Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
As a man of Tigiria, I am thrilled to know that my land has given a new contribution to the world of excellence in the shape of Surya Sahoo, who has been honored for being a champion entrepreneur in the business world.
Tigiria’s contributions to world of culture is immense.
The world famous Odissi dance, had its origin, incognito, in Tigiria. It was created by a prince of Tigiria, Jadunatha @ Jadumani Tunga Rai Simha. Later Kavichandra Kali Charan Pattanayak had given it the name of Odissi.
Prince Jadunatha had developed this wonderful dance system by amalgamating the love dance Alasha nrtya, then prevalent in the coastal belt of Orissa and martial dance of Tigiria named in his family name as Tunganrtya and codified the manners of this new dance form by providing it with a scripture captioned as Abhinaya Darpana Prakasha, which, in the words of eminent scholar Pt. Kedar Nath Mohapatra,“has got wide circulation in the land, as the classical ‘Odisi’ dance and ‘Odisi’ music were being regulated by the injunctions given in this work” (Contribution of Orissa to Sanskrit Literature, Orissa Sahitya Akademi, 1960, p. CXCIX).
Pt. Mohapatra has further noted,“Jadunatha Simha, the author of this work was a chief of the Tigiria royal family of the ex-State Tigiria, not far from the city of Cuttack” (Ibid).
Raja Gopinath Tunga Champatisimha, his predecessor in the throne had authored Veera Sarvaswa, which is regarded as the grammar of warfare that, over and above missilery, for the first time had codified the training techniques of war animals.
The world famous ikat (bandha) fabric of Orissa owe its excellence to Tigiria. This is evidenced by the very fact that all the sets of Bandha fabrics- Sadhi, Khandua, Pheta and Phuta– needed for Sri Jagannatha, Balabhadra and Subhadra during a year comes from Nuapatna of Tigiria. Madala Panji has recorded that the Gajapati King of Orissa had requested the Raja of Tigiria to prevail upon the weavers of Nuapatana to continue supply of the bandha fabrics to the deities in return of which he had offered them hereditary positions of Patra.
Eberhard Fischer and Dinanath Pathy at Chapter 12 of Jayadeva And Gitagovinda (Harman Publishing House, New Delhi, 1995), citing their earlier research with Sitakant Mohapatra in the team captioned Orissa, Kunst and Kultur in Nordost Indian have noted,
The ikat technique of tie-dying threads before weaving to produce multicolored designs in the warp, or in the weft, or in the combined wrap and weft, was practiced by Orissa weavers since several centuries in simple forms, especially in the region of Nuapatana and Tigiria where silk was used as raw material.
Even in development of these “simple forms” to multi-designed pictorial motifs, the earliest historical documents they have discovered depict Tigiria as the source of such excellent textile technology.
The late legendary Bibhuti Kanungo had learnt this technique from a master weaver of Nuapatana, namely Arjuna Subuddhi, staying in his house for months during my childhood days and had transferred this technique to weavers of Sambalpur through Krutartha Acharya for which he was awarded by the central government. The words in the citation of felicitation that he was given bears proof of this. By adopting the Tigiria technique, Sambalpuri Vastra has surged ahead.
It is Tigiria where Mahamahopadhyaya Chandra Sekhara Simha Samanta (Pathani Samanta) had mastered astrology under the famous scholar of his time Bhubaneshwara Badapanda and it is Tigiria, that in modern times, has given the world one of the finest philologists in Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak.
But twentieth century’s only Mahakavya in Sanskrit Matrumukti Muktavali (Published by Orissa Sahitya Akademi) also comes from Tigiria, Prof. Jayakrushna Mishra being its author.
Bengalis owe the origin of their first library of palm leaf manuscripts to Tigiria, as at Shantiniketan it was begun with hundreds of such manuscripts, most of them rare and original, donated to Visva Bharati for referral use of the world by the Raja of Tigiria when Dr. D.P.Pattanayak was working there as a member of faculty.
Now Surya, as the Sun is called, has illuminated our other side of the globe.
As said above, Tigiria, though the smallest amongst all the ex-princely states of India, has a lot of contributions to many distinguished fields of human pursuits.
The latest in the list, Surya, the “champion entrepreneur in the business world” as Houston Business Journal of November 16-22, 2007 depicts, makes me as a Tigirian happy beyond description.
I thank Prof. Debasmita Misra for having shared with all of us Oriyas, through his forum ‘myodisa’ this pleasing news of this honor bestowed upon Surya.
So nicely and so aptly Prof. Misra has put his pride to pen that I think, I should reproduce it in its entirety in these pages.
This is what has said Prof. Debasmita Misra.
How many of us have come across the name of Surya Sahoo? Except for the Houston bAsi oDiAs of USA, not many.
However, if you read the Houston Business Journal of November 16-22, 2007, you will be proud to see a simple smiley face of this individual who has been honored for being a champion entrepreneur in the Business World.
Fairing originally from Panchagan, Tigiria of Cuttack District, the journal states that as a child, even while counting the stars at night, Surya Sahoo always had a technical aptitude. ‘We have seen quite difficult times in our early married days’, says his wife Kabita Sahoo. Surya graduated from NIT Rourkela in Chemical Engineering in 1986 and did his MS and Ph.D. from University of Memphis, TN in Environmental and Civil Engineering, respectively.
In 2000, Surya Sahoo, along with his wife Kabita and sons Amlan and Ishan, initiated the company called Institute of Information Technology (IIT) in the outskirts of Houston, TX. Getting vehicles where they need to be in the least amount of time possible is the goal of the Institute of Information Technology Inc. Located in The Woodlands, the privately owned company founded of Surya Sahoo, combines Geographic Information Systems technology with operations research optimization methods to provide solutions to a variety of spatially based challenges. ‘Basically we develop software applications that address the problems businesses find in their industry that are spatially based,’ says Clive Thomas, chief operations officer for the Institute of Information Technology. ‘Distance and space is a critical factor to be able to route vehicles
efficiently, and we support those challenges.’ (cf. Houston Business Journal)Surya’s business acumen and his leadership has been recognized consistently through awards such as,
1. Fast Tech 50 Award in 2003
2. Who’s Who in the Heritage Registry in 2004-2005
3. Franz Edelman Finalist Award in 2004
4. Fast Tech 50 Award in 2004
5. Enterprise Champion Award from Fast Tech 50 in 2007Faring from a simple oDiA family, Surya has reached a point in his career, where he has made everyone proud. Despite his achievements and accomplishments, he is a person with immense humility and generosity. He has increased his employees by 40% over the last year by expanding his operations. He is being considered now as a leading businessperson of Houston.
Surya Sahoo’s parents are Sri Bansidhar Sahoo (Retd. Asst. Engineer) and Smt. Kumudini Sahoo. His wife Kabita Sahoo’s parents are Sri Sankar Sahu (Retd. Reader in Physics) and Smt. Pravasini Sahu (Retd. Asst. Teacher) of Bargarh, oDishA. I am sure, their blessings have made Surya and Kabita to achieve what they have today.
Such achievements should be an encouragement for all oDiAs. Please join me to give a big hand to Surya and Kabita Sahoo for their success. Please pass on this message to all oDiAs so that Surya and Kabita be the inspiration in the heart of any aspiring entrepreuner. A profile of their acomplishments will appear in Duradrusti, January Edition, 2008. I have attached a brief note to this communication for your perusal.
On behalf of myodisa, I offer my sincere CONGRATULATIONS and best wishes to Surya, Kabita, Amlan and Ishan.
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