ABSTRACT
In the present essay, originally delivered as a lecture in 1944, Krishna Chandra attempts to answer the question as to why modern Odia literature is not commercially viable. He focuses attention on the poetry written in the Sabuja era (1920s and 30s) to identify factors which led to this crisis. The experiments the Sabuja poets carried out with themes, diction and technique constituted a sharp break with tradition. Pre-Sabuja Odia literature, Krishna Chandra argues, drew its vitality from being deeply rooted in local myths, legends, and puranas, and adhering to popular melodic modes. These accounted for its powerfully pervasive appeal. Even when Radhanath Ray (1848–1908), who ushered in literary modernity in Odia poetry, introduced audacious experiments at the level of both form and content, he took particular care to draw upon established premodern poetic conventions. The Odia readership, therefore, never felt alienated from his poetry; on the other hand, they responded to it with avid enthusiasm. The undiminished loyalty of this readership to traditional Odia literature and the persistence of orality contributed to the bleak commercial prospects of modern Odia literature. However, Krishna Chandra’s position in this lecture is not to be mistaken for the grim pessimism of a parochial conservative. He is keenly aware that to grow richer a literature needs to absorb influences from the world outside and introduce transformative innovations. But, he contends, such a task cannot be accomplished through slavish imitation and fascination for transient fashions. This requires the exertions of outstanding writers endowed with genius and discipline, such as George Bernard Shaw and Rabindranath Tagore. Krishna Chandra urges the modern Odia poets to consciously and painstakingly acquire Odisha’s richly multi-layered literary tradition and not passively inherit or deliberately disown it.
