ABSTRACT
Odisha was under Afghan and Mughal rule for nearly two centuries and was a site of vibrant and multi-faceted Indo-Persian cultural exchange. However, few scholars have explored aspects of this enriching transaction. In this context, Krushna Charan’s essay assumes special significance and deepens our understanding of this important but underexplored area of study. After sketching the socio-historical milieu, Krushna Charan traces the emergence of new literary forms such as pala, tamsa and jatra. A striking feature of all these genres is the use of a mixed language containing expressions from Odia, Bangla, Persian and Hindi. Krushna Charan shows with critical acuity how Mughal Tamsa, in particular, reflects social conditions prevailing in Odisha in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and subjects figures of authority to hilariously scathing ridicule. He convincingly points out how the attempt to establish harmony between two religions led to the rise of a ritual called Satyapir pala which has significant literary consequences. As a form of performing art jatra drew its intensity from this multicultural ethos; well into the early twentieth century, jatra performances opened with a Muslim dignitary summoning the zamindar to bring him gifts. Krushna Charan gives his account of Indo-Persian culture a whole new dimension through his bold and original suggestion that the obsessive preoccupation with formal devices in Odia poetry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries can be explained in terms of the influence of Perso-Arabic literary conventions on Odia writers. He also invites scholars’ attention to the strong possibility of Sufi mysticism influencing the works of Vaishnava poets in Odisha.
