byAsa kabi Fakir Mohan Senapati
PALANA (pAranaMdi lakshmI narasiMhaM)
Radhanath Roy, Madhusudhan Rao, and Fakir (Pakir) Mohan Senapati were the
three great writers in Modern Oriya Literature. Radhanath Roy is well known
for his poetry. One of the most famous Bengali Poets, Nabin Chandra Sen fell
in love with Radhanath Roy's poetry and praised him. Nature was Roy's
material. When one travels from Bhubaneswar to Berhampur by train, for about
150 miles right after Khurada Road, there is no station but the train runs
along the shores of Lake Chilika. Radhanath Roy wrote a piece of poetry on
Lake Chilika entitled "reiLo upare cilikA dorSono" (railu mIda cilikA
darSanaM). It is a fantastic poem still (KaMDika). The poetry era during
Roy's period is called "Radhanatha Era". The most famous work of Radhanath Roy
was "mahA yAtra". Madhusudhan Rao, Radhanath Roy, and Fakir Mohan Senapati
were very good friends. In 1903, Madhusudhan Rao wrote a letter to Radhanath
Roy and stated there in "Though by blood and birth you belong to Bengal, the
people of Orissa including my humble self rightly look upon you as a favorite
adopted child of Orissa. In the line of improving of Oriya literature, you
have done more than any one born or bred in this province" (1903). Visvakavi
Rabindranath Tagore said "In the writings of the poet (Madhusudan), a
dew-washed holy and new light of dawn of Ancient India shines in very pure
bright and great style". Madhusudhan Rao, for that matter, was not an Oriya
by birth but had roots in Maharashtra. Madhusudhan Rao was a student of
Radanatha Roy in Puri and became good friends afterwards. Fakir Mohan
Senapati was working as an editor for "saMvAda vAhika" in Balasore where he
met both Radhanath and Madhusudan and this trio became the "trivENI saMgamaM
of modern Oriya Literature".
Fakir Mohan Senapati is regarded as the Father of Modern Oriya Novel Writing.
He was also a poet and well-versed in several languages. Unfortunately, he
lost his parents while he was an infant (a year and half old). He learnt
Bengali and Sanskrit at the high school level and taught himself Parsi.
Surprisingly he also learnt TELUGU. When Bengalis tried to eliminate
(officially) Oriya as an administrative language in Calcutta, he faught for
his Mother Tongue. He founded the printing press in Balasore and established
the Oriya Paper. Fakir Mohan Senapati translated Sanskrit Mahabharatam into
Oriya and eversince was called "byAsa kabi" (vyAsa kavi). Senapati was the
author of several famous Oriya books among which "BArata borshoro itihAso",
"aMkamAla", "pushpamAla", "utkaLa BramaNa", "upahAra", dhULI", "rEvati",
"chomANo ATho guNTho" (THIS IS WHAT SRI VELCHERU GARU WAS ASKING ABOUT),
"mAmu", "laCamA", and "prAyaSchitto" and several others. "chomANo ATho guNTho"
brought him fame along with the last three novels.
Senapati's "chomANo ATho guNTho" was translated by Sri Puripanda Appalaswami
into Telugu. Sri Velcheru mastergaru told me that the title of the Telgu
translation is same as the Original Oriya title. "chomANo ATho guNTho" means
"Aru ekarAlu enimidi kuMTalu". The theme revolves around village atmosphere.
The novel is very realistic and a true reflection of village life in Orissa.
The names are very Oriya in nature. I don't know how the trnanslator did the
job of translating it into Telugu (since I didn't see the Telugu version), but
I am in the midst of finishing the original Oriya book. It was written in
Khanti Balasore Oriya. The book has an excellent nerrative. At some places,
the authors embedded folk poetry (songs). The novel has excellent proverbs
from the heart-land of Orissa. It is not that easy to translate this book if
the translator doesn't have a thorough grip on Balasore Oriya. The original
Oriya book was reprinted in 1996 and the editors provided meanings for the
Balasore Oriya words. Above all, the description of Balasore Rural Culture by
Senapati in this novel is exceptional. Any way, the Telugu translation is
worth reading.
The other famous novel by Senapati is "mAmu" (mAmayya or mEnamAma). This is
another master piece and deserves translation into Telugu.
Fakir Mohan Senapati met several famous literary personalities (1892). He met
Sri Vikram Deva Varma in Visakhapattanam and he asked Sri Vikram Deva Varma
"If you compare Oriya Literature and Telugu Literature, which one is the
greatest." Vikrama Dev Varma replied "In my opinion, Oriya Literature!"
(Refere to Fakir Mohan Senapati's Utkalo Brhomono".
A great Oriya writer, is Fakir Mohan Senapati. Hope his other books need more
attention to be translated into Telugu.
regards
pAlana
Narasimham L. Paranandi, Ph.D.
Department of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
5501-Bayview Circle
Baltimore, MD 21224.
Phone: (410)-550-5704
Fax: (410) 550-2612
Courtesy: http://www.kanneganti.com/
suresh
Your article is really informative. It appears that Orian literrary
tradition has some relations with Telugu.
I read "Amrita saMtAnaM' by Gopinath Mohanti translated version from
NBT. It effectively narrates the 'jIvana pOrATaM' of 'kOrApuT
kOdulu'(kOya jAtulu). It won some 'sAhitya AcaDemy' award also.
Really surprised to see the 'lively relations' of the tribal society.
-Suresh
From sreeni@k... Tue Apr 25 08:33:52 2000
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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 17:30:49 +0200 (MET DST)
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Subject: Info on getting Telugu chandamama (fwd)
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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 10:31:06 -0500
From: Pavankumar Petluru <pavan@b...>
Organization: BioNumerik
To: racchaba...@egroups.com
Subject: Info on getting Telugu chandamama
Dear Sir,
I am interested in subscribing to Chandamama (Telugu version) through
some book stores in US. Could you please send me any information you
may have on this? Also, I heard about the release of a book 'chandamama
kathalu'. If you have any information on this book, please send that
too.
I highly appreciate your help.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
pavan
--
Dr. Pavankumar Petluru
Application Scientist
BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals
8122 Datapoint Drive
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San Antonio, TX 78229
phone: 210-614-1701 x 232 (office)
phone: 210-408-0549 (home)
fax : 210-615-8030
email: pavan@b...
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