Post # 114
Bhakt Jayadeva - Odia or Bengali?
On 16th April, 2007, Shah Rukh Khan, the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati III, asked the contestant the following question - "In which language did the poet Jayadeva write Gita Gobinda?" What the correct answer is, what the contestant replied or how much money the contestant made that day in KBC, is insignificant. What is significant is that, in the follow-up discussion about the question, SRK said that Jayadeva was the court poet of King Lakshmanasena of Bengal!
All hell broke loose in Odisha. SRK was denounced for spreading false information. The government of Odisha demanded an apology from KBC claiming that the game show "mutilated historical facts" and "hurt the feelings of the people of Odisha". The Jayadeva Foundation Trust of Odisha launched a protest against the TV show. In short, mayhem!
So, was it a genuine error on the part of SRK and KBC? Or, is there a genuine confusion about nativity of the great poet-saint? Therein lies a tale.
The root cause of the confusion and controversy is the name of the village Sant Jayadev is supposed to be a native of.
The Odias believe that he lived in a village called Kenduli Sasan, in Khurda district, a few kilometers from Puri.
The Bengalis accept Jaydev Kenduli, a village on the coast of River Ajay, in Birbhum district, near Shantiniketan, as the native place of Jayadev.
Incidentally, there are two more Kendulis - one in Bihar and another in Maharasthra, but thankfully they are not contending to be native places of the poet-saint.
But how did this confusion start, in the first place? Firstly, a Bengali book, Jayadeva Charita, authored by an Odia poet, Banamali Das, in 1803, mentions that the great poet belonged to Bengal. Subsequently other Bengali historians propound the same.
Next, Jayadev himself mentions that he was born in a village called Kendubilva. Somehow, this Birbhum Kendui village gets identified as his birthplace. A traditional Baul festival held every year is renamed Jayadeva Mela and this village get the title - Jayadeva Kenduli.
On the other hand, the Odia lobby points to archaeological evidence to support their claim. Inscriptions at the Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar tell us that Jayadeva had been a member of the teaching faculty of the school at Srikurmapataka, near Puri in Odisha.
They also refer to various manuscripts found in Mithila, Gwalior, Maharashtra, Andhra and Assam that support Jayadeva's birthplace in Odisha.
Finally, they refer to Jayadev's own writings, which say his birthplace is "Kendubilva Samudra Sambhava", meaning "Kendubilva by the sea". They point out Kenduli in Orissa is by the sea and the one in Bengal is by the river.
In any case, the controversy raged.
In July 2009, the Government of India released postal stamps of Jayadev and the Dasavataras in Gita Gobida in Bhubaneshwar. Chief minister, Naveen Pattnaik did the honours. 8 lac stamps @ INR 5 were printed.
It is now more or less accepted that Bhakt Jayadeva was born, lived and chanted the Lord's name in Odisha. But staunch Bengalis have their own opinion. And let's not forget who the producer of Kaun Banega Crorepati was back then - Siddharth Basu, the father of Indian quizzing, a Bengali. Somewhere a small bias might have been there!
It is the birth place of Sri Jayadeba, the poet who composed the epic poem GEETA GOBINDA (Geeta Govindam / Geet Govind).
