minister and law minister of Orissa to a board in the famous temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri wherein depicted is a notice that says, “Only Orthodox Hindu’s are allowed”. He had demanded that this notice board be immediately removed as it is discriminatory in tenor.

The Chief Minister had directed the State Law Department to collect opinion from the Sri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee on the issue. Accordingly the Law Department ad taken up the matter with the Temple Managing Committee, headed by Gajapati Dibyasingh Deb. The Law Department and the Temple Management Committee agreed to a countrywide opinion poll to decide on the proposal. A sub-committee had been formed to frame a suitable questionnaire, which was to be circulated among intellectuals, sadhus, mutt chiefs, senior sevayats and researchers all over the country. It was decided that their opinions, when received, will be discussed by the sub-committee before being passed on to the Temple Managing Committee for its final opinion, Padhi informs.

In December 2006, there was a month long controversy over entry of untouchables in to Keradagarh Jagannath temple leading to around 1000 lower caste Hindu’s embracing Buddhism in protest against caste discrimination. But the CM as well as Minister, Law did not act diligently to do away with the caste discrimination notice board from the polestar temple at Puri as a result of which rival religion preachers have found congenial climate to convert low caste Hindus into their casteless outfits, Padhi has claimed.

Mr. Padhi, frustrated by the attitude of the state Government, has initiated a public awareness poll at his blog portal www.HindToday.com. He is hopeful that, probably the Government will open its eye, after the recent communal riots in Kandhamal district. He appeals to all concerned citizens to support and endorse this initiative to put a permanent halt to the caste-discrimination, which is not sanctioned by Hindu religion, but a man made tradition. As per Hindu epic Ramayana, Lord Ram, one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, had accepted food from a tribal lady. Apparently, this discrimination is man made and hence must be stopped by Government, he has reminded the CM of Orissa.

Dear residents of USA,

Please peruse the link relating to cafepress.com and its commerce.

If you are honest, condemn the designer and the seller of the panty that carry a picture of Lord Jagannath of Orissa as a cover of womens sweet spots (as they claim) in the undergarments section under the Hindu segment.

Religion or no religion, Jagannath is the icon of national emotion and identity of the nation of the Oriyas.

If you are civilized, compel the designer and trader to withdraw the item and if your Laws have any provision against mischief, rise to the occasion and demand prosecution against the firm that has engineered and steered it. The protection given to creative artists in your first amendment must not be allowed to be misused by your unscrupulous traders to tarnish your identity as a civilized nation. Do not be a party to a commercial ploy that in its eagerness to fetch profit severely jeopardizes your sense of proportion as a leading people of the world. So, take the culprits into task and compel them to make amends.

Women everywhere are decent and peace loving and I am sure your women must not be different. Please dont allow any designer or commercial firm to project them as vampires by making the world understand that they need Sri Jagannath of Orissa to cover their sweet spots.

I feel seek to say this, but it is you whose failure to stop this nuisance has provoked me to say this.
Subhas Chandra Pattanayak,
President,
Mass Mind,
Bhubaneswar.