Odia Books

Baishnab Pani was born in 1882 in the village of Kothapada in the district of Cuttack. He was compelled by poverty to discontinue his studies after the sixth class at the age of seventeen, but by then he had got Amarakosha, grammar, and several Sanskrit and Oriya kavyas by heart. At the age of 21, he wrote his first play Meghanadabadha which was followed by a number of dance-dramas such as Ravanabadha, Rangasabha, Brajalila, Dhruba-charita, Prabalad-charita and Kichakabadha. He directed his own plays and sometimes himself appeared on the stage.

Pani was influenced by his predecessor Jagannath Pani of Balasore and knew several languages, such as
Sanskrit, Oriya, Bengali and Hindi. Pani wrote nearly one hundred operas and dance dramas. Most of them
were, based on mythology and history. Apart from these, he also produced nineteen farces, twelve
collections of lyrical poems, a number of bhajan collections like Jagannath bhajanamala, Trinathmela
bhajan, and Bhagwat bhajanmala. He also wrote a good number of ‘choutisas’. The Saptaha Bhagwat
mahatmya and Laudi Gita composed by him are very popular among the common masses of Orissa.
Baishnab Pani in his writings reflected the hopes and disappointments, joys and sorrows of the common
people and was popular as ‘Ganakabi’ of the people.

Meghanada Badha
Rangasabha
Brajalila
Dhruba-charita
Kichaka Badha
Rangasabha
Naladamayanti
Rabana Badha

Jagannath Bhajanamala
Trinathmela Bhajan
Bhagwat bhajanmala
Saptaha Bhagwat Mahatmya
Laudi Gita