SAHITYA AKADEMI - A SAD REMINDER OF ITS FORMER GLORY

PROBE SOUGHT INTO SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARDS

Date:15/03/2010

Irregularities in the selection of candidates for awards alleged

BERHAMPUR: Affairs of the Sahitya Akademi related to Oriya literature have surrounded by controversies following allegations regarding irregularities related to choice of candidates for rewards.

The Oriental Academy of Arts and Letters (OAAL), an organisation involved in the promotion of culture and literature in the State, has written to the president of the Kendriya Sahitya Akademi, Sunil Gangopadhyaya, to intervene and initiate investigation into the allegations to restore the prestige of the Sahitya Akademi. The OAAL has also sent copies of the letter with related documents regarding recent controversy to the office of the Prime Minister, Central Vigilance Commission and Union Culture Department urging investigation into allegations. Director of the OAAL, Narendra Narayan Das, has said the recent controversy sparked off from some serious allegations made by convener of Oriya advisory board of the Sahitya Akademi, Bibhuti Patnaik, at a literary function of the akademi held in Balasore on February 8. Mr. Patnaik has alleged that the procedure of nomination of litterateurs for coveted Sahitya Akademi awards is not transparent. He made a grave accusation that Prafulla Mohanty has managed to acquire akademi award by providing favour to one of the members of the jury, Manoranjan Dash. The allegation is related to the Kendriya Sahitya Akademi awards of 2004. The selection of Sahitya Akademi awards from Orissa have usually led to allegations and controversies in the past. The winner of Kendriya Sahitya Akademi award for translation in 1999 was forced to return the award when it became evident that the selection procedure was fraudulent.

Steps sought

The OAAL and several other literary personalities have demanded immediate measures to clean up the image of the Sahitya Akademi. Till now neither Mr. Mohanty nor Mr. Dash have refuted the charges made by Mr. Patnaik against them. The OAAL has urged the authorities to initiate investigation against Mr. Mohanty and Mr. Dash regarding the choice of Mr. Mohanty for the award in 2004. The OAAL director also said that investigation has to be initiated against the officials of the akademi as they have also not refuted the allegations made by Mr. Patnaik till now.
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ART VISION PAYS

RICH TRIBUTE TO

GURU KELUCHARAN

MOHAPATRA

Art Vision, the Premier Cultural institute of Orissa, paid a rich tribute to Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra on his 4th Death Anniversary on 7th April, 2008 in the temple City of Bhubaneswar through the splendid performance of its artists which included some of his favourite students, who have already become doyens of classical dance in different parts of the country.Besides Dr. Ileana Citaristi, the mesmeric artist of Odissi and Chhau & an innovative Choreographer(of Yuganta fame), who received her training in Odissi from Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra, Ms. Nandini Ghoshal, Ms. Meera Das, Ms. Mukti Lata Pal, Ms. Itishri Dwibedi & Ms. Pranati Mohanty nebulized brilliance to the show by their spellbinding performance. The show started with Ms. Priya Nair’s graphic documentary on Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.
Under the superb guidance of Padmashree Dr. Ileana Citaristi, the votary of Odissi & Chhau Dance, Art Vision has been contributing magnificently to the cause of Art and Culture by promoting and disseminating different kinds of popular and folk art forms like Gotipua, Das Kathia, Raas Leela, Ram Leela, etc. besides blending innovative designs with the traditional classical Dance forms with her choreographic brilliance.
The special package of films on dance called 'Dance with the Camera‘, organized by Art Vision for the Mumbai International Film Festival 2002 , 2004 and 2006 is still fondly remembered by the art fraternity as a unique tribute to the illuminating Art of dance. Art Vision is also instrumental in organizing the famous Kalinga Mahotsav, a national festival of martial arts, which has been taking place at the foothill of the historic Dhauli Giri, the mute witness of the heroic battle of the Kalinga army against the mighty emperor Ashoka. Sangam, a confluence of dance, is another unique event organized by Art Vision on 5th of September(Teacher’s day) every year in memory of all the Gurus who have been instrumental in scaling the Dance forms to new heights.
The Making of a Guru, written by Dr. Ileana Citaristi is considered to be one of the most authoritative accounts of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra as the mentor of modern Odissi Dance, since she was one of the favourite disciples of Guruji.

INTRODUCTION TO ANTARLEENA SAPPHO

DR. CHRISTINA CLARK

I. Sappho and her Poetry

“Violet-haired, holy, sweetly smiling Sappho” - Alkaios (fr.384)
Sappho of Mytilene, a city on the Ionian island of Lesbos (six miles off the coast of Lydia, modern day Turkey), was a poet and musician so talented that later Greeks called her the “tenth Muse” (Palatine Anthology 9.506). An aristocrat who lived in the late seventh and early sixth centuries B.C.E., Sappho composed poetry in Aeolic Greek set to the lyre (although we have lost the musical accompaniment). We have no reliable evidence for her biography other than these few facts. At this time Greece had what we call a "song culture," that is, a culture which conveyed its important information and cultural values through song. Nine papyrus rolls of Sappho's songs existed in antiquity, arranged by the Alexandrian scholars according to poetic meter; sadly, today only one song survives complete – the rest are fragments, or lost. Editions of Sappho now have been culled from quotations in other authors’ works and from papyrus finds. However, we can nevertheless glimpse the breadth of Sappho’s versatility in the fragments that remain. Her subjects are common ones in archaic poetry: marriage, cult activities, love, politics, praise, and blame. Like the male poets contemporary with her, Sappho made songs that emphasized the beauty of nature and the human emotions nature evokes. Some songs were for public performance, others for private. We are not sure who sang Sappho’s songs. Perhaps choruses of girls performed her songs for religious and public rituals, while solo performers sang the songs for private occasions.
To us Sappho is important not just because of her poetry's outstanding technical and aesthetic quality, but also because she was a woman. While we have much literary evidence concerning women in antiquity, the majority is male-authored. A few fragments of poetry survive of other female poets such as Corinna, but Sappho is our main female voice from ancient Greece. Her songs open a window for us into the world women inhabited in archaic Greece’s largely sex-segregated society.
The spaces of archaic Greek life were gendered. Men spent most of their time outdoors playing sports, hunting, participating in politics, law, and business. They did, however, also spend time at home attending private drinking parties in special dining rooms reserved for men and their guests. Often, these men’s dining rooms were separated from the main house, with their own private entrances off the streets, to prevent respectable women from coming into contact with men not of their family. In contrast, the majority of women spent most of their time indoors, making cloth, doing domestic tasks and raising children. They got out of their houses primarily to participate in religious rituals. In sum, men and women spent their days in different places doing different things.
Sappho's songs entice us into the female world of domestic concerns and religious ritual. In fragment 98, the speaker recounts her mother’s advice on hair decorations: purple headbands are lovely, except for girls with lighter hair, who should instead wear flower wreaths. We read of incense burning, flowers blooming, cool water running; we enjoy the sight of leaves shivering and feel the wind blow in fragment 2, a song that invokes Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love:

(Come) here to me from Crete to this holy temple,where is your charming grove of apple-trees, and altars smoking with frankincense,

and in it cold water sounds through apple branches,

and the whole land is shadowed by roses,

and from shimmering leaves sleep drops down;

in it a meadow grazed by horses blooms with spring flowers, and the winds blow gently.

