ABSTRACT
Indradhanu, a literary periodical, was published irregularly between 1893 and 1897 to celebrate and defend Upendra Bhanja, an early eighteenth-century poet and emerging symbol of Odia pride, who came under severe attack on account of the advent of a new literary sensibility. Many of the critics hostile to Upendra Bhanja found in the modern Odia poet Radhanath Ray (1848–1908) a powerful and convenient rallying point, and brought out a magazine titled Bijuli [Lightning]. The two rival camps in the controversy received enthusiastic support from the two leading newspapers of the time, Utkal Dipika and Sambalpur Hiteisini. In this controversy, obscenity, allegedly found profusely in Upendra Bhanja’s kavyas, formed the core issue. It may be mentioned here that the puritanical members of the Brahmo literati in Odisha lent vigorous support to the Bijuli group. In retrieving with great difficulty, the extant issues of Indradhanu (not a single copy of Bijuli has survived), Sudarsana Achrya not only performs an extraordinary scholarly task, but in his richly insightful introduction he illuminates the historic role the magazines played in shaping Odia critical discourse in its formative phase. In other words, he presents this controversy as an exciting drama of a crucial shift in taste and sensibility in Odisha in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. He goes beyond meticulous documentation to demonstrate how the opponents of Radhanath who began by subjecting the poet’s work to stinging critique ended up recognizing and emulating his achievement as the harbinger of modernity. Sudarsana also highlights the way in which literary magazines in Odisha helped create a community of young writers and the role controversy played in giving critical discourse new impetus and direction.
