Culture

Kabi Surya Baladeba Rath

Kabi Surya Baladeba Rath born in 1789 A.D. at Badakhemundi of Ganjam. His father, Ujwola Rath was a famous Poet and writer of Badakhemundi royal palace.

At the age of ten he lost his mother, so he was brought up by his maternal grand father at Khallikote. He was his first teacher of Sanskrit and Oriya literature.

At the age of 15 he got married and after the death of his father he took shelter in the nearby Jalantar state. The then prince of Jalantar Rama Chandra Chotray inspired him for literary creation. King Ramachandra crowned him as "Kabi Surya". Among his notable literary creation some are (a) Kishore Chandranana Champua, (b) Choupadi Ratnakara, Choutisa and many devotional songs. At the age of 56 in the year 1854 he died at Berhampur.

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 Jay Jagannath Prabhu. . .

Legendary facts from different puranas state that Lord Jagannath was originally worshipped as Neela madhab secretly by a local sabara chief Viswavasu in the dense forests. Earlier the deity was in the form of "Lord Krishna's image" made of granite stone. Having heard about the Deity, King Indradyumna sent a brahmin priest to know more about this from the chief. The priest tried his best but could not get any clue of the deity. Meanwhile the priest fell in love with the Chief's daughter and married her. After much persistence the priest came to know of the secret deity and informed the king. The king Indradyumna proceeded immediately to Orissa to have a darshan of the deity but was sad as he found the secret deity was hidden in the sand. He performed severe penances to have a darshan and once dreamt of Vishnu instructing him to go to the Puri seashore, and look for a floating log, and fashion an image from its trunk. Hence Images of Krishna, Balarama, Subhadra were curved in that wooden log.