There you, Kypris, having taken up gold cups delicately pour nectar, mingled with festivities.Sappho’s poems in general evoke the senses and strong emotions such as desire, joy, grief, and longing. She achieves an incantatory effect by playing with sound, using alliteration, assonance, rhythm and word repetition. Anne Carson incorporates such effects in her translation of fragment 112, addressed to a bridegroom:

Blest bridegroom, your marriage just as you prayed has been accomplished
and you have the bride for whom you prayed
gracious your form and your eyes as honey:
desire is poured upon your lovely face
Aphrodite has honored you exceedingly.

What makes Sappho's poetry different from that of the male poets of her time is her portrayal of women in love. Sappho's lovers are active subjects who desire, rather than just passive objects who are desired. They pursue their beloveds, as Sappho illustrates in fragment 16, in which she uses the famous Helen of Troy as an example of the power of erotic love. While most male authors blamed Helen for the war, they also portrayed her as an object of male desire. Sappho instead shows us an actively desiring Helen, who abandons her husband, daughter, and parents to be with her beloved Paris:

Some say a host of horses, some say an army of infantry, and some
say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing on the black earth.
But I say it is whatever one loves. Easy to make this entirely understood
by all. For Helen, who surpassed mortals by far in beauty, left her
noble husband and went sailing to Troy, nor did she remember at all
her child or her dear parents, but ] led her astray . . .] for lightly . . .
Sappho’s speakers also give us first person expressions of desire for women by women. For example, song 16 continues: “. . . reminded me of Anaktoria, who isn’t here. I would rather see her sexy walk and the shining sparkle of her face than Lydian chariots or armed infantry.” Another famous example of this is in poem 1 (the only complete poem we have), in which the female speaker “Sappho” prays that Aphrodite will spare her heartbreak by making the woman she desires return her feelings.

II. The Construction of Sexuality in Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek ideas about the nature of sexuality and sexual norms are different from most modern ones, which divide people into two groups: heterosexuals and homosexuals, based on whether they have sex with others of the same sex or not. The Greeks did not have the idea of "sexual orientation.” One could say that the Greeks were omnisexual, rather than heterosexual or homosexual. They thought of sex in terms of power. Men, because they performed all the political, military, and judicial functions of the state, were held to be the ones in charge. Therefore, adult men were expected to perform the active role in sex - to be the penetrators. Those without civic power were expected to be passive recipients of sexual activity - the penetrated. In classical Greece, it was a normal thing for adult men to have sexual relationships with teenage boys who had not yet grown beards. These boys were presented as sexually passive. In return, the older men helped the boys learn how to become men in the community. Later on, when the boys matured and entered the male spheres of law, politics, and the military, their former adult lovers became their patrons. Sexual activity between two adult men was considered unacceptable because it meant that one of the men was behaving passively - taking on the powerless role appropriate to women, minors, and slaves. To be perfectly clear: the man who penetrated another man was considered perfectly normal; the adult man who submitted to penetration was considered a sexual deviant.
In terms of female sexuality, Greek men were mainly concerned that their wives bear only their own children. For aristocratic men, especially, who had the most to lose, the fear that their wives might bear other men’s sons led them to keep their women largely shut up at home, out of the sight of other men. Since female homoerotic relationships could not cause pregnancy, Greek men were not very concerned about them. All Greek men were expected to marry and produce male heirs to inherit the household and carry on the family name and honor; all Greek women were expected to marry and provide heirs for their husband's househhold. Therefore even if, as we see in some of Sappho's songs, a woman had a homoerotic relationship with another woman, it did not mean that she would not marry, or was not married with children. She almost certainly would, or was.

III. Sappho's Reception in Western Scholarship

Curiosity about Sappho has increased over time because of the fragmentary condition of her poems, the lack of any real information about her life, and the implications of homoeroticism in her work. Both scholarly and literary traditions reflect an interest in Sappho because her poetry relegates men to peripheral roles, and concentrates on women. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, it is different from that of the male poets of her time because she portrays women lovers as active subjects, rather than passive objects. Of course, interpretations of Sappho's poetry have been influenced by readers' cultures and historical contexts: “every age creates its own Sappho” (Parker 1993: 12). Here are a few examples. To fifth–century Greek philosophers and playwrights, Sappho was the sublime poet, the tenth muse, an authority on matters of love in general. To writers in Late Antiquity, she was a priestess of song and the paradigm of a woman who died for love - she supposedly jumped off a cliff out of love for a ferryman named Phaon. In the Renaissance, Sappho was of great interest mostly for her life rather than her poetry. She was portrayed at this time as a contented heterosexual. In 1681 Madame Dacier published an edition of Sappho's poetry with a biographical introduction stressing her heterosexuality. She claimed that Phaon the ferryman rejected Sappho when she was a middle-aged widow and no longer attractive; the disappointed Sappho then killed herself. She denied homoerotic affairs in Sappho's poetry, for she wanted Sappho to be "morally blameless." In 1782 Alessandro Verri published Le Avventure di Saffo, poetessa di Mitilene. In this novel, Sappho served as an emblem of unhappy female heterosexual love; her poetry was of secondary importance. Verri’s novel was an enormous success, generating at least fifteen Italian editions and being translated into many languages. In addition to scholars and writers, artists too were interested in Sappho. For example, Gustave Moreau painted four images of Sappho from 1864-1876, which portray the stories of Sappho as a beautiful, young, lovelorn heterosexual.
Only forty fragments of Sappho’s extant poetry are long enough to interpret. These fragments have posed a problem for scholars: how should we piece them together? In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scholars focused on textual and philological reconstruction and analysis, trying to make sense of the scrappy remains of Sappho's poetry. Like others before them, they constructed a biography of Sappho based on the content of her poems. Some declared her to be a teacher in a religious cult for young girls, in honor of Aphrodite - this interpretation rationalized away the homoerotic aspects of her poetry. In response to this type of scholarship, Mary Barnard (34) wrote:

