Making sense of Odisha

Book Review: A richly illustrated and scholarly work that peeks at history, religion, sculpture, architecture, art, music and literature of the state

          

 

Imaging Odisha (in 2 volumes)

Pages: 908

Price: Rs 4,400

Publisher: Prafulla

In his ‘foreword’ to the book, noted Hindi poet-critic Ashok Vajpeyi captures the essence of Odisha and what this book, Imaging Odisha, is all about: “As one goes through the contents of this magnificently edited book, one is struck by the fact that in a deeply moving and memorable sense Odisha is India in all its rich plurality, its deep contradictions and anxieties, its visions and imaginations, its negotiations and cultural rootings. To know Odisha in its complexities and depths is almost to know India in a significant and uplifting way. The book helps you know this at many levels powerfully and sensitively. I have not seen any other book on a state which reveals, explores and illuminates it in such depth and range by so many diverse hands and with such a variety of viewpoints”.

He might have added that Imaging Odisha also makes one long for more – more research into the state’s rich and bewildering array of pre, ancient and medieval archaeological sites, cultural motifs, rock shelters and arts, inscriptions; tribal-Hindu cultural synthesis that finds its manifestation in the Jagannath cult, Buddhist and Tantrik traditions and architecture; its performing arts, crafts, literature and much more.

In fact, the state’s historical, religious and cultural narratives are so sketchy and grossly underexplored that it is difficult to get a proper sense of what Odisha actually is all about. Imaging Odisha tries to fill that vacuum and does an admirable work in capturing the entire gamut within those limitations, and hence, a sense of craving for more. Once those limitations are realized and kept in mind, it is easy to sit down to enjoy the magnificently produced volumes edited by eminent Indologist and German scholar Professor Hermann Kulke who has been studying Odisha for more than four decades. He was earlier associated with two Orissa Research Projects sponsored by the German Research Council in 1970-75 and 1999-2005. He was awarded with Padma Shri in 2010 for literature and education. Several other scholars, including Professor GN Dash, Dr Nivedita Mohanty, Dr Dinanath Pathy, Professor JK Nayak assisted Kulke in generating and writing the content.

The first thing that hits one about this book, brought out by Prafulla, a Odisha-based publisher, is its format. The volumes have the size, look, feel and design of a typical coffee-table book. That explains the high price tag. There are plenty of photographs, illustrations, paintings capturing Odisha through the ages, some of which are rare and unseen and sourced from the museums abroad. But the content is scholarly, written by some of the better known Odisha experts, 27 of whom are non-Indians (including Professor Paul Yule of University of Heidelberg who studied Sisupalgarh, ancient India’s amazing fortified city that served as one of emperor Ashoka’s administrative centre in the then Kalinga). There are 149 articles and boxes and 65 authors in all. Volume I is devoted to Odisha’s history, religion, architecture and sculpture while volume II is about language and literature, performing arts, festivals, visual arts, sartorial traditions, handicrafts, culinary arts and natural heritage.

Strangely, it offers very little contemporary political history of the state and how it has shaped it. There is just one chapter on Odisha’s political journey since 1947 which stops at 1990. Much as the narratives of its past, the narrative of its present doesn’t shed adequate light on where Odisha is headed for and why.

Nevertheless, it is a truly impressive work that fills a vacuum long felt by those who are interested in knowing more about Odisha. For that, one person richly deserves the kudos. PK Dash, the managing editor of the volumes who in his duty hours chases political parties and candidates as director-general in charge of election expenditures in the Election Commission of India and pursues his literary and cultural interests outside of it. It was his brainchild and he untiringly laboured for a decade to make it happen.