CHAURASHI SIDDHAS OF ORISSA

NEW LIGHT ON

THE AUTHORS OF BAUDDHA GANA O DOHA

SRI SUBHAS CHANDRA PATTANAYAK

Presentation: The NEWS Syndicate,Bhubaneswar,Orissa

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First published in http://orissamatters.com on Dec.9,2002

at http://orissamatters.com/news/index.php/2002/12/09/doha/

Presented by:

The NEWS Syndicate,

VR 32, UNIT 6, BHUBANESWAR 751001,

Orissa, India

CHAURASHI SIDDHACHARYAS OF ORISSA:

NEW LIGHT ON THE AUTHORS OF BAUDDHA GANA O DOHA

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About the Author and the Matter

Sri Subhas Chandra Pattanayak, a journalist of four decades standing, is

well known in Orissa for his in-depth reports on various matters of public

importance.

As most of his dispatches bear exclusive exposes on misadministration that

he does because the peoples have a democratic right to be informed, his

researches in socio-cultural history have brought out many a buried truths

that the people had every right to know. His work captioned Sri Jaya Devanka

Baisi Pahacha (The Twentytwo Stairs to Sri Jagannatha Created by Sri Jaya

Dev) depicts the most authentic picture of the poet and his period and is

regarded by the serious scholars in Orissa as the most unique and enlighten-

ing work of research on the revolutionary poet.

The present monograph on Chaurashi Siddhacharyas is a highly informed

step towards correction of wrongs inserted into history by vested interest

regional chauvinists.

It has thrown new light on the authors of Bauddha Gana O Doha, who being

inhabitants of Orissa had written their songs in Oriya, which MM. Hara

Prasad Sastri had cunningly hijacked to Bengali fold and misled history.

Orissa is that land which the British had not been able to annex till whole of

India had fallen to its fold; but it was the first land in whole of India to have

valiantly tried to thwart the British Rule.

Afraid of the “disposition” of the Oriya people, the British had fragmented

4

the Orissa soil and merged the fragmented parts in neighboring provinces of

Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Madras, where they - according to

Gandiji “the fine race” of India and in the words of the Chief of Linguistic

Survey of India Sir George Grierson, a people whose mothertongue Oriya

was so rich in vocabulary that in respect of its vastness “neither Bengali nor

Hindi nor Telugu can vie with it” - had been reduced to linguistic minorities

in neighboring and rival ligua-states and had to perish till resurrection of

modern Orissa as the first province of India metamorphosed on mothertongue

of its people.

But before resurrection, during the darkest phase of her life, as official records

show, Bengalis serving the British as native employees, had not only grabbed

vast lands of Orissa through auction at Calcutta, but also had tried to misap-

propriate her literary works. The lyrics of Sri Jay Dev compiled under Gita

Govinda and Charyagitis of Chaurashi Siddhacharyas compiled by Sastri as

Bauddha Gana O Doha are instances. Taking advantage of their position as

native servants of the British and thereby having entry into English lan-

guage, they had presented in English their fabricated claims over Sri Jaya

Dev and the Chaurashi Siddhas and had deliberately wronged the history.

Sri Pattanayak has tried to help history get rid of wrongs in respect of the

authors of Bauddha Gana O Doha, the Charyagitis, in this monograph.

It was earlier published in http://orissamatters.com on December 9, 2002

and has been perused by thousands.

Saswat Pattanayak,

Additional Chief Executive,

The NEWS Syndicate

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Dedicated to all those who want truth to prevail

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HISTORY NEEDS CORRECTION

It is bad for the civilization if history is wronged. Therefore the wrong com-

mitted by Mahamahopadyaya Hara Prasad Sastri in the matter of Buddhist

mystic songs needs to be corrected.

Editions of these mystic songs are available under different titles that in-

clude the basically misleading title Hajar Bacharer Purana Bangala Bhasay

Bauddha Gaan o Doha contrived by Sastri.

But no edition, as yet, of these songs has depicted its authors correctly or

corrected the wrong willfully committed by Sastri.

The authors of these songs are known as Chaurashi Siddhacharyas. Sastri

has failed to say as to why they are called like this. Legends have been

depended upon to locate their identity through inference; but no attempt has

yet been made to rise above legends and locate them in the pages of history.

As a result, the ancient revolutionary poets of Orissa have been wrongly

projected as Bengali poets.

This wrong may be corrected by analyzing what is meant by Chaurashi

Siddhas and why Sastri for Bengal has hijacked their works, written origi-

nally in Oriya.

Eminent scholar Dr. Karunakar Kar has made an incomparable study and

proved irrefutably that all the Buddhist mystic songs that Sastri had pub-

lished as Bengali songs are the songs of Oriya language. His work is unique

and linguistically most solemn and serious. When Kar’s work would be

available in an international language, the world will know the mischief

Sastri had played.

For me there is no necessity of proving that these are Oriya songs; because

in his masterly analysis Kar has proved it.

Even in History of Bengali Language, Sri Vijay Chandra Majumdar has

shown how these songs are spangled with Oriya words.

I will, in this write up, try only to apprise my readers of the fact that the

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authors of these songs, the Chaurashi Siddhacharyas were of Orissa and

therefore, the mystic songs Sastri has shown as Bengali are in reality Orissa’s

contribution to Indian culture.

We should first see as to why did Sastri try to tamper with the reality.

He had claimed to have found a Pothi (palm leaf manuscript) containing

these mystic songs of Sahajayan in the Darbar (Royal) Library of Nepal in

1907. We cannot say that it was not possible. It was possible, taking into

consideration the special link of Nepal with Orissa and only with Orissa in

whole of India. We will come to that in course of discussion. At the moment,

we can only say that knowing the Oriya origin of the mystic songs, Sastri

suppressed the truth and deliberately made a false propaganda that they

were Bengali songs.

The Bangiya Sahitya Parisad, publishing Sastri’s misleading title in 1916,

gave birth to a litany that is yet affecting the history of literature.

Bengali language scholars, not only in India but also in Bangladesh, have

been projecting these songs as carriers of their literary heritage thereby jeop-

ardizing history in respect of Oriya literature. Therefore, howsoever be the

delay, the willful wrong committed by Sastri needs to be corrected.

Sastri had allegedly collected by writing in his hand the mystic songs from

a palm-leaf manuscript preserved in the Royal Archive of Nepal.

It is doubtful that he had got it from the Nepal Archive. Per Kvaerne, the

Norwegian scholar who translated Caryagiti has written: The original MS

utilized by Sastri has not been available for inspection. It fact, I have not

been able to discover where, if at all, it is preserved. (“A Thousand Year Old

Bengali Mystic Poetry” by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud, formerly a faculty

at University of Dhaka).

We shall come to it later. We shall later see, if at all the MS was there, as to

why that was available in the Royal Archive of Nepal.

But let us first see if palm leaves were the medium of writing in Bengal in

order to test if Sastri had any ambient reason to claim the songs for Bengal.

But it seems, palm leaves were not used for writing in Bengal.

Bengal had no tradition of letters on palm leaves. Bengalis had known that

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Oriya authors were the authors who were publishing their works on palm-

leaves.

A note of Sri M. M. Chakravarti in the Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal,

1897, No.4, at pp.328-30 would show that even till the last decade of 19th

Century, to Bengali scholars, Orissa was the only place where the tradition

of letters on palm-leaves was in vogue. He had evinced much interest on

how they were being inscribed. He had gone to remote parts of Orissa to see

how the manuscripts were prepared, preserved and spread in Orissa.