I wanted to hear
Sappho's laughter
And the speech of
Her stringed shell.
What I heard was
Whiskered mumble-
Ment of grammarians:
Greek pterodactyls
And Victorian dodos.
Scholars stopped being concerned with reconstructing the text of Sappho's poems to a large extent when Edgar Lobel and Denys Page published a definitive edition in 1955. After this, scholars began to read Sappho's poetry for its content in relation to the Greek literary and mythical tradition. More recently, since the 1970s, feminist and gender theory have provoked discussions about how Sappho's gender has both shaped her poetic discourse and influenced the social context of her poetry.
In the 1990s, Holt Parker published a very influential article, "Sappho Schoolmistress," in which he argues that the canonical image of Sappho presiding over a school of virgins, inherited from Victorian scholars, gave rise to many related speculations about Sappho as a music teacher and sex educator for a circle of well-born girls. Instead of imagining such positions for Sappho, he suggests that we strip away our own notions of gender roles and see Sappho's social role as a poet, who, like her male counterparts, had an association of friends; friends who were also aristocratic, musical, and concerned with erotic love. He asks: "Since she does the same things as other poets and writes the same things as other poets, why is she not treated like all other poets? This rhetorical question has an answer: scholars for the most part are still refusing to treat Sappho as a poet and instead are turrning her into a . . . freak of nature" (1993: 342). It is certainly true that Sappho writes about the same sorts of things as her male poetic counterparts, but she often does so from a different perspective.
Most scholars would agree that the prejudices about women, sexuality and poetry in a given culture determine the ways in which Sappho's texts are understood, edited, and translated. While I agree with Parker's arguments, I must emphasize that Sappho is now required reading for many university literature classes not simply because of the outstanding technical and aesthetic quality of her poetry, which is among the best ever composed by anyone in any culture at any time, but also because she was a woman, and because she gives an alternate viewpoint into ancient Greek society.

IV. Sappho’s Love Poetry

Because Sappho’s love poetry has generated such interest in modern times, let us focus now on that. Many of her poems evoke the aesthetics that trigger desire for the Greeks, such as the charming laughter of young women (fr. 31), the sight of a dress swirling around a girl's ankles (fr. 22) and a girl's sexy walk (fr. 16). Fragment 31 is one of Sappho's most famous homoerotic poems. It illustrates two main features of Sappho's overall poetic style: an evocation of sensory experiences and the portrayal of strong emotions.

He seems to me to be equal to the gods, that man, whoever sits opposite you
and listens to you speaking so sweetly and close to him, and hears too
your tempting laughter. Truly that makes the heart (kardia) in my breast pound,
for when for a moment I look at you, I cannot speak at all; my tongue breaks,
and a subtle flame runs immediately beneath my skin. My eyes see nothing
at all and a roaring fills my ears. Sweat pours down me, and shaking seizes
me all, paler than grass I am, and little short of dead I seem to me. But all
must be endured since …Selecting, combining, and exaggerating the body’s reactions to erotic desire, Sappho nevertheless leaves her speaker’s intellect intact and unaffected. In other lyric songs, poets explicitly say that they are maddened by love, that they have lost their reasoning capacity, their wits (the Greek word is phrenes). The phrenes are vulnerable to many things, including erotic desire. Love steals, shakes, conquers, engulfs, and flutters the phrenes by heating them up. For example, the male poet Archilochos writes: “Such was the desire for sex that twisted beneath my heart, poured a great mist over my eyes, and stole the tender phrenes from my breast” (191 W). Sappho herself varies the internal organ affected by erotic love, occasionally invoking the phrenes, the wits. In fr. 96, the speaker says: “Often she wanders to and fro, remembering gentle Atthis, and desire gnaws her tender phren.” In fragment 47, she tells us that "Eros shook my mind (phrên) like wind falling on oaks down the mountain." She observes, in fragment 48: "You came, and I was mad for you. But you cooled my phrenes, burning with desire." It could be that in fragment 31, Sappho leaves her speaker’s wits unaffected to mock gently her society’s gender stereotypes. The stereotype that women were sexually insatiable and uncontrollable both explains and justifies women’s confinement to the domestic sphere, and exclusion from the political. Crafting traditional viewpoints and forms (such as prayer formulas and epic conventions) into spontaneous expressions of emotion, Sappho cleverly reworks them in subtle ways.
Perhaps fragment 168B can hint at Sappho's overall aesthetic and emotional power as translated by poet and classicist Anne Carson: "The moon has set, and Pleiades: middle night, the hour goes by, and I sleep alone." This poem reminds me very much of a tenth century C.E. poem written by the Japanese poet Ariwara Narihira, one of the most famous in the Kokinshu. The poet remembers a night in which he had made love with a palace lady. Soon after, she moved away without telling him. The next year, on a spring night when the plum blossoms were blooming, he lay on the floor of the room until the moon sank low in the sky, and said: "Is this not the moon? And is this not the springtime, the springtime of old? Only this body of mine the same body as before . . . (747). Both poets use the night and the night sky to evoke human loneliness and the passage of time. In another poem, Sappho captures the emotional ambivalence and nostalgia of a bride: “Virginity, virginity, where are you gone leaving me behind? No longer will I come to you no longer will I come” (fragment 114, trans. Anne Carson). Such fragments drive home the tremendous loss to world literature of the majority of those nine books of Sappho’s poems.

Dash N N, Antarleena Sappho-Life & Times of Sappho(Oriental Academy of Arts & Letters, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, 751007,  India, 2008)

Painting at the right: Sappho, by Mengin(1877)

