Culture of Odisha
[1] The modern state of Odisha was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions.
Pattachitra is thus a painting done on canvas, and is manifested by rich colourful application, creative motifs, and designs, and portrayal of simple themes, mostly mythological in depiction.
[6] Sand sculpture is practiced on the beaches of Puri.In its long history, Odisha has had a continuous tradition of dharmic religions especially Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Odisha has, therefore, a syncretic mixture of the three dharmic religions as attested by the fact that the Jagannath Temple in Puri is considered to be holy by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.
The beginnings of Odia poetry coincide with the development of Charya Sahitya, the literature thus started by Mahayana Buddhist poets.
[8] This literature was written in a specific metaphor named "Sandhya Bhasha" and the poets like Luipa, Kanhupa are from the territory of Odisha.
The first great poet of Odisha is the famous Sarala Das who wrote the Mahabharata, not an exact translation from the Sanskrit original, but a full-blown independent work.
In 1509, Chaitanya, an Odia devotee of Vishnu whose grandfather Madhukar Mishra had emigrated to Bengal, came to Odisha with his Vaishnava message of love.
At the end of the age of Panchasakha, the prominent poets are Dinakrushna Dasa, Upendra Bhanja and Abhimanyu Samanta Singhara.
Verbal jugglery, obscenity and eroticism as the characteristics of Shringara Kavyas, became the trend of this period to which Upendra Bhanja took a leading role.
Upendra Bhanja was conferred with the title Kabi Samrat of Odia literature for the aesthetic poetic sense and verbal jugglery proficiency.
Much respected personality of Odishan culture and history, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Dash (1877–1928) had founded a school at a village Satyabadi near Sakshigopal of Odisha and an idealistic literary movement influenced the writers of this age.
Influenced by the romantic thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore, during the thirties when the progressive Marxian movements were in full flow in Odia literature, Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, the brother of Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi, the founder of Marxian Trend in Odisha, formed a group during 1920 called Sabuja Samiti.
As the successor of Sachi babu, two poets Guruprasad Mohanty (popularly known as Guru Prasad) (1924–2004) and Bhanuji Rao came with T. S. Eliot and published their co-authored poetry book Nutan Kabita.
The other significant fiction writers are Chandrasekhar Rath, Shantanu Acharya, Mohapatra Nilamani Sahoo, Rabi Patnaik, Jagadish Mohanty, Kanheilal Das, Satya Mishra, Ramchandra Behera, Padmaja Pal, Yashodhara Mishra and Sarojini Sahoo are few writers whose writings have created a new age in the field of fiction.
Jayanti Ratha, Susmita Bagchi, Paramita Satpathy, Hiranmayee Mishra, Chirashree Indrasingh, Supriya Panda, Gayatri Saraf, Mamata Choudhury are few fiction writers in this period.
Unlike to Simone, Sarojini claims the women are "Others" from masculine perspective but as a human being, she demands similar right as Plato recommended.
In the field of drama, the traditional Odia theatre is the folk opera, or Jatra, which flourishes in the rural areas of Odisha.
Bijay Mishra, Biswajit Das, Kartik Rath, Ramesh Chandra Panigrahi, Ratnakar Chaini, Ranjit Patnaik continued the tradition.
Born as a seva in the Jagannatha temple of Puri, it was developed by great composers such as Jayadeva, Upendra Bhanja, Dinakrusna Dasa.
In ancient times, some saint-poets wrote the lyrics of poems and songs that were sung to rouse the religious feelings of people.
It was by the eleventh century that the music of Odisha, in the form of Triswari, Chatuhswari, and Panchaswari, underwent a transformation and was converted into the classical style.
Odissi classical dance is about the divine love of Krishna and his consort Radha, mostly drawn from compositions by the notable Odia poet Jayadeva, who lived in the 12th century CE.
The children's verses are known as "Chhiollai", "Humobauli" and "Doligit"; the adolescent poems are "Sajani", "Chhata", "Daika", "Bhekani"; the youth compositions are "Rasarkeli", "Jaiphul", "Maila Jada", "Bayamana", "Gunchikuta" and "Dalkhai"; the workman's poetry comprises "Karma" and "Jhumer" about Lord Vishwakarma and the "Karamashani" Goddess.
Pala is a unique form of balladry in Odisha, which artistically combines elements of theatre, classical Odissi music, highly refined Odia and Sanskrit poetry, wit, and humour.
Nanda served Odia Film Industry as an actor, director, screenplay writer, and lyricist and even as a playback singer.
The kitchen of the famous Jagannath Temple in Puri is reputed to be the largest in the world, with a thousand chefs, working around 752 wood-burning clay hearths called chulas, to feed over 1,00,000 people each day.
It had been enjoyed and originated in Odisha for centuries and later extended into neighbouring Bengal, like the well-known odia rice pudding, kheeri (kheer), that is relished all over India.
Pakhala, a dish made of rice, water, and yoghurt, that is fermented overnight, is very popular in summer, particularly in the rural areas.
Odia desserts are made from a variety of ingredients, with milk, chhenna (a form of ricotta cheese), coconut, rice, and wheat flour being the most common.