“The Pothis are written either by the owner himself, or if able to pay, by

some hired worker. Round about Puri the charge is about eight to twelve

annas for a thousand slokas. In Jajpur, the charge is an anna for an adhyaya

or Canto. The charge is very moderate. Extra charges are paid for good and

neat handwriting, or in the case of Sanskrit works for correct copies”, he has

noted.

Giving a detail description of how the palm leaves were being collected and

treated for writing, how the stylus was prepared and used in writing and

how the written leaves were treated with bio-colors to make them easily

readable, he had come to the preservation zone. “Against white ants so com-

mon in Orissa, the only precaution taken is to keep them on raised bamboo

platforms a man high or on shelved platforms, when the number is large”,

he has recorded while suggesting that, as time also plays great havoc, the

old palm leaves crumbling to pieces, after 30 or 40 years the Pothis have to

be recopied. (Ibid).

Had there been in Bengal any practice of writing on palm leaves, Chakravarti

would not have traversed Orissa to gather a first hand knowledge on writing

and publishing of literary works on palm leaves.

This shows that the Bengali scholars knew that palm leaf publication was

not practiced in Bengal. They knew that their literature was not written on

palm leaves.

So when Sastri found the palm leaf manuscript of the mystic songs of the

Buddhist Siddhacharyas around a decade after Chakravartis report was pub-

lished in the Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, it was natural for him to

assume that they were Oriya songs. In fact they were Oriya songs and he

9

knew that. But contrary to character of a scholar, out of sheer regional chau-

vinism, taking advantage of publicity media available to Bengalis by then

under the British Raj, he deliberately stamped them as Bengali songs, the

Oriyas having no chance of knowing this mischief.

It was an act of cultural dishonesty. But by then, Bengalis had become so

much a laughing stock for their claim that Oriya was not a language by

itself, but a branch of Bengali, Sastri perhaps preferred this dishonesty to

save the face of his folks.

To understand this phenomenon, we must take a cursory view of the rel-

evant period of history.

Orissa was the last State to have been occupied by the British. But it was the

first State to have raised the war of independence against the British.

Admitting this, G. Toynbee wrote in A Sketch of the History of Orissa, “It

was not long, however, before we had to encounter a storm which burst with

so sudden fury as to threaten our expulsion”.

The British had tried its utmost to suppress this insurrection but had failed.

In a report dated 9 September 1818 to Commissioner Robert Ker, Magis-

trate W. Forrester had informed, “Since the breaking out of the insurrection

very few men of any consequence have ever been apprehended and it is to

be feared that the nature of the country and the disposition of the inhabitants

will always present formidable obstacle to the suppression of these distur-

bances either by military or police”.

The British was so much afraid of the Oriyas and their disposition that it

was sure of its expulsion if Orissa was not completely quashed.

In order to do that it had contrived two methods: first, to amend itself in

respect of the leaders of the rebellion including Baxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhara

Mohapatra and second, to take advantage of the truce thus available to de-

stroy Oriya solidarity by severing Orissa into parts and merging the severed

parts in neighboring provinces in order to reduce the proud people of Orissa

to minorities in rival lingua regions, before they get united against the Brit-

ish again. And, this they did.

Misled by the British stance of compromise with Baxi Jagabandhu, before

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the people of Orissa were able to see through the hidden game plan, their

Motherland was divided into four parts. One of these parts that comprised

coastal Orissa was annexed to Bengal.

Calcutta being the seat then of British administration in India, a number of

Bengalis, working as Clerks, Sirastadars, Sepoys and Chaprashis under Brit-

ish authorities, started grabbing Oriya Zamidaries through the backdoors to

the extent of some of them becoming Zamidars! Describing how these low

paid Bengali employees were plundering Orissa, Collector W.Trower in his

report to the Secretary of the Board of Revenue, J.P.Ward on 23 May, 1817,

noted, “A regular system of oppression and peculation appears to exist

throughout and instead of proving a protection to the country and a preven-

tive against improper conduct, these people are considered the terror and

the scourage of the district” (Report of W.Trower, Collector, Cuttack on

Revenue Administration in Orissa, MS.Vol.387, Orissa State Archives).

Orissas Jamidaries were being grabbed by Bengalis of wretched background

by organizing the disposing of Estates in Calcutta as the British was “per-

mitting native officers of government holding situations in the district to

become purchasers of lands sold at Collectors Office” (Ibid). Holding the

act of the Bengalis as “downright rubbery”, Mr. Trower had reported, “Not

only does the influence of these people prevent the Oriyas from entering

into competition with them in the purchase of lands, but if any of their own

Estates are in arrears, the Oriyas are deterred from appearing as purchasers”

(Ibid). Ingratiating themselves to British authorities, even pimps of Calcutta

prostitutes became Jamidars in Orissa!

Emboldened by this new advantage, as they were grabbing Oriya soil, so

they started planning to grab Oriya culture.

Their rudest adventure manifested in form of their demand to promulgate

Bengali as official language in Oriya speaking tracts under the plea that

95% of the hands running British Offices there being the Bengalis, it would

be advantageous for governance.

This plea failed as John Stuart Mill insisted that governance could reach the

governed only through their mother tongue. Then the Bengalis started claim-

ing that Oriya was not a separate language, but a form of their own.

This Bengali pretension could not survive the test of linguistic reality.

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The reality was, Bengali as a language, compared with Oriya, was of much

recent origin and was not much advanced.

As Sir George Grierson said in Linguistic Survey of India, “The Oriya lan-

guage can boast of a rich vocabulary in which respect neither Bengali, nor

Hindi nor Telugu can vie with it”.

The sharpest rebuttal to the Bengali claim of language superiority over Oriya

had come from a Bengali Journalist, Gouri Shankar Roy, addressed with

reverence as Karmaveer, who on 1.9.1866 and on 20.10.1866 established in

his lead articles that there was no original literary work in Bengal that could

be considered to be better than the Oriya works in content and in volume.

He said that translation of educational course books from English to Bengali,

though in abundance in Bengal, couldnot be proof of superiority of Bengali

as a language; only the original works of letters can. And, in the sphere of

original work of letters, Bengal’s achievement was almost nil whereas Oriya

had a sea of original literary works to her credit, he had noted.

Making a mention of Vidyasundara that the Bengalis were marshaling as

the showpiece of their literature, he had observed that this work was much

junior and inferior to original Oriya works available in plenty such as

Rasakallola of Dinakrushna Das of Orissa.

He had categorically stated that Bengal was much poor in original literary

treasure when compared to Orissa. When Orissa was full of original literary

works, Bengal was a storehouse of pirated (APAHRUTA) works. So, it was

a folly to claim superiority over Oriya literature on part of chauvinistic

Bengalis, Roy had thundered.

And, on the basis of such realities, the British authorities had to reject the

Bengali plea and promulgated Oriya as the Official language in Oriya speak-

ing tracks.

Embarrassed thus in the world of letters, the Bengali chauvinists were in

dire need of something that they can use to establish their literary base as

ancient. Therefore they were not hesitant to misappropriate Oriya literary

works to show them as their own behind back of the Oriyas.

Sastri’s adventure to show the Buddhist mystic songs as Bengali songs was

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propelled by this motive. His motive was clear from the very caption ‘Hajar

Bacharer Purana Bahgala Bhasay Bauddha Gaan o Doha’ that he had coined

for his compilation. Embarrassed to the core, as discussed supra, in their

nefarious design to impose their language as official language on the peoples

of Orissa, the Bengali chauvinists were so eager to show that their literary

heritage is not of recent origin in comparison to Oriya, Sastri deliberately

coined the caption in a fashion that was meant to mean that the Buddhist

songs and couplets he was presenting were in a thousand year old Bengali

language!

