Ranipur-Jharial

                                                               

Kalahandi and Balangir districts of Odisha are often in news for wrong reasons. In 1985, poverty forced Fans Punji to sell her sister in law Banita for Rs 40 only, that exposed the stark poverty of the region and attracted the attention of national, even international media. The Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi along with his wife had visited the place and met Fans. On 2 October, this year, on the birth day of Mahatma Gandhi, when the world observed the day as day of non violence, around twenty thousand animals and birds were slaughtered on the occasion of Chhatar yatra of Goddess Manikeswari at Bhawaniptna. The road of Bhawanipatna was flooded with blood. A few days back, in the last week of September, one Bankee Behera of a village near Bangomunda block killed an innocent seven year old boy to propitiate Goddess for his good health. But Kalahandi and Balangir districts have a rich heritage and a glorious past that goes unnoticed in the midst of poverty, superstition and black magic. Ranipur-Jharial where one finds ancient monuments and reminiscence of Saivism, Vaishnvism, Tantra and Buddhism, is testimony to the richness of the past, which speaks of affluence of the region in earlier times.

Ranipur-Jharial is in Bangomunda block, around 110 kms from Balangir. On the day of Vijaya Dasami, 4 October, 2014, when we reached Ranipur in the afternoon, Jagmohan Tripathy, the priest of Someswar temple was inside the temple worshipping for a few devotees. He was informed of our visit earlier by a common friend. On seeing us, he came out to act as our guide handing over his charge to his young assistant.

Someswar temple is situated beside Someswar sagar. The place is known as Somatirtha, which finds mention in the puranas of 3^rd- 4^th century AD. It is said one Saiva Acharya, Gagan Shiva had built the temple, whose name has been mentioned in an inscription found on the lintel of the temple. The inscription also mentions the place as Somatirtha. Tripathy showed us an image engraved on the inner side of the wall to be of a Shaiva saint that might be of Gagan Shiva.

On a rock surface of around two square kms there are 51 temples of varied shape and size standing in dilapidated condition. In 1874-75, archeologist J D Beglar had visited the place and counted 57 temples, and noted there might be around 120 temples in earlier times. The temples were built during Somavansi rule in 8^th century AD. Historian K N Mohapatra assigns the period of the structures to 650 - 950 AD.

Chausasthi (64) yogini of Ranipur-Jharial is one of the four remaining of the famous temples of the kind. The others are at Hirapur near Bhubaneswar, Khajuraho and at Bheraghat near Jabalpur. It is a circular roofless temple and joginis are installed in the niches of the inner side of the wall. In the middle of the temple, stands an image of six handed Shiva. The jogini temple smacks of occult practices. Historians are of the view that the jogini temples are built when Brhminical tantricism gained popularity during 6^th-7^th century AD.

Hundred metres away from the jogini temple stands Indralath brick temple. The sikhara of the temple is 60 ft high standing on a high sand stone platform. Historians say that it was a Vaishnava temple, but later it was converted to a Shaiva temple. This is the tallest surviving brick temple in Odisha.

Near Someswar temple one finds foot print emblems. The priest Tripathy and the locals believe those foot prints were of Sita Devi and Ramachandra of Ramayan who had visited the place during their fourteen year forest exile. But historians attribute the foot prints to its association of early Buddhist worship. The existence of Buddhism is also corroborated by discovery of a Buddha statue in the village Ranipur.

Belief defies law and logic. Despite law against cruelty and   killing of animals, slaughter of animals continues in Manikeswari of Bhawaniptna, Pateneswari of Patnagarh or in the Sulia yatra. In Sulia yatra of Khairagad village of Tusura police station of Balangir district, people defied the order of the High Court of Odisha and imposition of 144 of Cr P C by administration and killed thousands of buffaloes, goats, sheep and hens. While chatting with Sanyasi Bhoi, a resident of the village Ranipur, he said, in the early seventies of the last century, A N Tiwari, bureaucrat and a lover of culture had visited the place. He was appalled to find animals were sacrificed before the statue of Buddha, the epitome of non-violence.  Sanyasi said, Buddha was worshipped under a silk-cotton tree in the Ranipur village as Bhima Debta and animals were killed before it to propitiate the Debta (God) for good rainfall. Tiwari stopped the practice of sacrificing animals before the Buddha statue and brought the statue from the silk-cotton tree and kept it in the Indralath temple. The statue is kept in one corner of the Indralath temple.

