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Birth anniversary of traditional poet Baladev Ratha celebrated

Children paying homage to ‘Saint Poet Baladeb Ratha’ in Berhampur on Monday.

BERHAMPUR: The birth anniversary of great traditional poet of Orissa Baladev Ratha was celebrated in the city.

Literary activists and members of the Kavisurya Baladev Rangamancha of the city garlanded his statue in the morning. Activist of the Kavisurya Rangamancha and former MLA of Berhampur, Siba Sahanai said like earlier years they also organised a literary meet to discuss the great works of the Baladev.

Young as well as senior writers and poets of the city participated in this meeting and compared the poetry of Baladev’s era with modern poetry.

His birth anniversary was also celebrated at Athagadapatana of Ganjam district, which was his work place. His ‘Samadhi’ also exists at the place.

The villagers had gathered up to celebrate his birth anniversary at the Samadhi. Baladev Ratha (1779-1845) was born in Ganjam district of Orissa and he was a courtier in the court of King of Athagadapatana.

He was a great lyrical poet of Orissa who was conferred with the title of Kavisurya or the sun among poets. He is best known for his magnum opus Champu consisting of 34 Oriya songs with short poems and prose pieces attached to each song. He was also a great Sanskrit scholar, singer and administrator.

Kavisurya also devised a musical instrument called dhumpa, which used to accompany the lyrical satires he wrote.

The musical instrument made up of bamboo is still used by some tribal musicians. The abhinaya section in Odissi dance recitals is usually set to Oriya poetry by Kavisurya.

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