As already discussed, Bengal had no tradition of palm leaf manuscripts.

Manuscripts were being written on palm leaves only in Orissa. He also ob-

viously knew this and knew that the manuscript he had found allegedly in

Nepal was an instance of Oriya literature. Therefore, he did not present the

manuscript he had allegedly discovered. He claimed that he had noted down

the contents of the manuscript by hand.

Allegedly having discovered the manuscript in 1907, he took nine years to

tell the world through Bangiya Sahitya Parisad in 1916 that he had in pos-

session such songs in proto-Bengali! This inordinate delay makes one feel

the possible scholarly qualms he must have experienced during those hiber-

nated years in posing the Oriya works as Bengali.

Intriguingly in the same year, i.e. 1916, the same publisher i.e. Bangiya

Sahitya Parisad also brought out another book captioned Jayadev Charita

purported to be copied from a 1801 manuscript of one Banamali Das wherein

Sri Jaya Dev of Orissa was depicted as a Bengali born in Birbhum. The

propaganda that Banamali Das had written it in 1801 was a mischief manu-

factured by fraudulent minds. There was no such book written by any such

Banamali Das in any such year. The basic reference sources in Bengal con-

fess that the so-called Banamali Das’ so-called Jayadev Charita was neither

seen by any nor available anywhere. No body knows wherefrom the copy of

Jayadev Charita purported to be the copy of Banamali Das’ work material-

ized, said Harekrishna Mukhopadyaya, presenter of the Book, in Birbhum

Bibaran. Even Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, who has not hesitated to dis-

card his scholarly objectivity in the flow of chauvinistic fervors to claim

Jaya Dev for Bengal, has admitted that the work is of no historical

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value(Jayadeva: Sahitya Academy, New Delhi, 1973).

So, it is clear that a group of Bengali language chauvinists, combined under

the banner of Bangiya Sahitya Parisad had fraudulently manufactured

Jayadev Charita in order to claim Sri Jaya Dev of Orissa for Bengal and had

also played the tricks with Orissa’s Siddha Sahitya in order to misappropri-

ate Orissa’s literary heritage.

Lest their fraud gets exposed, sources of both the books were attributed to

unavailable manuscripts!

But howsoever strong be a motive to impose an untruth, the truth remains

stronger than that. Therefore the truth prevails.

Scholars like Pt. Kedar Nath Mohapatra have shown the truth that Sri Jaya

Dev was a poet of Orissa.

Unable to say that he does not know of this, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee,

who has made a farce of his scholarly prudence to anyhow claim Jaya Dev

for Bengal, has admitted in his book Jayadeva (Sahitya Academy, New Delhi,

1973), “In his well-documented book, (A Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit

manuscripts of Orissa, in the collection of the Orissa State Museum,

Bhubaneswar, Vol. II by Sri Kedarnath Mohapatra, curator of the Museum

published by the Orissa Sahitya Academy, Bhubaneswar, 1960), there is a

long article on Jayadeva and his Gita Govinda considered from various as-

pects (pp.XXXVI-LVI). In this learned article, some of the contemporaries

of Jayadeva as much as Jayadeva himself have been claimed for Orissa on

literary and other grounds.(Jayadeva, p.6). In his entire discussion,

Dr.Chatterjee has not hesitated to support Bengals claim over Jayadev with

false arguments, but has never dared to counter the well documented argu-

ment of Pt. Mohapatra.

Chatterjee’s reluctance to counter the learned article of Pt. Mohapatra has

every reason to be interpreted as his shying at the truth.

However, we are, in this write up, not after the truth on Sri Jaya Deva. Our

concern is to unveil the truth about authors of the Bauddha Gana O Doha,

whom Sastri has wrongfully depicted as Bengali.

And, the truth in this case comes out from the fact that these authors are

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Chaurashi Siddhas, not Bengali Siddhas.

Why they are called Chaurashi Siddhas? Sastri and others who claim the

Charyagitis for Bengal and their respective States have not gone beyond

holding Chaurashi for the figure of eighty-four. Even Dr.Karunakar Kar

who has irrefutably shown that the mystic songs were written in Oriya, has

not dedicated his attention to the reason of these authors being called

Chaurashi Siddhas. So also Dr. Navin Kumar Sahu, Dr. Khageswar

Mohapatra etc. of Orissa.

But the key to understand to which province the authors of the Buddhist

Mystic Songs belong lies in the word Chaurashi.

In the belt of Buddhist Tantra on Prachi basin the place Chaurashi has re-

tained its name for Centuries even though its glory has been lost in the

labyrinth of cultural confusion created by coercive Brahminism. Authors of

the Caryagitis were known as Chaurashi Siddhas because of their habitation

in this place.

Religio-historical literature convince us that the word Chaurashi in respect

of Bauddha Siddhacharyas is not the figure 84 but is the name of their dwell-

ing. Let us see a description in Chaitanya Bhagavata authored by Ishwara

Das. At Chapter 148 thereof he has written:

Satasa Baana Baudha / Keshari Raja Sange bada //61//

Sataptena mrutyu hoi / Chha’sha Baudha marai //62//

Apare satasathi puna / Baudha maare nrupa rana //63//

Baki Baudha Chaurashi / Gopye bhajanti Hrushikeshi //64//

Yemante Chaurashi baudha /Yeka swarupa nahin bheda //65//

Literally these quoted stanzas mean, Kesari King in open variance with 752

numbers of Buddhist Siddhas of Satapata killed 600 of them in the first

phase and later killed further 67. The rest Chaurashi Siddhas went under-

ground and continued worshipping Buddha, the self-controller. The Chaurashi

Siddhas are thus that there is no difference amongst them; they are equals as

if the same.

This quoted text is perhaps the most important help in solving the conun-

15

drum concerning the Chaurashi Siddhas. It categorically states that there

were 752 Siddhacharyas in Satapata area. The Keshari King killed 667 of

them in two phases; 600 in the first phase and 67 in the second phase. Logi-

cally therefore 85 Siddhas had escaped annihilation by going underground.

But Ishwara Das who has used consciously calculated words, has not used

the word Panchashi that stands for the number 85, but has used the word

Chaurashi that stands for the number 84. This means the 85 Siddhas gone

underground were known not as Panchashi Siddhas, but as Chaurashi Siddhas.

So, in the context of the authors of Bauddha Gana O Doha, Chaurashi is not

numerical; but is geographical. Like the Bandha (Ikat) Sadhis made in

Nuapatana of Tigiria are known as Nuapateni Sadhis or the Gajapati Em-

peror of Orissa is known as Orissa Gajapati, the Siddhas of Chaurashi were

known as Chaurashi Siddhas.

Archaeological remains indicate that Sataptakapur was spread over the Prachi

basin inhabited mostly by peoples of seven Patakas (subcastes) like Chandala,

Shabara, Kamara, Keuta, Tanti, Dama, and Shundhi. In Chaitany Bhagavata

of Iswara Das this Sataptakapur is noted as Satapata. Sidhacharyas belonged

mostly to these subcastes. Upper caste amongst them if any was initiated

into Vajrayana/ Sahajayana by having someone from the subcastes as spouse.

Within the geographical limits of this Satapata, Chaurshi was one of the

seven principal centers of Vajrayana sect of Buddhism on the Prachi basin,

the others being Turintara, Garedi Panchana, Hirapur, Kakatapur, Konarka

and Kuruma.

