ABSTRACT
In 1967, Satchidananda Mishra, an ardent scholar of ancient and medieval Odia literature, discovered a palm-leaf manuscript of Bichitra Ramayana, written by Siddheswar Das, from Chhatrapur, Odisha, and sometimes later, a similar manuscript from Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. Notwithstanding Siddheswar’s admission that his book is based on the ‘Uttarakanda’ of Valmiki’s Ramayana, it will be unwise to draw a comparison between the two. Siddheswar was neither an imitator nor a translator; he was an author. That he diverges and departs so often from Valmiki’s text shows his attempt to give a new, independent identity to his work without changing the story line’s fundamentals. Valmiki’s Ramayana is for the sophisticated literati to savour and digest; Siddheswar’s Bichitra is for the layman to listen and enjoy. Siddheswar’s Bichitra Ramayana, therefore, reflects the lower middle-class milieu, the surroundings the author was brought up in, the sights and sounds he saw and heard, and the interrelationship among the people of his society.