THE LEGEND OF JAYADEVA & HIS CREATION

N N DASH

A nation however immensely powerful and prosperous it might be, would one day efface into the twilight of history, leaving only the impression of its greatness through its art, architecture, sculpture, music and literature. The culture of Orissa today has earned a distinct identity of its own for its rich depository of visual, performing and literary arts withstanding the acid-test of time. However, this cultural tradition needs continuity by effectively interacting with the process of change in the sociocultural set-up of successive generations. No civilisation can survive without constant reference to its history and past experiences. It has therefore, become increasingly important to know more and more about the luminaries, who have contributed towards the growth of their national culture, not only for preserving it, but also for furthering the same. Jayadeva, the great saint poet of Sanskrit literature, was one of the greatest sons of this soil—a luminous, ageless eternal, celebrity. He was the last great poet of classical Sanskrit literature, and the author of the grand lyrical devotional song 'The Gitagovinda'. In the words of Hilde Bach, author of Indian Love Paintings, "He (Jayadeva) wrote ecstatically of the love of Radha and Krishna, which symbolized the love of the soul for God, personified in Krishna. The poem is regarded as an allegory of the soul striving to escape the allurement of the senses to find peace in mystical union with God. Hence arose a doctrine of passionate personal devotion, bhakti or faith in an incarnate deity, in the form of Krishna and absolute surrender of self to the divine He was not only a brilliant poet of Sanskrit literature but was also considered a reformer and a religious leader."(1) Margaret and James Stutley in A Dictionary of Hinduism wrote: "Though chiefly remembered as a poet, he (Jayadeva) was a great reformer, especially of the early Krishna cults...".(2)
Lee Siegel commented in Sacred and Profane Dimensions of Love in Indian Traditions'- "... The poet has juxtaposed conventional descriptions of carnal love play with traditional expressions of devotion and in so doing has created an ambiguous relationship between the sacred and profane dimensions of love. The Gitagovinda is not a sacred or profane work; it is a sacred and profane work."(3)
The Gitagovinda is probably the only work of its kind, commentaries of which exist in almost every part of the nation. It is, however, quite significant to note that unlike other regions of the country, the influence of the Gitagovinda on various streams of literature, music, dance, painting, folklore, art, sculpture etc. has been encompassing. Even today the enchanting melodies of the Gitagovinda are invoked before Lord Jagannatha in his abode. The scenes of this lyrical drama are brought to life by the accomplished Odissi danseuses. The colourful 17th century manuscript of the Gitagovinda and the depiction of the different scenes of the same in the traditional Patta paintings of Orissa speak about the influence of the Gitagovinda on the art form in Orissa. According to Prof. Thomas Donaldson, the famous art historian, the ragas or musical notes used in the Gitagovinda are fully utilized with greater dimensions by the old Oriya writers, whereas these ragas were rarely met with in the old Bengali literature.(4) The influence of Gitagovinda on the cultural traditions of Orissa is nicely summed up by Kapila Vatsyayan, who says "...There is no gainsaying that Orissa is the richest repository of the tradition of the Gitagovinda in the literary, pictorial and performing arts alike...".(5) It can therefore be said without doubt that the cultural climate of Orissa is a product of work to an extent that no other region in the country can match it. This relationship has provoked the scholars and researchers to delve into the life and works of Jayadeva and the cultural milieu in which he blossomed. The purpose of this essay is to present in a nutshell, that cultural environment of Orissa which gave the world the first specimen of the devotional-erotic magnum-opus the Gitagovinda.

The Period of Jayadeva

Some cantos of the Gitagovinda appear in 'The Saduktikarnamrita' compiled by Sridhara Das, the court poet of King Laxmanasena of Bengal, in the year 1205 AD (1127 Shakabda). There had been a description of `Subhasita Padavali' in the commentary of `Amarakosa' written by Sarvananda in 1159 AD. As few stanzas of `Gitagovinda' have found a place in the said Padavali', it can be safely concluded that the Gitagovinda had been composed in the early part of the 12th century AD.(6) The claim of some scholars that Jayadeva was a court poet of Laxmanasena does not appear to be historically true since Laxmanasena ascended throne in 1178 AD. In all probability Jayadeva belonged to the early 12th century AD. This also matches the description in the stone inscription deciphered by the eminent historian Dr. S.N. Rajaguru, which has been discussed elsewhere in this essay. The claim of some scholars that Jayadeva was a contemporary of Umapatidhara, Sarana, Dhoyi and Govardhanacharya, who belonged to the Court of Laxmanasena, on the basis of the 3rd verse (1st canto) of the Gitagovinda has been found to be of no substance by scholars ranging from Rana Kumbha to Prof. Donaldson.
The famous Bengali scholar Dr. S.K. Chatterjee in his work `Jayadeva' has mentioned that Jayadeva belonged to the Court of Laxmanasena on the basis of the appearance of his verses in `Saduktikarnamrita' compiled by Shri S.C. Banerjee. According to Dr. Chatterjee, all the 31 stanzas composed by Jayadeva which find a place in the `Saduktikarnamrita' had been composed by the author of `Gitagovinda' though Jayadeva, the author of Prasannaraghava' was also his contemporary. Out of the 31 stanzas he mentions, 5 stanzas have been taken from the `Gitagovinda'. Dr. Chatterjee believed Jayadeva to be a contemporary of Govardhanacharya, Sarana, Dhoyi, Umapatidhara, Halayudha and Keshavasen whose poems have appeared in `Saduktikarnamrita' (7) Barbara Stoler Miller, significantly, has rejected the authenticity of S.C. Bannerjee's `Saduktikarnamrita' as he had not depended on any manuscript prior to 17th century. She has pointed out that any 2 verses out of the 5 mentioned in `Saduktikarnamrita' (SKM 659 = GG 6-2 & SKM 1144 = GG 11-10) were form the Gitagovinda.(8) It is significant to note here that 1567th stanza of Prashastibrajya' of `Subhasita Ratnakosa' written by Jayadeva has appeared as the 1538th stanza of Saduktikarnamrita.(9) Since `Subhasita Ratnakosa of Vidyakara had been compiled in the 11th century, it can be safely deduced that poems finding place in `Saduktikarnamrita' did not belong to the poets who were contemporaries only. Had Jayadeva been a contemporary of Laxmanasena, only 2 stanzas of a work like the Gitagovinda would not have found place in a vast work like `Saduktikarnamrita'.

Jayadeva's Place

In the absence of any detailed reference to his time and place in the Gitagovinda, the historians/researchers had to depend on the historical and archaeological clues like remains of monuments, stone inscriptions, and contemporary literature for getting an idea about Jayadeva's time and place. Though such material traces are not plenty, still those are sufficient to provide a fair idea about the same.
i) Remains
In the 3rd canto of the Gitagovinda, it is mentioned that the song was depicted by Jayadeva with devotion to Hari; (Jayadeva is like) the moon born from the ocean of Kenduvilva, indicating the importance of Kenduvilva during his period. The ancient city of Kenduvilva, which had a rich depository of archaeological remains, had been explored for the first time by the late Paramananda Acharya, Kedarnath Mahapatra and Dinesh Chandra Sarkar on January 16, 1956.(10) The remains of a number of temples and monuments in and around the area were reflective of a rich cultural heritage of the entire Prachi river valley. The subsequent archaeological explorations under the stewardship of late Kedarnath Mahapatra brought the village to limelight, the cultural grandeur of which matched the description of the 'Ocean of Kenduvilva' by Jayadeva himself in Gitagovinda. The details have been extensively dealt with by late K.N. Mahapatra in his monumental work `Shri Jayadeva 0 shri Gitagovinda"(11) and subsequent scholars/historians.
ii) Stone inscription
The discovery of a stone inscription from the Lingaraja Temple by another great historian of Orissa, Dr. S.N. Rajaguru was a major breakthrough in determining Jayadeva's time and place. It was inscribed in 1162 AD during the reign of Raghavadev. According to the inscription, `Sadhupradhan Jayadeva' of Shrikurmakhetra was present when Medamadevi, daughter of Kominayaka purchased a piece of land named Bahadakhandakhetra from Dasapur Shresthi for Krittivasa Shiva.(12)Subsequent study of scholars of some stone inscriptions have revealed that Kominayaka was a very important official of the Ganga kingdom, which justifies the presence of the 'Sadhupradhan' during the transaction. The late K.N. Mahapatra and Dr. S.N. Rajaguru and other eminent scholars have discussed in detail about the importance of `Srikurma' as a prominent Vaishnava pilgrimage situated near the then capital of Kalinga `Kalinganagara'. The revelation of Jayadeva's time from this inscription confirms the assumptions of scholars about the same which has already been discussed.
iii) Contemporary literature
Three copies of the palm leaf manuscripts of `Vaishnava Lilamrita' written by Vaishnava poet Madhava Patnaik had been found from different places of Orissa which deal with the period from 1516 AD to the death of Sri Chaitanya. It is said to have been written in 1535 AD and appears to have been copied in the 18th century. The Vaishnava Lilamrita' has been presented in the book form by Dr. Ghanashyam Rath and Dr. B.C. Acharya based on the said copies of the Lilamrita. All the factual details of the social and cultural events centring around Sri Jagannatha temple, Sri Chaitanyadeva and Sri Jayadeva have been elaborately chronicled there. The descriptions are also in chronological order. How Jayadeva of Kenduli came to Shrikhetra and composed 'The Gitagovinda' before Lord Jagannatha have been narrated in the book with minute details."(13)