Sri Jaya Dev, inhabitant of the now extinct Kenduvilwa on the Mahodadhi

(the sea of Puri) that possibly stood where a Shiva depicted as Vilweshwara

is having his temple even today, was known as a subject of Kurmapatakapur,

so named after this Kuruma, where remains of a Bauddha stupa has recently

been discovered along with the image of Heruka, whom he has addressed as

Hari in his Astapadi love lyrics.

Connection of Prachi basin with authors of the Buddhist mystic songs is

established from another major scripture called Sunya Samhita authored by

Achyutananda Das wherein mention is made of the basin being the habitat

of Siddhas including Lohi Das, known also as Lui.

When Heruka has been discovered at Kuruma, His Shakti Barahi is the pre-

16

siding deity of Chaurashi. Brahminism has tried to drown its Buddhist im-

portance by building up a Laxminarayan temple in this particular place and

by highlighting importance of this later deity.

But Chaurashi is the place of a completely extinguished Monastery of

Vajrayan where Siddha Shabaripa had possibly made tribal Jaganta meta-

morphosed into the symbolic portrayal of matriarch tenets of Buddhism and

eager to save Buddhism from the deficiency of Shunyavada, King Indrabhuti

while establishing and fortifying Vajrayana had developed Sabaripa’s con-

cept to the discernible image of Gurudev Buddha as Sri Jagannatha. Thus,

this place being the place of metamorphosis of Gurudev Buddha into Sri

Jagannatha, when new image of the deity was necessitated, it was decided

to make its height eighty-four pavas symbolically using the numerical in

honoring the geographical as well as spiritual identity of the source of its

manifestation.

Brahminism, the divisive technique of Arya invaders to keep the subjugated

people socially subdued, was promulgated with brute force in Orissa by

non-Oriya dynasties in order only to eliminate Buddhism from the place of

its origin.

And in doing so, it has arbitrarily transformed, in course of time, Sri

Jagannatha Buddha of Oriya origin to Sri Jagannath Krushna of non-Oriya

origin and has transformed Sabaripa and King Indrabhuti to Sabara

Biswabasu and King Indradyumna respectively by overlapping concocted

legends on the real evolution of Sri Jagannatha.

But, despite this, Sri Jagannatha is being worshipped in the manners of Bud-

dhist Tantra and his height has been ordained to remain eighty-four pavas in

honor of the Chaurashi monastery and its Siddhas, in whose lap and in whose

hands it had evolved.

It is known that Buddha was out and out against Brahminism and though the

derailed history is yet to be set back on the right track to admit it, he had

rushed from his birthplace in Tosala of Orissa to Magadh, the heartland of

Vedic Imperialism for organizing the tribal communities there in Orissas

Ganarajya pattern in order to obstruct Brahminism so that tribal culture would

remain in tact.

17

Orissas Ganarajya pattern was based on Chanda, which means management

of society on majority approval obtained through vote in which every ma-

tured member of the society was freely participating and the majority opin-

ion obtained as such was prevailing. This was a unique practice in vogue

amongst tribal communities in Tosala region of Orissa comprising

Kapilavastu (Modern Kapileswar near Bhubaneswar) for which the place

was and is yet famous as Chandaka (fountainhead of the system of Chanda).

Gurudev Buddha had developed his unique Samgha system on the basis of

this Chanda practice of his birthplace Orissa and had rushed to Magadha to

obstruct autocratic Vedism in that very soil of its spread by organizing the

Vajjiyans and other tribes in his Samgha pattern that was based on Chanda.

Therefore, the horse that had taken him from tribal democratic Orissa to the

heartland of autocratic Brahminism, was famous also as Chandaka, cor-

rupted in course of time to Chhandaka.

Bimbisara was the Emperor of Magadha when Buddha had arrived there

from Orissa. Introducing himself to the Emperor he had said that straight

from Tosala, the land of paddy crops and valiant people where Hema

(Dhavala) hill is a landmark, he had come to him. The Emperor had deep

discussions with Buddha many a times and was convinced that conflict with

autonomous tribal communities and matriarchy would ultimately jeopar-

dize his empire. Therefore he had stopped attacking the tribals.

Vedic imperialism saw in this an affront to its hegemony. Bimbisara was put

under arrest and the throne was force-occupied by Ajatasattu who deputed

his Brahmin minister Bassakara to dissuade Buddha from supporting the

Vajjiyans when attempts to annex their lands to the empire would com-

mence. Buddha’s reply was as sharp as strong was his commitment to hu-

man rights. In Dialogues of the Buddha (London[1910]Vol.II pp.78-80)

T.W.R. Rhys Davids, quoting Maha Parinibbana Sutta, tells us:

The Exalted One was once dwelling in Rajagaha, on the hill called the

Vulture’s Peak. Now at that time Ajatasattu, the son of the queen-concort of

the Videha clan, the king of Magadha, had made up his mind to attack the

Vajjians; and he said to himself ‘I will strike at these Vajjians, mighty and

powerful though they be, I will root out these Vajjians, I will destroy these

Vajjians, I will bring these Vajjians to utter ruin.’ So he spoke to the Brahmana

18

Vassakara, Prime Minister of Magadha, and said: ‘Come now Brahmana, do

you go to the Exalted One and bow down in adoration at his feet on my

behalf, and enquire in my name whether he is free from illness and suffer-

ing, and in the enjoyment of ease and comfort and vigorous health. Then tell

him that Ajatasattu, son of Videhi, the king of Magadha, in his eagerness to

attack the Vijjians, has resolved, “I will strike at these Vijjians, mighty and

powerful though they be, I will root out these Vajjians, I will destroy these

Vajjians, I will bring these Vajjians to utter ruin”; and bear carefully in mind

whatever the Exalted One may predict and repeat it to me. For the Buddha

speaks nothing untrue.’

Then the Brahmana Bassakara, the rain-maker, harkened to the words of the

king, saying, ‘Be it as you say.’ And, ordering a number of state carriages to

be made ready, he mounted one of them, left Rajagaha with his train, and

went to the Vulture’s Pick, riding as far as the ground was passable for

carriages and then alighting and proceeding on foot to the place where the

Exalted one was.

On arriving there he exchanged with the Exalted One the greetings and com-

pliments of politeness and courtesy, sat down respectfully by his side (and

then delivered to him the message even as the king had commanded).

Now at that time the venerable Ananda was standing behind the Exalted

One, and fanning him. And the Blessed One said to him: ‘Have you heard,

Ananda, that the Vajjians foregather often and frequent the public meetings

of their clan?’

‘Lord, so I have heard’, replied he.

‘So long Ananda’, rejoined the Blessed One, ‘as the Vajjians foregather thus

often, and frequent the public meetings of their clan; so long may they be

expected not to decline, but to prosper.’

x x x x x x x x x x x x x

So long, Ananda, as the Vajjians meet together in concord and rise in con-

cord, and carry out their undertakings in concord,- so long as they enact

nothing not already established, abrogate nothing that has already been en-

acted and act in accordance with the ancient institution of the Vajjians, as

established in the former days – so long as they honour and esteem and

19

revere and support the Vajjian elders, and hold it to a point of duty to hear-

ken to their words,- so long as no women or girls belonging to their clans are

detained among them by force or abduction – so long as they honour and

esteem and revere and support the Vajjian shrines (cetiyani) in town or coun-

try, and allow not the proper offerings and rites, as formormly given and

performed, to fall into desuetude – so long as the rightful protection, de-

fence, and support shall be fully provided for the Arahants among them, so

that Arahants from a distance may enter the realm, and the Arahants therein

may live at ease – so long may the Vajjians be expected not to decline, but to

prosper”.

