The traditional account of Kalapahad, a Hindu renegade and an iconoclast has influenced the Odia social
and literary space. According to some historical documents, his original name was Rajiv Lochan Ray or
Kalachand Roy Bhadury, a Bengali (Barendra Brahmin) who fell in love with Dulari, the beautiful and
charming daughter of Sulaiman Karrani, the Nawab of Bengal. He married her after his conversion to Islam.
But he repented of his deed as he faced boycott in the society. Therefore, he wanted to return to Hinduism.
But the Hindu society refused to accept him as a Hindu. At last, he came to the Temple of Lord Jagannath at
Puri to perform expiation to convert himself to Hinduism. But the priests scornfully turned down his prayer
for conversion. He got enraged and assumed the name of Kalapahad and vowed to ruin Hindu religion,
images and temples.
Madalapanji, the temple chronicle holds that Kalapahad desecrated the Jagannath temple. According to
this tradition, "when the servitors of the temple heard of Kalapahad's design on the temple, they took the
images out of the temple and hid them at a place named Hatipada near Chilka lake. But Kalapahad learnt of
this and brought the images from that place on elephants. He carried them to the bank of river Ganges and
set fire to them. Just at that time a miracle happened. His body got cracked into pieces. Being perplexed by
this, he brought out the gods from the fire and dumped them in the Ganges. Holy Ganga carried the
Brahma (or Brahma Pinda) downstream where a Vaishnava devotee Bishar Mohanty extracted the
immortal part (Brahma). Later he consecrated the Brahma at Garh Kujanga temple. The 'Brahma' was
worshipped there for seven years, (1568A.D to 1575 A.D). In 1575 A.D during the rule of Ramachandra Dev,
the first king of the Bhoi dynasty, 'Brahma' was brought from Garh Kujang and kept at Khordha Garh by
him. Next year in 1576 A.D, the construction of new images, their entry in to the temple along with the
installation of 'Brahma' in them were performed. This account of Kalapahad has been mentioned by Dr.
Sarat Chandra Biswal in his article, "Sri Jagannath and Kalapahad" published in Odisha Review.
Aswini Kumar Ghose (1892-1962) is an eminent Odia theatre personality. He is related to two illustrious sons of Odisha: Karmaveer Gourishankar Ray was his maternal grandfather and Ramshankar Ray, the pioneer Oriya dramatist, was his maternal granduncle. His dramas can be divided into three categories namely mythological, historical and social. His mythological and devotional plays are Bhishma, Sabitri, Salbeg, Dasia Bauri, Tyagi Ram Das, Sri Mandira, Raghu Arakhit, Bandhu Mohanty, Chandaluni, Janaki, Sakhigopal, Satyanarayan. His historical plays include Seojee, Kalapahad, Govinda Vidyadhar, Samaleswari, Utkala Seojee, Kalapahad, Govinda Vidyadhar, Samaleswari, Utkala Gaurav, Konark, Kesari Ganga, Paikapua, Tajmahal, Odiajhia, Bhanja Bhunjanga, Kapilendradev, Bhubaneswar. His social plays are Hindu Ramani, Masterbabu, Irani, Bhai, Sri Lokanath, Chasa Jhia, Mamalatkar, Abhinay, Dukhe Sukhe, and Kaidi.
Bhagabat Nath is a retired Senior Reader in English. He had his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Utkal University, Odisha and served in various Government colleges of the State. He retired from Kuntala Kumari Sabat Women's College, Balasore, Odisha in 2009. His area of interest is Indian Writing in English, Twentieth Century Literary Criticism and Translation Studies. Since retirement on superannuation he has been taking avid interest in translating Odia Historical Plays into English and English Short Stories into Odia.