According to Madalapanji also, the Gitagovinda had been introduced to invoke before Lord Jagannatha during the reign of King Narasimhadeva who ruled from 1147 AD to 1156 AD.(14). Among the many commentaries of the Gitagovinda available across the country, `Sarvangasundari Tika' by Narayanadasa, the court poet of the 14th century Kalinga King Narasimhadeva II, was one of the oldest. According to Barbara Stoler Miller,"...no Bengali manuscript earlier to 16th century could be available, whereas manuscripts in Oriya scripts of Narayanadasa's `Sarvangasundari Tika' were available in many parts of the region."(15) This suggests that Jayadev's Gitagovinda was closer to the cultural climate of Orissa than that of any other part of the country including Bengal.

Few scholars, however, on the basis of the `Virabhumi Chronicle' of Harekrishna Mukhopadhyaya, `Jayadeva Charita' by Vanamali Das and the Baul festival of Birbhum, claimed that Jayadeva belonged to village Kenduli of Birbhum district of Bengal.
According to the `Virabhumi chronicle' of Harekrishna Mukhopadhaya, a line containing the names of Govardhana, Sarana, Jayadeva, Kaviraja (Dhoyi) and Umapatidhara had been seen along with the name of King Laxmanasena on the lintel of the latter's courtroom, by Sri Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami."(16) As per historical documents like 'Tabaquat-i-nasiri', Laxmanasena's palace had been destroyed by Bakhtiar Khilji. Sri Rupa and Sanatan Gosvami appeared after 300 years, by which time there would not have been any trace of the palace leave aside the lintel. Moreover, no mention of this appears in the works of either Sri Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami or others. It is, therefore, highly illogical to accept Birabhumi Chronicle' as a historical document. Similarly, the authenticity of Jayadevacharita' of Banamali Dasa as the biography of Jayadeva has been rejected by Dr. S.K. Chatterjee as the period of Jayadeva had been brought down by the poet from the 12th to his own century.(17)
Regarding the Kenduli Festival of Birabhumi, the claim of some scholars that it is held in the birthplace of Jayadeva in his honour is factually incorrect. The Baul Festival of Kenduli is not a part of the Vaishnava religious movement. According to historian Ashutosh Bhattacharya - "...The festival of Kenduli in Bengal is not for Jayadeva; that is the festival of the Baul community. That has got no link with Jayadeva...”.(18)
Besides the scholars, historians and researchers of Orissa, many outstanding personalities outside the state have concluded that Jayadeva belonged to Kenduvilva of Orissa. Prof. Thomas Donaldson, in his `Kamadeva's Pleasure Garden-Orissa', has accepted the arguments of the Orissan scholars about Jayadeva's place and time.(19) In a seminar conducted by the Orissa Sahitya Akademi on December 21, 1991 at Bhubaneswar, Prof. Donaldson reiterated his earlier findings that Jayadeva was born and brought up in Orissa, in reply to a pointed question of the writer regarding Jayadeva's time and place. He confirmed that Jayadeva was neither a contemporary of Laxmanasena, nor belonged to his court. According to Dr. Sukumar Sen, Jayadeva was a native of Orissa(20). It is also mentioned in the Gazetteer of India (Vol-II, Part-I Chapter-V) edited by Shri S.K. Saraswati and others that Jayadeva belonged to Kenduvilva of Orissa(21). I am not going into details of the comments of poets/saints across the country belonging to different periods of time who have mentioned in no uncertain terms that Jayadeva was from Orissa, like Sant Priya Das, Sant Mahipati (Marathi), poet Krishna Das (Bengal), Chandradutta (Mithila), etc. These have been elaborately discussed by the scholars and historians of Orissa.

