Author Archives: Swedesna Sahoo

Gopabandhu Das was born in 1877, He was a well known poet. Born in a middle-class Brahmin family, he
received his B.A. degree from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, and a law degree from Calcutta University. He practised law before he joined the Gandhian movement and worked for the poor in rural odisha.

He has been described as the founder of the Satyabadi Age in odia literature, so called after the Vana Vidyalaya he had set up at Satyabadi, near Puri in 1915. He and his compatriots, Godavarisa Misra and Nilakantha Das wrote a kind of poetry that was simple and lyrical and dealt mostly with the history, legends and folklore of odisha. Their immediate aim was to create a literature that would arouse the people’s nationalist sentiment.

Gopabandhu’s poetic career began with Abakasa Chinta (Thoughts of leisure-hours, 1899). It is a collection of lyrics he wrote during his school and college days. A second edition was published probably around 1912. The 1912 edition contains thirtynine poems. Between 1899 and 1923 he did not write much poetry except a few occasional pieces. The real flowering of his poetic power took place around 1923 when he was a political prisoner in the Hazaribagh jail where he wrote four more books. The poems in Abakasa Chinta easily fall into three distinct groups – the first containing the poet’s homage to historical celebrities, the second dealing with nature, and the third describing his visits to places of historical importance.

The chief inspiration of these poems is lyrical and didactic. The poet’s nationalist sentiment derives its power from an innate idealism. The motive behind his invocation of people and places of historical importance is to set before his readers examples of ideal humanity and of the glorious achievements of the Odias in the past. Needless to say, these poems are repetitive both in form and content.

However, he achieves more satisfying effects in his nature poetry. In the poem, ‘Kathajodi Tire
Chandraloka Nishitha,’ the poet is deeply impressed with the quietness of the river Kathajodi in a moonlit night. This experience leads to the realisation of the intimate bond between nature and the mind of man. The ode to the river Bhargabi is marked by an almost perfect fusion of form, and content. The rhythm of the lines suggests the movement of the river and also the movement of the day from dawn to dusk. River, time and thought merge into a single rhythmic flow.

Kara Kavita (Poems written in prison) is a collection of 19 lyrics written during 1922-23 and published in book form after the poet’s death. It contains some of the best specimens of his nature poetry. ‘Vishwara Milana Chitra’ and ‘Bandira Sandhya Bhabana’ depict his pantheistic vision. The longest poem in the collection ‘Bandira Swadesha Chinta’ is an ode to the south wind. It contains very vivid and sensuous descriptions of the natural scenery of all the regions of odisha.

The poet imagines the south wind to have blown already across the length and breadth of his native state, creating thereby an opportunity for himself to affect an imaginative escape from prison and to describe the scenery of the countryside. His language in this poem is brief, particularised, sensuous and vivid. In ‘Bandira Atmakatha’ (Soliloquy of a prisoner) he gives vent to his sorrow at the plight of the odias, his nationalist sentiments and his idealism

The other two books he wrote in prison are Gomahatmya (The glory of the cow) and Dharmapada. The
material for the former is drawn from the Sanskrit Mahabharata and the odia Bhagavata of Jagannatha
Das. The poem written in the nabakshari chhanda (two rhymed lines of nine letters each) of the odia
Bhagavata is a devout Hindu’s sustained plea against cow-slaughter.

Dharmapada depicts the story of a legendary boy-architect of odisha who sacrificed his life for the sake of preserving the good name of the twelve hundred odia architects engaged in building the Sun temple at Konarka. The poem begins with the twelve-year old Dharmapada’s setting out in search of his father who happens to be one of those architects,and ends with his suicide after he accomplishes the formidable task of fixing the topmost part of the temple.

The narrative does not exploit the full epic possibilities of the legend. Its popularity is due to its simple diction and the spontaneous and flowing rhythm of its verse. Nachiketa Upakhyana (The story of Nachiketa, 1930) is an odia translation of the Kathopanishad. On the whole, Gopabandhu’s poetry was a poetry with a purpose which it served well. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Brindavanachandra Acharya, Satyabadi Yuga (Cuttack, 1966); Chandrasekhara Misra, Satyabadire Shatabarsha (Cuttack, 1953); Nityananda Mahapatra, Kavi Gopabandhu (Cuttack, 1966).

Gomahatmya
Bandira Atmakatha
Dharmapada
Nachiketa Upakhyana
Nabakshari Chhanda