On thus assessing Buddhas responses, Bassakar is quoted to have said, “We

may expect then, the welfare and not the decline of the Vajjians when they

are possessed of any one of these conditions of welfare, how much more so

when they are possessed of all the seven. So, Gotama, the Vajjians cannot be

overcome by the king of Magadha; that is not in battle, without diplomacy

or breaking up their alliance. And now, Gotama, we must go; we are busy

and have much to do”. (ibid, pp. 80-1)

Despite this veiled threat of Bassakara before leaving Buddha, Ajatasattu

had not dared to attack the Bajjians during active life of Buddha. When the

venerable Gurudev passed away in 483 B.C., Ajatasattus first attack on

Vajjians had taken place in 485 B.C. in which the Emperor had to be bereft

of 10 of his brothers.

It is clear, as such, that Buddha, by restricting spread of Vedic Imperialism

within Magadh under occupation of the Aryas, had saved the tribal belt in

Northern India and thereby, his homeland Orissa in the southern east was in

total safety.

Grateful tribals of Orissa, speculating on factor of creation in terms of tribal

matriarchy, had reduced their concept to concrete shape expressed in a log

of wood that they were calling as Jaganta that represented the female factor.

In course of time they had painted two breasts (Thana in colloquial Oriya)

on this log as to them the breasts were the factors of sustenance of life. With

these breasts or Thana abbreviated to Tha, Jaganta became Jaganta-tha gain-

ing philosophical viability under spiritual activism practiced by Bauddha

Siddhacharys at Chaurashi in the basin of Prachi. And, therefore it was easier

20

on part of King Indrabhuti to transform this Jaganta-tha to Jagannatha con-

secrating in it the shape of void that the Gurudev had already been projected

to have taken after his death. In his Jnanasiddhi, Buddha was for the first

time addressed as Jagannatha and the word Jagannatha was for the first time

formed and used in such a revolutionary scripture.

But before Indrabhuti consecrated Buddha as Jagannatha, Orissa being the

birthplace of Buddha, and therefore, the greatest hurdle on the way of Vedic

imperialism, had been attacked continuously by North Indian Aryas, start-

ing with Asokas battle under the very same Hema (Dhaval or Dhauli) hill of

which Buddha had so proudly spoken to Bimbisara as noted supra, known

to the world as Kalinga war. History has wrongfully credited Asoka with

spread of Buddhism across the oceans. In fact he very tactfully destroyed

Buddhism. Buddha was against the phenomenon known as God. Vedic im-

perialism was playing havoc with human life by obliterating social solidar-

ity under the guise of Varnashrama and by subjecting the children of the soil

to caste apartheid. Buddha was the strongest opponent of the system of dis-

unity and therefore God, the pivotal force behind the system of disunity,

was totally rejected by him. Buddhism was synonymous with atheism. And,

therefore, in Buddhism, Vedic imperialism was seeing its arch and the stron-

gest opponent to eliminate which Asoka had attacked Orissa. He had, no

doubt, taken many a persons of Orissa to custody in a blitzkrieg, but the area

being matriarch, he was so severely attacked by the female warriors that in

order to escape alive, he had to acquiesce into being initiated in Buddhism

and to declare on the spot that it would be his creed till the last. And, no

sooner than escaping with this tactics, he used his initiation into Buddhism

to destroy Buddhism in India. Had he, as is the propaganda, been changed

from Chandasoka to Dhrmasoka on seeing the devastation wrought to hu-

man life by his greed for power, he should have set free the Oriya male

soldiers and taken back his grip over Oriya soil. But he never did this. All

the Oriya soldiers under his capture succumbed to brutality by being re-

duced to slaves and Orissa was made to perish under misrule perpetrated by

the maurya plunderers. So he had not really changed to Dharmasoka from

Chandasoka. He remained Chandasoka till his death under the guise of

Dharmasoka. And, under this guise of Dhrmasoka, he destroyed Buddhism

by infesting it with theism. He played a cleaver trick. He started projecting

21

himself as the beloved of the Gods as seen in his self-propagated epithet

Devanam piya. By acting as a supporter of Buddhism, he succeeded in gain-

ing popularity amongst the Buddhists and by insinuating himself as beloved

of the Gods (Devanam piya) he set Buddhism on reverse gear to Gods re-

vival. Thereafter, as we see, Buddhism declined and Brahminism got new

wings to spread all over India. Scholars of our land, belong as most of them

to the upper castes and Buddhists, basking as they under the glory of Godhood

of their Master, are yet to be free from dormant mindset to examine this

aspect and discover the truth.

However, Asoka’s treachery notwithstanding, Orissa being the birthplace of

Buddha, Buddhism refused to die in this soil. But being a soil basically of

Autonomous Social Units or Village Democracies it had neither specific

boundaries nor a common, united, strong and systematic war-force to de-

fend whatever could be its geographical limits. As a result, non-Oriya in-

vaders with avowed motive to obliterate Buddhism by destroying it in its

place of origin were trespassing into the Oriya speaking tracks and estab-

lishing their dynasties here. One such was the dynasty of the Kesharis.

Yayati Keshari of this dynasty had imported ten thousand Brahmins from

Kanyakubja under the cover of performing a Dasasvamedha Sacrifice at

Jajpur. But his real agenda was to use these non-Oriya Vedic chauvinists for

suppression of Buddhism, which was – being of Orissa origin – the creed of

Oriyas, by imposition of Vedic supremacy in the entire landmass under his

occupation. Dr. B.K. Rath writes in Cultural History of Orissa that under his

rule, the Brahmins occupied the highest position in the social hierarchy and

their main function was the study and teaching of Vedas and performance of

religious rites and Vedic sacrifices, as laid down in the Smrtis. (p.120). And

had become so powerful that it was important to get religious sanction and

recognition from the Brahmana class before becoming the king of the coun-

try. the Brahmanas occupied a superior position than the ruling class in so-

ciety during the Somavamshi rule in Orissa(Ibid. p.121). So through Yayati

Keshari the Vedic chauvinists had in fact occupied Orissa. The excavated

Buddist heritages in Ratanagiri, Lalitagiri and Langudi near Jajpur silently

say how barbarously the Keshari kings and the imported Brahmin goons

had destroyed them.

22

Originally an important center of Mahayana, the Ratnagiri complex had

developed into a nerve center of Vajrayana during 8th and 9th century. It

had played a significant role in the emergence of Kalachakratantra during

the 10th century A.D records Pag Sam Jon Zang.

Similarly Lalitagiri, where Hieun Tsang, while visiting the Puspagiri

Mahavihar, had even seen a magnificent Stupa on the hilltop that emitted a

brilliant light remitting the bliss of sacredness, had become an important

center for study of Vajrayana.

Langudi, under excavation, is marked for being the place where Buddha’s

relics were preserved and significantly also, two kneeling Vidyadharas are

marked here offering a reverential floral tribute on the occasion of the birth

of Buddha.

Apart from these, ancient centers of Buddhist philosophy like the Kaima

and Deuli systems are also in this area.

Yayati Keshari had destroyed all the Buddhist shrines and Stupas in this

area with the help of the 10,000 Vedic chauvinists that he had imported from

outside Orissa, i.e. Kanyakubja. The peace loving Buddhist shramans were

brutally killed by these butchers through out the area under his capture, the

cruelest ones amongst them boastfully projecting themselves as Pashupata

Saivas. They were so powerful that loyalty of kings to Brahmins was tested

on the basis of gold coins offered by the king to the Pashupat Saivas on his

beheading a Bauddha. Such brutal butchering of Buddhists has never hap-

pened anywhere in India or outside except in Orissa. This was because Orissa

was the birthplace of Buddha and being his birthplace, Buddhism was the

common creed of the people of Orissa.