Jayadeva and the Ascendancy of Sri Radha

The `Gitagovinda' of Jayadeva was a continuity of the growing Vaishnava faith originating from texts such as Vishnu Purana, Harivamsha, Bhagabata Purana etc. The entire state is dotted with temples where Lord Vishnu is worshipped in many forms. The reference to `Madhava' in the metal and pillar inscriptions, and discovery of a sizeable number of Madhava images from the Prachi valley belonging to the 11th and 12th centuries speak about the spread of the Madhava-cult in Orissa during that time. That justifies the invocation of Madhava throughout the `Gitagovinda.' The Vaishnava Religious movement however, assumed significance when Radha was introduced with her full glory as the heroine of this Vaishnava devotional erotic pastoral, `Gitagovinda'. There is no mention about her in the most sacred text of the Vaishnavas, 'The Bhagabata Purana', and little mention in the earlier works like Hala's `Gathasaptasati'; Bhattanarayana's `Venisamhara'; Abhinavagupta's `Dhwanyalokalochana' etc. ranging from 4th/5th century onwards. As we look back, we find this mysterious character slowly unveiling herself with the passage of time, then suddenly appearing before us with all her grandeur in the `Gitagovinda'. To quote Barbara Stoler Miller, "... Radha is one of the most obscure figures in early Indian literature. Until Jayadeva made her the heroine of his poem, she appeared only in stray verses scattered through various Puranas, anthologies of Prakrit and Sanskrit poetry, works of literary aesthetics, grammar, poetry, drama, and a few inscriptions. In Gitagovinda, Radha is neither a wife nor a worshipping rustic playmate. She is an intense, solitary, proud female who compliments and reflects the mood of Krishna's passion. She is Krishna's partner in a secret and exclusive love, contrasted in the poem with the circular rasa dance Krishna performs with the entire group of cowherds ....Her relationship with Krishna culminates in their union and mutual 'victory' (jaya) over each other...”(22). It is, therefore relevant to trace the origin and development of the concept of Sri Radha in religion, history and archaeology of the state to get an idea about the climate which gave birth to the Vaishnava cult.
According to Narahari Chakraborty, author of the encyclopaedia of Vaishnava religious history Bhakti Ratnakara' written in the 18th century, the image of Radha was initially found in Orissa, which had been sent to Vrindavana to be placed alongside the single image of Krishna, after the same was worshipped in the temple of Lord Jagannatha(23). This is also corroborated by historians like Amarnath Ray who wrote, "The deities installed by the Gosvamins at Vrindavana were single images of Krishna; that long after their times a chief of Orissa sent to Vrindavana the first Srimurty (image of Radha) which was installed by the side of one of the deities and the omission in case of others was made good gradually" (24). During the reign of Aurangzeb, those images of Radhakrishna were shifted to Jaipur for reasons of safety. When the Radhakrishna icons were worshipped there, the Vaishnava scholars of South India questioned the sanctity of worshipping Radha with Krishna. It was the great Vaishnava philosopher/saint from Orissa Pandit Baladeva Vidyabhusan who, propounding the theory of `Achintya Vedaveda' convinced that Srikrishna was the Supreme Soul (Param Bramha) while Radha was a manifestation of his Blissful Energy (hladini Shakti). According to Padmashree Paramananda Acharya, who has dealt with this extensively in his 'Archaeology of Orissa and Other Essays', the images were worshipped during the reign of King Sawai Jaisingh of Jaipur who ruled from 1698 AD to 1743 AD. Baladeva Vidyabhusana, therefore belonged to the eighteenth century(25). Much before this, however, it was Acharya Nimbarka, who is believed to have been a contemporary of Jayadeva, who had propounded the Radhakrishna cult, describing God as Gopalakrishna accompanied by Radha and Gopis and engaged in play with them. During the reign of the Ganga dynasty, the cultural exchange between Orissa and South India was at its height. The great Vaishnava saints of South namely Shri Vishnu Svami, Acharya Nimbarka, Shri Madhavacharya and Shri Ramanujacharya, according to Late K.N. Mohapatra, were congregating at Puri frequently for furthering the Vaishnava religious movement(26). It, therefore, appears that Jayadeva's work and the Vaishnava religious movement were complementary to each other in bringing about the ascendancy of 'Sri Radha' in the cultural milieu of the then Orissa. To quote Shri Gopikamohan Bhattacharya, the Bengali scholar on Vaishnavism, "The Radha legend has been elaborately worked out by Jayadeva, the Nimbarka sect has also done its bit to promote it."(27) According to Prof. Donaldson, "With Jayadeva we have the introduction of the Radha cult in the literature of Orissa. The immediate popularity of the Gitagovinda is evident by its recitation in the temple of Jagannatha during the reign of Narasimha II(AD 1278-1300), approximately one hundred years after its creation, though it is not until the 16th century with the advent of Shri Chaitanya, that the cult of Radha, or consort service, became widespread throughout Orissa(28).
In this context, I invite the attention of the scholars to the recent discovery of a figurine sharing a decorated platform with Lord Krishna under a tree laden with oval flowers during the de-plastering of the facades of the Jagannatha temple. An ornamental arch around the couple suggests divinity of this figurine. If the contention of the archaeologists that the lady was none but Radha is true, it would, perhaps be one of the oldest images of Radha ever found. Can we induce from this that the worship of Radha and Krishna around which an entire Vaishnava cult revolves was a gift from Orissa to the cultural mainstream?
It indeed becomes a delicate and tricky affair to delve into the literary and cultural history of a nation where so many art forms have so profusely flowered. As also the onus of bringing in change with continuity; so that the practice of art and culture becomes a more relevant and a more meaningful exercise.
It does make one feel sad to find that much of the literary and cultural movements of this state have not been coded. This region has remained in the darkness for long, despite her having given birth to a galaxy of luminaries.
One of Orissa's historians and scholars, the late K.N. Mohapatra gave her the first comprehensive work on saint-poet Jayadeva. He had the uniqueness of being both a historian and a scholar in Sanskrit, a faculty which enabled him to decipher the archives with ease and relate it to other historical documents. But surprisingly there hasn't been any translation of his work either into English or any other Indian language. Thus numerous cultural treasures of this state would take a painfully long time to be explored. It is echoed in the lament of the outstanding researcher Charles Fabri who writes, "I have yet to come across any book or even an article that has ever been attempted to deal in a consecutive, chronological manner with the art-history of the state..."(29). What we need today is an ordered, in-depth study of our cultural past. A study guided by a scientific temper than by any emotional bias. Any authentic output would benefit learning immensely.
It is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg that we have discovered. Similar revelations are sure to come in other forms of art. The eminent historian Sri K.C. Panigrahi had talked about the 17th century colourful palm-leaf manuscript of Gitagovinda preserved in the museum. According to him, such a manuscript coupled with the historical details of Jayadeva's life and times could attract a worldwide audience(30). Jayadeva, whose impact on the cultural milieu was so profound, was also a product of that same culture. Let it be our honest effort to explore the priceless heritage of Orissan culture and celebrate the continuity of that glorious tradition.