 Mrutyunjaya Pardhi, the retired Head Master of the school of the nearby village, Sindhekela said, if a child or a woman gets fever, people of the locality believe, evil spirit has entered in the body of the child or the woman. The exorcist is called, and he performs puja in the precinct of the chausathi yogini temple late in the night. Rooster is sacrificed to satiate the Goddess and to ward off the spirit from the body. 

Poverty and lack of education make the people superstitious and believe in black magic. The site is neglected by the tourism department. There is a guest house which remains always closed. There is no restaurant, nor any publicity to attract tourists and visitors. Although Someswar sagar(lake) has been developed and boating arrangements have been made, care is not taken for its cleanliness. We found plastic cups and plates were heaped in a corner of the lake, that gives a bad look. Government should take steps both to eradicate poverty and educate the local people, and at the same time preserve the rich heritage. The visitors, tourists and picnickers need to be conscious to keep the place clean.

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( This article was published in the Pioneer on 5 November 2014 under the caption " Ranipur-Jharial speaks of Balangir's cultural affluence" )

Buddhist Diamond Triangle

                                       ( The Gate at Ratnagiri)

It was the second day of the three day Raja festival. The festival is observed by agrarian people of Odisha at the onset of monsoon. They refrain from work and give rest to Mother Earth. Children clad in new dress eat cakes specially prepared for the occasion, play and do merrymaking. As decided earlier, we started our journey to visit Buddhist sites of Ratnagiri, Udaygiri and Lalitgiri, called the Buddhist Diamond Triangle.

Monsoon had set in and there was intermittent rain. When we took a diversion from Daitary-Paradeep national highway at Krushnadaspur towards Ratnagiri, the rain had stopped. On the one side of the road from Krushnadashpur to Ratnagiri there were green sugarcane fields and on the other side, there were hills and here and there, date and palm trees. Boys and girls were playing in swings hung from the branches of mango or banyan trees near the road side villages. Used to city life, we felt like entering into a different world.

We reached Ratnagiri at around 11 AM.

Bishnu Charan Mohanty, a social worker and an active member of Puspagiri Parisad, an organisation dedicated for development of the Buddhist sites was waiting for us.

Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese traveller visited India to study Mahayan Buddhism. Since he was not permitted to travel to India, he secretly came and reached Gandhara in 630 AD. He passed through Odisha and visited Buddhist sites during 638-641AD. He had mentioned in his accounts a famous monastery pu-sie-po-ki-li or Puspagiri which has not yet been identified satisfactorily by the historians. He has also mentioned existence of a stupa north to Puspagiri, which is identified as Ratnagiri. Hiuensa Tsang’s accounts testify that Odisha’s Buddhists were of Mahayan sect.

Odisha’s relation with Buddhism was from the early times, from days of Buddha himself. Two merchants of Utkal, Tapassu and Bhallika while passing through the middle country met Buddha and offered him rice cakes and honey. They became his disciples. Ashoka, emperor of Magadha had won Kalinga war fought in 261 BC, but after his victory he shunned violence forever, embraced Buddhism and propagated message of peace. The elephant figure, hewn in those times at Dhauli was the symbol of the birth of Buddha and was, perhaps, intended to remind the people of Kalinga of the Buddha and his teachings. Taranath, the historian speaks of the Ratnagiri monastery which was built on the top of a hill, where three copies each of Mahayan and Hinayan Buddhism and other scriptures were kept.

Bishnu Babu acted as our guide. The Buddhist relics of Ratnagiri were first brought to notice of the scholars in 1905 by Manmohan Chakravarti, then Sub Divisional Officer of Jajpur district. Excavation was conducted under the direction of Debala Mitra during the year 1958-61. Excavations revealed a massive stupa, two monasteries, shrines, and numerous votive stupas, a large number of terracotta and stone sculptures, and Buddhist antiquities including bronze, copper and brass objects. The centre of attraction here is a massive seated Buddha in bhumisparsa-mudra flanked by the standing figures of Padmapani and Vajrapani holding chamaras on each side, in the central sanctum. The finest relic of Buddhist art is the gate of Ratnagiri monastery.

                                              ( Buddha in Bhumisparsa mudra at Ratnagiri)

         An aesthetically planned three terraced building houses an archaeological museum which was completed in 1990, and started functioning in August 15, 1998.  The museum consists of four galleries displayed with various antiquities mainly related to tantric Buddhism including small votive stupas, sculptures of different medium and dimensions in stone, bronze, ivory, copper and stone inscriptions and terracotta seals.

