English
Brajanath Badajena was born in 1739,Hi is a distinguished poet of the ornate style was born in
Dhenkanala (a tributary State) during the rule of the Marhattas. The scattered accounts of his genealogy and life can be found in his works. From his Kelikalanidhi (Full moon of erotic sports) it is known that he was a descendant of Raghu Araksita, a great devotee of the 16th century, residing at Puri.
He was patronized by the ruling chief of Dhenkanala and Keonjhar as their court-poet, but being a man of independent spirit, he could not stay permanently at Dhenkanala and had to move from one place to another (Keonjhar, Darpani, Bhilingi) for his livelihood, even at his old age.
Samara Taranga (Waves of War, 1781) was written at the instance of the Raja of Dhenkanala in his praise, but the grief of the poverty-stricken poet has been pathetically reflected in his Rajananku Chalokti (Twisted address to the Raja), which is autobiogrophical in spirit. He spent his last days at Puri during the reign of Dibyasimha Deva II, to whom he dedicated his poem Gundicha Bije (Procession to Gundica), written in Hindi. He was a scholar of repute, a powerful poet and an artist too.
Besides Oriya, he was well versed in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Khoratha (Hindi), Bengali and Telugu.
Descriptions in Sanskrit,Hindi, Prakrit and Bengali are to be found in his famous work Ambika Vilasa (Love-sport of Ambika). He has to his credit quite a good number of poems in ornate style and a prose fiction (Katha).
His Ambika Vilasa is based on the theme of the union of Siva and Parvati and the birth of Kumara. This poem as well as Syama Rasotsaba (Rasa festival of Syama), Bichaksana (The artful heroine) and Kelikalanidhi (a fictional poem) bear testimony to his scholarship, grandeur of description, rhetorical devices, and poetic vision too.Though he has exhibited his craftsmanship modelled on the literary style of the famous ornate poet Upendra Bhanja, still his departure from the style of the latter in same aspects enhances the quality of his poetry in that it brings in also an element of modernity.
His Samara Taranga (vivid and realistic description of a war fought between the Raja of Dhenkanala and the Marhatta G.overnor in 1781), Gundicha Bije (a vivid description of the world famous Ratha Yatra of Lard Jagannatha) and Chatura Vinoda (four stories in prose full of humour and satire), where characters have been taken from comman life such as that of merchant,harlot, boat-man, dancer, etc. bear testimony to the above fact.
Besides this, he has composed some Chaupadis, Jananas, Dandaka Churnaka and Dohas (Dandaka and Churnaka adapted from Sanskrit and Doha from Hindi). Simplicity and clarity in language, vividness in description, sense of humour and lucidity in style mark the beauty of his composition. In appreciation of the poet it can be aid about him that he witnessed and welcomed the dawn of the modern age in Oriya literature. BIBLIOGRHAPHY: Natabara Samanta Raya, Badajena Sahitya (Cuttack, 1971); Rameshchandra Dhal, (ed.) Badajena Parikrama (Cuttack, 1972).
Odia Books By Brajanath Badajena
Syama Rasotsaba
Bichaksana
Kelikalanidhi
Ambika Vilasa
Gundicha Bije
Chatura Vinoda