The effect was so terrifying that Buddhist started giving their sermons in an

esoteric style. They started preaching their philosophy by using such words

that were having hidden meanings. Therefore, the language they were us-

ing, though Oriya in her ancient form, is known as Sandha Bhasa. The word

Sandha connotes to stashing of a secret meaning under an outer layer of

known meaning of a word or of an expression. Sastri and others have admit-

ted that the Charyagitis are written in Sandha Bhasa; but they have not told

of this cause. Had there been no such brutal assault on Buddhists of Orissa

by the imported Vedic chauvinists of non-Oriya origin under the umbrage of

23

non-Oriya Rulers whose principal aim was extermination of Buddhism in

the soil of its origin, the Charyagitis would not have been written in Sandha

language, but could have been written in simple Oriya.

In use of this Sandha technique on language, the lead was taken by the

Siddhas of Chaurashi, in the Satapatakapur (Satapata) on the Prachi basin in

Tosala part of Orissa where Buddha was born. To match the advantage

Brahminism was having by projecting an idol of a God to tackle a human

problem, the Chaurashi Siddhacharyas had helped evolution of Jaganta in a

wooden log that eventually had metamorphosed to Jaganta-tha before being

transformed into Jagannatha by Indrabhuti. And, perhaps under their leader-

ship, the entire landmass from Bhubaneswar to Puri via Kuruma had be-

come a place of active practice of Vajrayana and Sahajayana.

This area was the original place where Buddhism proper had originated and

flourished. But to face the challenges posed by idol worshipping Brahminic

menace, which Shunya concept was unable to meet, this area developed

Jaganta - Jagantatha - Jagannatha as the universal idol conceived to repre-

sent all past, present and future idols of all possible creed and culture and

created Vajrayana as its supportive philosophy on universality of Buddhism.

Vajrayana being the Buddhist reassertion of matriarchy, Vedic chauvinists

had aggressively tried to convert this area into an area of phallus worship as

a way of imposing patriarchy that the Vedas stood for. Even Dharmachakra

pravartana pillars were broken to pieces and misused as Shivalingas like the

one in the Bhaskareswara temple of Bhubaneswar.

Buddhism was probably eclipsed with the rise of Saivism at Bhubaneswar

informs Dr. B.K.Rath in Cultural History of Orissa at p.157. But this was

not without protests. As he quotes D.Mitra (Bronzes from Achyutarajpur),

“The imprint of the images of Buddha on the figures of the deified Pasupata

teacher Lakulisa on the temples of the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. is

unmistakable. But for the staff (lakuta), the images of Lakulisa would easily

be confounded with those of Buddha”.

So there was continuous attempt by Vedic chauvinists to destroy Orissa’s

Buddhist heritage by converting Buddhist monuments to Saiva and by im-

posing Lakulisa the leader of the Pasupat saivas whose principal work was

annihilation of Buddhists as the deified Guru on the psyche of the Guru-

24

centric people of Orissa to whom Buddha was the Gurudev. And in reaction

to that the people of Orissa were trying to imprint Buddha on the image of

Lakulisa. This is perhaps the Bada or quarrel that Ishwara Das has hinted to

in Chaitanya Bhagavat.

Transformation of Buddhist monuments to Saiva shrines being perpetrated

by the king, the people of Orissa, non-violent under Buddhist orientation,

were unable to protect them physically. So, the Buddhist teachers, the

Siddhas, adopted the technique of preaching in Sandha songs. As said su-

pra, Siddhas of Chaurashi in the Satapatakpur area on the Prachi basin took

the lead.

When Yayati Keshari, who had imported ten thousand Vedic chauvinists

from Kanyakubja to exterminate Buddhism in the place of its origin, Orissa,

could have known of this, he might have certainly been blind in rage and

decided to annihilate all the Sidhacharys dwelling in the Chaurashi monas-

tery on the Prachi basin.

And, in the first phase, as Ishwara Das has described in the cited stanzas, he

killed 600 Siddhas out of a total of 752 and subsequently, in the second

phase, he killed 67. The rest 85 Siddhas went underground and started se-

cretly worshipping the the greatest conqueror of senses, the Gurudev Bud-

dha. And these Siddhas were so famed as Chaurasi Siddhas that he has de-

scribed them as Chaurasi Siddhas despite they being numerically eighty-

five.

Now the question is why Sastri discovered the Charyagitis of these Chaurasi

Siddhas of Orissa in the Royal Archives of Nepal. But did he really discover

them in Nepal? The doubt persists, specifically as the palm-leaf manuscript

from which he has said to have copied the text is not found by any except

him. After discovery, he has taken long nine years to say of this. He has not

explained as to why he caused this inordinate delay in making the declara-

tion. On the other hand, Bengalis being in habit of visiting Orissa frequently,

he might have got a palm-leaf manuscript from Orissa and could have taken

much time to make a handwritten copy in a manner to manage it as a sample

of proto-Bengali and destroyed the original. The fraudulent manner of claim-

ing Sri Jaya Dev of Orissa for Bengal by concocting a book styled as Jayadev

Charita through the same publisher in the same year and ascribing it to a

25

non-existent manuscript of 1801 as discussed above justifies suspicion in

the second line.

But it cannot be said that the first line is incorrect. Nepal kingdom had a

traditionally secret link with only one place in India, i.e. Orissa.

In the system of Sri Jagannatha, the King of Nepal is the only person in the

entire world except the Gajapati Emperor of Orissa who is entitled to enter

the Temple on a paliquin. He enjoys special privileges in the Sri Mandira

complex of Puri inasmuch as there are specially designated Sevayats to at-

tend him and his family during their visit to the Temple. His paliquin enter-

ing the Temple through the southern gate halts only under the Kalpabata

from where he goes to Sri Jagannath by foot and performs the Special Puja

that only he as the King of Nepal is entitled to perform.

Why this special treatment to the King of Nepal in the temple of Sri

Jagannatha? The answer lies with the secret chapter of history in respect of

Buddha.

Canonical instructions are clear that Buddhas birthplace should be the first

amongst the four places of pilgrimage for every follower of Buddha. So

Buddhas birthplace was and is the most sacred place for a Buddhist. After

Buddhas demise, specifically after Asoka captured the area of Buddhas birth-

place in Kalinga war and following the war that area became very vulner-

able to desecration by the Brahmins, it was perhaps Nepal to have come

forward to help in keeping the sacredness of the birthplace of Buddha unaf-

fected by floating in its territory a legend of Buddhas birth in a secluded

jungle there by allowing the place to be known as Kapilavastu in imitation

of the name of Buddhas birthplace in Orissa. In The Life of Buddha (p.19)

E. J. Thomas quotes Fa Hien of 5th century A.D. as he noted of that place as

a place where neither any people nor any king was to be found, a wilderness

except for priests and some tens of families. According to Cunningham in

Ancient Geography of India (p.349), there was no trace of Kapila despite

intensive search at the foot of the Himalayas.

There is no reason to be surprised over this as the name of the place was

mutually concocted by both the kings of Nepal and Orissa in order to keep

the real birthplace of Buddha, the real Kapilavastu in Tosala of Orissa safe

from being desecrated by the agents and perpetrators of Brahminism.

26

Describing how the celebrated tooth of Buddha, kept safe in the idol of Sri

Jagannatha (as this was the idol of Buddha himself), was conveyed in A.D.311

by a king’s daughter concealed in her hair to Ceylon, which was then be-

coming a place of refuge to the Buddhists from the Brahmins rage, Rev. J.