Udayagiri, also known as “Sunrise Hill,” is only nine km away from Ratnagiri. This Buddhist site is enriched with a brick stupa, two brick monasteries, a stepped stone deep well which never goes dry even in hot summer. The deep well was constructed during those days when use of rope for lifting buckets of water was not known.

The stupa at Udayagiri has four seated stone statues of Buddha, enshrined and facing each direction. There is an extensive monastic complex with 13 cells and a towering statue of Budhhha seated in bhumisparsa mudra. Besides, sculptures of Buddha and other Buddhist divinities like Tara, Majusri, Hariti, Chunda, Vasudhara,etc have been discovered in large numbers at the site.

( Bamphi, stepped stone deep well at Udayagiri. The well never dries even in hot summer)

Lalitagiri is about 10 km far from Udayagiri. Excavations have unearthed an apsidal chaitya hall or chaityagriha, four monasteries and stone sculptures of Buddha and Buddhist divinities. Worth mentioning discovery in Lalitgiri were three relic caskets, two containing small pieces of charred bones inside the stupa. Buddhist literature says that after the death of Buddha, his corporal remains were distributed among his disciples to be placed within the stupas. The remains preserved in the caskets are believed to have belonged to the Buddha himself.

At one time Buddhism was the dominant religion in entire Odisha. Later, Buddhism started disappearing as it lost royal patronage in and around 700 AD. Its survival also became difficult. With the revival of orthodox Brahminical religion, Buddhists were harassed and even murdered. In course of time Buddhism was also assimilated in Hinduism and lost its identity. Buddha was deified and accepted as one of the avatar or incarnation of Bishnu in Hinduism. Buddhism disappeared from the land of its birth.

Ratnagiri and Udayagiri sites have Mahakala temples which were later developments with the revival of Brahminical orthodoxy. It was already two in the afternoon when we reached Udayagiri. Blood stains in front of Mahakala temple at Udayagiri astounded us. There were intermittent rains from the early morning. The downpour had not washed away completely the blood stains. Dr Bhagyadhar Sahoo, retired head master and a scholar of the locality told that goats had been sacrificed before Mahakala on the occasion of rajasankranti. Later, we learnt from newspapers that more than fifty goats had been sacrificed the next day before the Mahakala at Udayagiri.

( Mahakala Temple at Udayagiri where goats are sacrificed)

Buddhism was born in reaction against violence in Brahminical religion, especially against animal sacrifice. Buddhism preaches peace and non-violence. Animal sacrifice is a punishable offence under the law. Still, violence and sacrifice do not stop. Insides the sites of Buddhism which was founded on the principles of non-violence, people do not have any scruple to sacrifice animals and cause bloodshed.

Hiuen Tsang in his accounts describes the people of Odradesa that includes present district of Jajpur  were of violent ways, and were different from the mid country. One thousand and five hundred years after the visit of Hiuen Tsang and despite progress of civilisation, sacrifice in the Buddhist precincts testifies to the fact that the violence in the man has not died out.

( With inputs and photographs from Sefali Suman)

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My Article in Samabad

This article may also be read at - http://sambadepaper.com/epapermain.aspx?edcode=10&eddate=2/13/201412:00:00AM&querypage=10

All Those Days

The persons born in rural India in the early nineteen hundred fifties had a chance to see a TV in 1982. By that time he had completed his education and had been into a job, most likely a government job, and already married and with children. He might have not a telephone connection to his residence unless he was a high ranking government officer or a wealthy businessman. Hardly had he gone out of the country. If someone got a chance to go abroad, it was news under the caption “An Odia on Foreign Tour”. Income Tax Department had also a rule that a person who had visited a foreign country in the year or had a telephone connection, above all things, was required to file income tax return.

 

Things have changed in the last one and half decades and we may call the change ‘revolutionary’. Globalization has brought changes in the economy and society, and also in the attitude of the man. Internets, mobile phone, social networks like the facebook have shrunk the world. A person in the nine hundred eighties could not have dreamt that he could talk to his wife at home while he was traveling in a train by use of a mobile phone. Sitting in her drawing room a half educated house wife of the village could watch the culture of the African society as well as that of the developed European countries. The changes have impacted the life of the people. Economic changes and industrialization have broken down the joint family system and even affected the institution of marriage. Instead of staying together bound in a marriage till death people now started preferring to a live-in relation. The story Nila Mastrani (Nila, the teacher) was written in 1955-56. In the story, Nila, a Brahmin girl fell in love with Madan Sethy, a scheduled caste boy, and married him. After marriage she was not only socially ostracized in her own village, but also condemned in the region in nearby villages. She cannot attend the marriage of her loving brother whom she has brought up with love and care after the death of their parents. The story sahabas (Living together) is written in 2010. In the story, Subrat and Anupama, both highly educated and employed with fat salaries have decided to live together in an apartment without marriage. No one bothers, not even the man living next door.  The people have appreciated the story and accepted the fact.

