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Boom time in literary ‘yatra’

Sib Kumar Das

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Several magazines on ’Rath Yatra’ on display at a news stand in Berhampur on Tuesday. –

PURI: Rath yatra is also a revitaliser of art, culture and literature in Orissa.

Art, culture and traditional literature of Orissa has intrinsic link with the Lord Jagannath temple. They get boost every year during the rath yatra. New devotional songs and new singers get a chance to show up at ‘bhajan samaroh’ organised in Puri during the festival. Two of the major ‘bhajan samaroh’ are organised near Gundicha temple on ‘Hera Panchami’ and ‘Navami Darshan’ days during the nine-day outing of the deities.

According to Durga Mohapatra, one of the organisers of the Navami Bhajan Samaroh, many established singers of the State got their first chance to perform on stage in the past. “Now also singers from all parts of the State meet us with requests to sing at least a song at our ‘bhajan samaroh’, he says.

All traditional folk art forms like Pala, Daskathia, Ghoda Nacha get chance to perform before large crowds during the festival at the shows organised by various organisations. Traditional martial dances of Orissa like ‘Banati’ are performed during the ‘Pahandi’ of the deities to carry them to the chariots and from there to the temple. It is also a boom time for music companies as they come out with a large number of devotional albums and music videos.

Most of the magazines in the State come out with special editions for rath yatra putting emphasis on Jagannath cult and literature attached to it.

The Orissa government publishes special rath yatra issues of ‘Orissa Review’ and ‘Utkal Prasanga’. The rath yatra issues of these magazines have print order, which many times more than their regular circulation. Sri Jagannath temple also comes up with special issue of ‘Sri Mandir’. It is also the time of inauguration of new publications in Orissa. This year ‘Amari Katha’ and ‘Sambhasa’ -- two newspapers started publication from Bhubaneswar and Puri respectively. “Every newspaper published from Orissa are bound to come out with special supplements related to rath yatra and Jagannath cult during this time,” says The Sambad general manager Asit Mohanty.

But poet Pabitra Dash is not satisfied with the literary boom related to rath yatra. According to him most of the pieces published in them are written in haste and repeat of old traditional pieces related to Jagannath cult.

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