References
1. Bach, Hilda, Indian Love Painting, New York : Crescent Books, 1985.
2. Stutley Margaret and James, A Dictionary of Hinduism, New Delhi : Heritage Publishers, 1986.
3. Siegel, Lee, Sacred and Profane Dimensions of Love in Indian Traditions, New Delhi,
Oxford University Press, 1990.
4. Donaldson, Thomas, Kamadeva's Pleasure Garden : Orissa, New Delhi: B.R. Publish­ing Corpn., 1987.
5. Vatsyayan, Kapila, The Illustrated Manuscripts of the Gitagovinda from Orissa.
6. Mishra, Bimal Kishore, Essay Appearing in Orissa Review - May 1991.
7. Chatterjee, S.K., Jayadeva, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1973.
8. Miller, Barbara Stoler, The Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidas,1984.
9. Mahapatra, K.N., Shri Jayadeva and Shri Gitagovinda, BBSR, 1973.
10. Acharya, P.N., The Archaeology of Orissa and Other Essays, BBSR: Orissa Sahitya Akademi, 1972.
11. Mahapatra, K.N., Shri Jayadeva and Shri Gitagovinda, BBSR, 1973.
12. Rajaguru S.N., Orissa Historical Research Journal Vol: V.
13. Acharya, B.C. & Ratha, G.S., Ed. Vaishnava Lilamrita by Madhava Patnaik, Sambalpur,Pradip Publications,
14. Mahapatra, K.N., Shri Jayadeva and Shri Gitagovinda, BBSR, 1973.
15. Miller, Barbara Stoler, The Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidas,1984.
16. Panda, Dr. Bhagaban, Kaviraja Jayadeva Charita : Translated from Chandradutta's original work, Cuttack, 1986.
17. Chatterjee, S.K., Jayadeva, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1973.
18. Mishra, Nilamani, Jayadeva in the Pan Indian Tradition, and taken from Jayadeva, the
poet of Orissa: Orissa Sanskriti Parishad: 1986.
19. Donaldson, Thomas, Kamadeva's Pleasure Garden : Orissa, New Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corp., 1987.
20. Sen, Dr. Sukumar, History of Bengali Literature, New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi.
21. Gazetteer of India, History and Culture-Vol.II, Part I, Chap. V.
22. Miller, Barbara Stoler, The Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidas, 1984.
23. Acharya, P.N., The Archaeology of Orissa and Other Essays, BBSR: Orissa Sahitya Akademi, 1972.
24. Acharya, P.N., The Archaeology of Orissa and Other Essays, BBSR: Orissa SahityaAkademi, 1972.
25. Acharya, P.N., The Archaeology of Orissa and Other Essays, BBSR: Orissa Sahitya Akademi, 1972.
26. Mahapatra, K.N., Shri Jayadeva and Shri Gitagovinda, BBSR : Granthakarta, 1973.
27. Bhattacharya, Gopikamohan, Vaishnava Literature (Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. V,
R.K. Mission Institute of Culture, 1978.
28. Donaldson, Thomas, Hindu Temple Art of Orissa, Vol. II, E.J. Brill, 1986.
29. Fabri, Charles, History of the Art of Orissa, New Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1974.

30. Panigrahi K.C., The Orissa of My Times, Cuttack: Kitab Mahal, 1987.
Published in NILABDHI, Harman Publishing House, New Delhi, 2002

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH MR DASMUNSHI !

By asking Mrs. Taslima Nasrin to apologise the Muslims with folded hands for something she had written long back, it seems as if you are equating the entire Muslim Community with the fanatics. It is the fanatics who have attacked Ms. Nasrin and not the Muslim community as a whole . The disapproval of a large number of Muslims to the dastardly attack on Ms. Nasrin at Hyderabad and Kolkata bears testimony to this. Do you then want Ms. Nasrin to apologise to the fanatics with folded hands Mr. Dasmunshi ? In case she accepts your advice and does the same, can you assure on behalf of the fanatics that there will be no damage caused to her by them in the future ?
Mr Dasmunshi, while commenting about distinguished personalities like Mrs. Nasrin, please do not forget that it is your Government which had accorded her the status of a Guest. Did not you know what she had written in her Book at the time of accepting her as a distinguished guest, particularly when there was a lot of hue and cry over the Book including ban and subsequent lift of the ban ?
Mr Dasmunshi, The entire world saw how Ms. Nasrin was attacked at Hyderabad by the Law Makers of a State which is governed by your party. Have you got the guts to ask them why they took Law into their hands by attacking a distinguished lady, that to the guest of the country ? Do you want Ms. Nasrin to bow down before the people who plotted to endanger her life and liberty ?
Something which hurt the sentiments of the Muslims immeasurably was demolition of Babri Masjid which took place while your party was in power at the centre. Senior activists of your party are still being prosecuted for the worst ever carnage took place in Delhi, in which God only knows how many Sikhs lost their lives ,again while your party was in power. In spite of all these, do not you feel ashamed to take side with the Law breakers and hooligans instead of firmly asserting secularism and Rule of Law ? Can you also ask that great Artist to apologise who has hurt the feelings of a large number of Indians many a times through sad portrayal of their Goddesses in his paintings ?
Mr Dasmunshi, you are no ordinary man. You are an Hon’ble Minister of the Government of the Largest Secular Democratic Republic of the World. You are also the representative of the people of the land of Tagore whose “Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high,…where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls… Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action – Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake” still resounds through the length and breadth of India. Have you to be reminded of the glorious tradition of India of honouring and protecting women and guests for which eminent women of the world like Sister Nivedita, Shri Maa & Mother Teresa preferred to settle down in India ?
Mr Dashmunshi, unity in diversity is the hallmark of Indian culture. We may differ in many issues, but we do not have any right to impose our thought violently on others as it happened in case of Ms. Taslima Nasrin. It is hightime when you should say sorry to Ms. Nasrin on behalf of the people of India for the inhuman and barbaraic treatment caused to her in the land of Buddha, Gandhi and Kotnis. Ms. Nasrin is a Citizen of the world. A lot of countries must be eager enough to have her in their Land. Should our great country lag behind others in providing a little nest to this tiny bird of humanity, who is tired of flying from country to country ?

WE HANG OUR HEADS IN SHAME TASLIMA !

It is unthinkable that the Largest democracy of the world finds it so difficult to protect its distinguished guest from the hands of few hooligans ! The votaries who always advocate freedom of thought and freedom of expression have suddenly taken sides with the butchers of freedom ! The entire world saw the barbarity and cruelty with which she was attacked in the city of Hyderabad which is famous for its hospitality and culture. Instead of taking stern action against the people who have degraded India's dignity in the world community by attacking an innocent and distinguished lady like Ms. Taslima Nasrin, a sheepish administration took recourse to callous indifference. Another State Government thought it proper to bundle her out of its territories in the darkness of the night to appease few hooligans with remarks which were not only indecent, but also thoroughly unbecoming as representatives of people in a Democratic setup. The administration of the largest democracy of the world also thought it proper to confine her in the capital city instead of providing security to her at her residence, like scores of officials, guests and dignitaries. The commonman is totally confused with the hypocratic approach of the Administration - if it allows itself to be threatened by few hooligans for which a distinguished guest of the country has to live like a prisoner, how can it meet the threats of organised terrorists ? Are not the VIPs and VVIPs roaming with different types of security guards at the cost of the public exchequer ? Shall the commonman will also be asked to be confine himself to his house in view of security threats ? Instead of booking the trouble mongers how long you can hide innocent people from their onslaught ?

The same people who advocate for respecting the religious sentiments of the citizens in their advice to Ms. Nasrin, speak in a totally different voice to another group of citizens who protest against improper depictions of their deities by a famous artist who only picks up members and deities of a particular community for nude and objectionable portrayal ! When such advocates have drawn no line of demarcation between freedom and anarchy for this great artist, it is ridiculous to lay down such parameters for a distinguished citizen of the World ! If it is sauce for gander, it must also be sauce for geese !