The novel seisabau dina (All Those Days) captures the change. Sanatan, a teacher represents the fifties of the nineteenth century and Niranjan represents the present time. The story of Sanatan is told in form of short and inter-connected stories. The novel was first published in the puja special issue of Arpita, 2012 and now the book is published by Sudha Prakasan, Cuttack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Friend in Need…

I have not written blog for more than six months. Last time I had written in June last year. Many things have happened during these six months, both in national and international scenes, and in personal lives also. The reason for which I could not write is I had troubles with my eyes and I had to go for operation. After my second operation of the left eye I had a deep abrasion on the cornea after the wound of the operation is almost healed. That gave me excruciating pain and it took much time to be normal. I was unable to read and write. The prolonged illness had completely disorganized me. I am yet to reorganize myself, though I have fully recovered. However, I am reorganizing myself and have written a story, the first one after my recovery, which Katha is publishing in its special February issue.

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During recuperating period after operation and healing of the abrasion I had to be confined to my room. I could not read or write. I am in the habit of reading and I read even when I commute to office sitting in the bus. Not being able to read is really a great punishment for me. In the novel The Outsider, Albert Camus has defined punishment as when someone wants something to do but he is prevented from doing. The main character of the novel has committed a murder and has been jailed and in the jail, he wants to smoke, but is not permitted. He considers this as punishment. Later he is used to non-smoking and then considers the punishment ceases to be punishment, as he no longer wants to smoke. But I cannot think of a life without books.

During illness, when one is confined to his room and not allowed to move, read or write, he is in need of the company of friends, at least, for gossiping and passing time. My friends are busy with their work and in their own ways. Pradeep and Gopa visited me once after my first operation and so also Dipankar and Sadasiv. Dipankar loaded in my computer good and my favourite songs, both of films and classical, which was helpful in passing time. Swayamprava had visited me after the second operation and spent a few hours with me and my family. But most of the time I had to listen music or sleep  to kill the oppressive loneliness. If I slept during the day, sleep eluded me in the night. The days were long, and the nights became longer.

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Two writers I like met unnatural and untimely death recently. Jagdish Mohanty’s story, Album was published when I was doing my graduation. Since then, during my college and university days, I used to purchase the magazine if it had published Jagdish’s story. Incidentally I was reading a story from his book, Prema Aprema published by Timepass when my friend Subash Sadangi telephoned me to inform his death. He was at 61.The other writer, Suresh Balbantray died at 59. He was to retire from service after 8-9 months. Suresh had been a great friend. One day I had been to his office on an official work. I found paintings drawn by him displayed in his office room. In course of discussion I casually asked him why he had stopped writing stories or poems. He replied, I cannot write a story better than you nor I can write poems better than Senapati Pradyumna Keshari. Why should I write? A person with a large heart and a broad mind could speak like this to a younger writer like me. Whenever in the evening I went to the old bus stand, the writers' corner I looked for him and he was there to greet with a smile. I know, henceforth I shall not find him, his warmth and smile in the old bus stand though I shall look for him whenever I shall go, and the vacuum will remain forever. 

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The old students of Alaka Mahavidyalay where I was a lecturer before I joined Finance Service had organized a get together on 12^th January and invited me to attend. Last year and the year before they had also invited me, but I had not attended. I was there a lecturer exactly for two years one month and six days. But Manisha says, her friends and my old students always ask and enquire about me. Among my students, she is only  one who has been in touch with me till today. This time I had also declined, but Prasanna, once a lecturer there and now a senior officer of Cooperative Service insisted me on accompanying him.

I could recognize two, Imam and Kalam, and faintly remember the third, Bhattacharya of more than a hundred old students gathered there. After all, twenty five years have passed since I left the college.  I told them about a chance meeting of an old student twenty years back when I was working in Satyabadi and while going to my village. I met him in a canteen at the Cuttack bus stand. I failed to recognize him, but he recognized and treated me with a hearty breakfast, a pack of cigarettes of my brand which he had remembered (then I was smoking) and a free ticket in his bus up to the bus stop nearest my village. I had written a story on the incident which was published in the Sunday literary page of Sambad under the caption Chhatra (student). This story is in my collection of short stories, aampakha lokamane(the people around us).

I enjoyed the day and decided to attend next time if they organize and remember me.

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