Long has given us a clear picture from his personal account of investigation

on Buddhism in Nepal, in Ceylon and in China, of how Orissa, the fountain-

head of Buddhism, was the only place where people from kings to com-

mons were Buddhists en masse and how the Brahmins, after she was cap-

tured by non-Oriya Aryan invaders, had in rage ravished the State and con-

verted it into a place of Hinduism by the time of his visit to Orissa in Janu-

ary, 1859.

The most significant aspect of his revelation is that he had made an in-depth

investigation in Nepal, Ceylon and China to find out where Buddhism had

really flourished. And, his study had pointed his attention only towards Orissa,

even though by that time Hinduism had engulfed the land.

He has noted, “Antiquarian enquiries in Nepal, Ceylon and China show that

the Buddhism so noted in its regard for enlightening the masses and oppos-

ing caste, was for ages predominant all through Orissa both among rulers

and people, though Orissa is now the garden of the Hinduism and Jagannath

its Jerusalem”.

The Buddhists in those three countries had helped him understand that

Orissa’s Sri Jagannath was in reality the idol of Buddha and therefore this

idol was containing Buddhas celebrated tooth relics.

It was quite natural. Buddha being of Orissa by birth, his relics were brought

to Orissa after his demise at Kushinagar. In The Life of Buddha (p.159),

Thomas has relied upon Sariradhatu vibhajanam accounts wherein his cita-

tion Kalingaranno vijite punekam tells us of handing over of the celebrated

tooth relics to Orissa, (it being the place of Buddhas heirs). This celebrated

tooth was consecrated in the body of Sri Jagannatha Buddha, in short

Jagannatha.

Narrating this from the sources of Buddhists of Nepal, Ceylon and China,

Thomas notes, Even Jagannath itself stands on the site of a Buddhist temple

and contained the celebrated tooth of Buddha, which was kept there till the

4th century A.D. (Ibid).

27

Unveiling how this splendid Buddhist soil succumbed to Hinduism, Rev.

Long has hinted at the oppression perpetrated on Buddhists by the Brah-

mins with the help of their patron kings of non-Oriya origin as noted supra.

The north Indian invaders had once taken away this tooth relic to Patna of

Bihar. But people of Orissa had fetched it back after a short while. Not only

from the northern part of India, but also from the southern part, Brahmanya

forces were determined to destroy it. Pt. Chakradhara Mohapatra, the first

in modern times to have unveiled proofs of Orissa being Buddhas birth-

place, tells us, “It is quite evident from Datha Dhatuvamsa that the spread of

Buddhism mostly depended upon this Buddhist relic. So one of the

Brahmanya kings, Kshiradhara of Asmaka (i.e. Travancore, Kerala) tried to

destroy this tooth but he failed in his attempt and died. After his death, his

relations with the help of the kingdoms of Cheta, Rastrika, Bhoja, Avanti

and Kamvoja etc tries to invent Kalinga and destroy the relic of Buddha. So,

the then emperor of Kalinga, Guhashiva, who was the great grandson of

Brahmadatta sent that sacred relic in the hand of his daughter Hemamali.

Princess hemamali took that tooth with her husband Danta Kumara, the

prince of Ujjayini, and sailed for Ceylon through the Tamralipta port”. (The

Real Birthplace of Buddha by Chakradhara Mahapatra, Grantha Mandir,

Cuttack, 1977; p.53)

Rev. J. Long reports, “When it (the tooth relic) was carried for a short period

to Patna, the ancient Palibothra, then the capital of North India, it was soon

after brought back to Puri, but on an invasion of the country, it was con-

veyed in A.D. 311 by a king’s daughter concealed in her hair to Ceylon,

which was then becoming a place of refuge to the Buddhists from the Brah-

mins rage.(Notes and queries suggested by a visit to Orissa in Jan.1859;

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1859, No.III, Vol.XXVIII, pp.185-

87)

So, it is clear that, Orissa, being the birthplace of Buddha, had transformed

Buddha from omnipresence after his death to the present form of Jagannatha

in whose system Buddha’s emphasis on elimination of the caste system was

in full practice. It was the greatest challenge Brahminism was facing and

hence the Vedic chauvinists had been making all out attempts to subdue

Orissa and destroy her Buddhist heritage and creed. And by 4th Century

28

A.D. they had become so much powerful that the Tooth relic of the greatest

son of its soil, Buddha, fetched back from Patna, had to be secretly trans-

ported to Ceylon.

This subjugation of Buddhist Orissa by brute forces of Brahminism leads us

to the phase of symbolic worship of Buddha in his birthplace, Orissa, by his

ardent followers, who had developed a peculiar technique of preaching their

philosophy in songs capable of spreading from mouth to mouth in a style

where esoteric meaning of an expression was being stashed under an outer

layer of misleading words cunningly coined in a pattern that we call Sandha

Bhasa so adopted in order only to hoodwink the Vedic chauvinists.

So the composition of the Charyagitis in Sandha pattern or pattern of double

meaning is unmistakably a pattern developed only in Orissa by the Bud-

dhists who had developed this pattern in order only to hoodwink the brute

forces of Vedic chauvinists.

Nowhere in India except Orissa Buddhism had become the creed of kings

and commons en masse and nowhere in India except Orissa, Brahminism

had so ruthlessly and for so many centuries concentrated against Buddhism.

Therefore, nowhere in India except Orissa the Sandha pattern or the pattern

of usage of double meaning words in colloquial Buddhist literature was

necessitated and therefore, nowhere in India except Orissa the Charyagitis

or the songs marked as Bauddha Gana O Doha by Sastri were composed. It

was nothing but cultural dishonesty on part of Sastri to have projected these

Oriya songs as Bengali.

In a foreword to Pratna-Oriya, the book on the grammar of the Charyagitis

by Dr. Khageswar Mohapatra, eminent philologist Dr. Devi Prasanna Pattnaik

has opined that that those who claim the Charyagitis for Orissa, Bengal,

Assam or Mithila may be partially right as these languages having a com-

mon root are not supposed to be not without similarity in their proto form.

He has further observed that amongst Oriya, Bengali and Assamese, Oriya

was the first to have advanced into a distinct form of its own and later the

other two i.e. Bengali and Assamese separated from each other due to changes

in philological perspectives. Many a proto properties preserved even today

in Oriya language speaks of its conservative character, which, no wonder,

has components more akin to Charya language in comparison with Bengali

29

and Assamese. (Pratna-Oriya, Dr. Khageswar Mohapatra, 2nd edition, p.IV)

Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee comparing Oriya with Bengali and Assamese

had also earlier said, of these three speeches Oriya, Bengali and Assamese

Oriya has preserved a great many archaic features in both grammar and

pronunciation; and it may be said without travesty to linguistic truth that

Oriya is the eldest of these three sisters, when we consider the archaic char-

acter of the language.(I.H.Q.Vol.XXIII, 1947, p.337)

So, scholars, who see similarity in the core of constitution of the three rival

languages but do not fully agree with Orissa’s claim over the Charyagitis,

have no hesitation in admitting that Oriya had emerged as a separate and

distinct language ahead of Bengali and Assamese.

Undisputedly being a language distinctly manifested much ahead of Bengali

and Assamese (and Maithili), Oriya is the language, naturally, wherein ex-

pression in poetic form had become a reality much ahead of that occurring

in Bengali. On this premise it can be safely said that the Charyagitis Sastri

has claimed for Bengal were flowers of Oriya language, being the oldest

available poetic expression in this region.