We have a glorious tradition of hospitality and culture in which women are held in high esteem for which eminent women like Bhagni Nivedita, Shri Maa, Mother Teresa etc., coming from different parts of the world chose to settle in our country. Are we moving in the correct direction in case of Ms. Taslima Nasrin? Are we really behaving with her like our guest in accordance with our culture and tradition ? I appeal to the conscience of our countrymen and their representatives in various governments for soul searching and provide due honour, dignity and security to such a distinguished guest of our country who has already become a world citizen

...TO ALL THE WOMEN WHO WANT TO FULFIL THEIR DREAMS ! : ILEANA CITARISTI

The International Women's Day was celebrated by ORIENTAL ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS on March 8, 2007 in the auspices of Bhubaneswar Book fair. Books written by eminent Women Writers, Dancers, Performers, Artists and Activists of India and abroad had been displayed in the Pavilion of the Academy for the occasion. Biographies and Autobiographies of eminent Women like Hope against Hope(Nadezhda Mandelstam), Living History-Memoirs(Hillary Rodham Clinton), My Girlhood, Dwikhondito, All that Darkness(Taslima Nasrin), Selective Memories (Sobha De), The Diaries of Virginia Woolf, Paula(Isabel Allende), All Said and Done, The Prime of Life, Force of Circumstance, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter(Simone de Beavoir), Earthly Paradise,My Mother's House(Colette), Curriculum Vitae(Muriel Spark), Daddy, We Hardly knew you(Germaine Greer), Kafka's Milena(Jana Cerna), Dancing in the Family(Sukanya Rehman), I know why The Caged Bird Sings, All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes, Gather Together in my Name, The heart of a Woman, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry like Christmas (Maya Angelou), The Journals of Sylvia Plath, Life With Picasso(Francoise Gilot & Carlton Lake) etc. included in the collection.

The eminent Classical Dancer Ms Ileana Citaristi graced the pavilion on the occasion of International Womens' Day, and showed lot of interest in the collections and activities of the Academy. While expressing her solidarity with the Academy, she wished all Women of the World to get their dreams fulfilled on that eventful day.

A WOMAN'S VOICE MUST BE HEARD : SHOBHA DE

Mrs. Shobha De, who inaugurated the Bhubaneswar Book Fair in march, 2007, had also inaugurated the ORIENTAL ACADEMY pavilion which displayed books on Women's writing in India. The original and translated works Aof Indian Women Authors in English and different Indian Languages of the Library had been selected for display on the opening day of the Book Fair. The distinguished Author, editor and Socialite Mrs. Shobha De took keen interest in the selections and went through the catalogues and collections of the Library with great interest. She enquired about the activities of the Academy and expressed her pleasure on the stress given by the Academy to Feminism and Women's Studies. She charmed the bibliophiles and visitors to the Book Fair with her eloquence and grace . She exchanged her views with the office bearers of the Academy on various translation works of prominent Women Authors, and was very happy to learn about the efforts of the Academy to publish the Life and Works of Sappho, the great Lyric Poet poet of 7th century B.C. . The works of authors included Sarojini Naidu, Toru Dutt, Rokeya Hossain, Kamala Markandeya, Nayantara Sehgal, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Dina Mehta, Santha Rama Rao, Attia Hussein, Kamala Das, Anita Desai, Eunice de Souza, Suniti Namjoshi, Bharati Mukherjee, Gauri Deshpande, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De, Monika Verma, Kiran Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri, Taslima Nasrin, Nargis Dalal, Gita Mehta, Rukmini Bhaya Nayar, Meena Alexander, Anna Sujata Mathai, Bapsi Sidhwa, Shashi Despande, Kamalini Sengupta, Namita Gokhale, Maheswata Ray, Sujata Bhatt, Urvashi Butalia, Chitra Bannerji Divakaruni, Radhika Jha, Jai Nimbakar, Manjula Padmanabhan, Abha Dawesar, Anita Agnihotri, Indira Goswami, Swarnakumari Devi, Binodoni Dasi, Rasasundari Dasi, Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, Lila majumdar, Ashapurna Devi, Kabita Sinha, Nabanita Deb Sen, Pratibha Basu, Bani Basu, Jaya Mitra, K. K. Dyson, Padma Sachdev, Mahadevi Verma, Mrinal Pande, Ruth Vanita, C. S. Lakshmi, Qurratulin Hyder, Kuntala Kumari Sabat, Basanta Kumari Patnaik, Binapani Mohanty, Pratibha Ray, Jashodhara Mishra, Ajeet Caur, Amrita Pritam, Manjit Tiwana, Ismat Chugtai, Krishna Sobti, Wajida Tabassum and many more. Mrs. Shobha de was so impressed and moved with the activities of the Academy that she congratulated the office bearers and wrote - "A Woman's voice must be heard." All her Books, which were displayed in the pavilion becamAe the centre of attraction, particularly with the young mass. It was followed with the theme "Feminism and gender Studies". Seminal works on Feminism and gender Studies like A Vindication of the Rights of Women, The Feminine Mystique, The Second Sex, The Female Eunuch, Sexual Politics, Fire with Fire, Revolutions from Within, Woman - An Intimate Geography,Sexual Parsonae, Rape- The Ultimate Violation, Lesbian Lifestyles, Sakhiyani-Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India, Feminism & Sexuality, Broken Silence : Voices of Japanese Feminism, French Feminism, Women as Subjects, Feminism and Pornography, Feminism and Film, Films and Feminism, etc were of great interest to the scholars as well as the general public.

I WILL NEVER BE SILENCED : TASLIMA NASRIN

Ms. Taslima Nasrin had graced the pavillon of ORIENTAL ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS during the Bhubaneswar Book fair in March, 2007. The books of the Academy had been displayed in the pavillon each day on a different theme. The theme of the pavillon on 4th March was Biography and Autobiography in which the Biography and Autobiography of eminent people belonging to different walks of life had been prominently displayed. Some rare works like Memoirs of Edward Gibbon(1891), the Soul of Spain by Havelock Ellis(1909-reprint 1929), My Life in the Russian Theatre by Vladimir Nemirovitch Dantchenko(1937), My Life in Art by Constantin Stanislavsky(1924) had been displayed with that of many ancient and modern personalities including Hope against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam and all works of Taslima Nasrin. Ms. Nasrin spent quite sometime amidst the books and her admirers present in the pavillon and deeply appreciated the activities of the Academy in respect of promoting women's literature. She appreciated the huge collection of books on Feminism and Gender Studies in its Library. She left the Academy Premises with her message "I will never be silenced", which left a deep impression on the bibliophiles and general visitors to the Book Fair.