Scholars like Dr. Karunakar Kar of Orissa in his famous work Ashcharya

Charyachaya (Orissa Sahitya Akademi) has proved word by word that the

words used in the Charyagitis are Oriya words. Another scholar of Orissa

Dr. Khageswar Mohapatra in his book Pratna-Oriya, which depicts a tenta-

tive grammar of Proto-Oriya in context of these songs, has also proved how

the words of Charyagitis are words of Oriya language. Even scholars of

Bengal with scholarly composure like Bijoy Chandra Mazumdar (Calcutta

University, 1920, Lecture XIII, as informed in Charyagitika, Prof.

K.Mohapatra, Friends Publishers, Cuttack, Eighth Edition, 1999, p.43) have

shown how sic passim are Oriya words in these songs. In Buddhist Esoterism

scholar Binoytosh Bhattacharya has held that Krishnacharya (Kahnupa) wrote

Dohas also in his own vernacular, which was probably Udiya. But thus say-

ing, Bhattacharya has also said that Kanhupas writing in his own vernacular

Udiya had a great affinity with the old Bengali language. This affinity as-

pect is so misleading that some of the Bengali scholars have been able to

satisfy their own chauvinistic urge by declaring, as has done Dr. Suniti Kumar

in History of Bengal, Ch.xii, (Dacca University, 1943), that notwithstand-

30

ing the affinity with Oriya (and over and above that with old Magadhi, old

Maithili, or old Bhojapuri), the language of the Charyagitis is Bengali.

But no Bengali scholar has shown as to why the language of the Charyagitis

is Sandha in pattern. Groping about in the dark they have made many specu-

lations like Sastri describing it in introducing his compilation as Sandhya

Bhasa and defining the word Sandhya as Alon-andhari meaning an admix-

ture of light and dark even while admitting that under the outer layer there

are inner meanings hidden in these songs. Binoytosh Bhattacharya, his son,

has furthered the confusion by saying that as the Siddhas have written their

songs in Sandhya Bhasa, contents thereof may be explained either by the

light of the day or by the darkness of the night (An Introduction to Buddhist

Esoterism, London, 1932, p.35, relied upon by Mohapatra, Caryagitika, p.10).

The same source also cites Panchakadi Banarjees definition Sandhya means

borderland in justifying which Banarjee has gone up to connecting the songs

to the language of a country named Sandhya in between Aryavarta and Banga.

So, it seems, the Bengali scholars have tried to define the word Sandhya

after the word Sandha was corrupted to this form by Sastri, instead of trying

to find out why the Charyagitis were written in duel meaning pattern (Sandha)

even though in introducing Bauddha Gana O Doha he has admitted that

there are inner meanings hidden under the outer meaning of these songs.

They cannot be blamed entirely; because the circumstances under which

the Chaurashi Siddhacharyas had to write their songs in Sandha (hiding the

real meaning under a superficial layer) pattern was not known to them.

The Siddhacharyas had composed their songs in different popular meters

and with litanies, which makes it clear that they were meant to be sung in

public with mass participation. So they were mass purpose songs. Why then

they made them complicated by using duel-meaning words stashing the real

meaning under the superficial?

Sastri and others have not supplied us the reason. They know that the songs

were composed in dual meaning pattern. Therefore they also know the rea-

son of use of this pattern. But they have preferred to keep mum as otherwise

it would not have been easy for them to claim these Oriya songs for their

regions.

In Orissa, and in Orissa alone, writing these songs in Sandha pattern was

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necessitated to hoodwink the goons of Brahminism. Nowhere in India ex-

cept Orissa, as has already been described above, destruction of Buddhist

shrines and annihilation of Buddist Monks was being carried out so brutally

by Aryan invaders with the help of imported Vedic chauvinists styled as

Pasupata Saivas.

After the non-Oriya Yayati Keshari vandalized the Buddhist heritages in

Jajpur with the help of the ten thousand Vedic chauvinists he had imported

from Kanyakubja in the guise of horse sacrifice to destroy Buddhism in the

place of its origin, Orissa, his nasty eyes were cast on the Chaurashi monas-

tery in the Prachi basin where, like in Jajpur, Barahi was the presiding deity

of applied matriarchy, providing a perfect cover to practice of Vajrayana

and where Sabaripa had transformed the tribal Jaganta to Jagantatha paving

the way for Indrabhuti to idolize Gurudev Buddha to Jagannatha.

The monastery of Chaurashi, where Jagannatha was thus given his shape

and in honor of which, the height of Sri Jagannath has become 84 pavas,

was the citadel of the authors of the Charyagitis whose emphasis was on

two aspects of human life: firstly, recognition of female factor as supreme

cause of creation, creativity and bliss and secondly, refusal to recognize

caste system in human society. Therefore they had given feminine appear-

ance and lifestyle to Jagannatha notwithstanding Buddha being idolized in

his shape and they had epitomized castelessness in personal as well as soci-

etal life. Brahmins who were against Brahminism were welcomed to their

fold and honored as Siddhas, for an example, Krushnacharya alias Kanhupa.

Therefore, they were regarded as philosophers and guides of the Satapatakas

meaning broadly the seven subcaste habitants of the Prachi basin where

including Chaurasi, seven important centers of applied Buddhism had also

developed under guidance of the Siddhas of Chaurashi.

This was never to be tolerated by the Vedic Chauvinists. To them, it was

impossible to spread and stabilize Brahminism in Orissa unless the Siddhas

of Chaurashi, active guides of applied Buddhism in the Satapatakapur on

Prachiu basin were exterminated.

Therefore, the Keshari King, as described by Ishwara Das in Chaitanya

Bhagavat (cited supra) killed 600 Satapata Siddhas in the first phase and 67

in the second phase out of a total 752 identified Bauddhacharyas. To avoid

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complete extinction, the rest 85 Siddhacharyas went underground. Despite

their number being 85, Ishwara Das had described them as Chaurashi Siddhas,

which, as already discussed, makes it absolutely clear that the Siddhacharyas

of Orissa’s Prachi basin were known as Chaurashi Siddhas. No other place

except Orissa can claim the Chaurashi Siddhas as its own.

So this scriptural description of historical irrefutability has made it clear

that the Chaurashi Siddhas belonged to Orissa and in Guru-Sisya Parampara,

they were known as Chaurashi Siddhas, who were never to be seen or treated

separately (Yemante Chaurashi Bauddha / Yeka swarupe nahin bheda) and,

who had authored the Charyagitis and Dohas in their own vernacular Oriya

as a literature of applied Buddhism; but had done that in Sandha style in

order to hoodwink the brutal practitioners of Brahminism by then in power

in Orissa.

As Orissas princess had transported the celebrated Tooth of Buddha con-

cealed in her hair to Ceylon in 311 A.D., because by then she had emerged

as a safe soil for Buddhists to save the Masters sacred relic from Brahmins

rage (Rev. J. Long, cited supra), so in similar vein, some of the Chaurashi

Siddhas of Orissa might have taken refuge in Nepal as by helping Orissa in

saving the real birthplace of Buddha from being vandalized by the Vedic

chauvinists, the Himalayan State had emerged as the safest place for the

Siddhas of Orissa.

Therefore, there is nothing to be surprised if Sastri had really found a palm

leaf manuscript of the Charyagitis in the Royal Archives of Nepal. Avail-

ability of Charyagitis and Dohas elsewhere does not do away with the real-

ity that they are songs of Oriya language authored by Chaurashi

Siddhacharyas of Orissa.

The NEWS Syndicate