Ganjam pundit translates Baideheesha Bilasa into Sanskrit

Author (Fourth from right) is showing his book to audiences

BHUBANESWAR: Pundit Bhagabata Prasad Dash Sharma, a retired Sanskrit teacher of Sorada in Ganjam district, has translated Baideheesha Bilasa, one of the toughest and pioneer Odia poetry books of Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja, into Sanskrit.

Bhanja, a poet of unsurpassed rhetorical excellence, had written the Baideheesha Bilasa during the Seventeen century. The poetry, which is based on the epic Ramayana, is a magnificent piece of work where every word of the line of a poem is started with Odia alphabet ‘Ba’.  

The profound use of ornamental languages and poetic devices like alliteration, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, allegory, symbols and images had made the poetry tough for other contemporary poets and successors, but Dash Sharma translated it into the ancient language Sanskrit. Though it was a Herculean task, Dash Sharma did it and tried to give justice to the original one.

“I’m happy after translating the great work of Bhanja, who belongs to my area. His village Kullada of Bhanjanagar area is only 38 km from my place,” said Dash Sharma, adding, “I dedicate my work to the great poet of all time.”

The pundit took 25 years to complete the translation, which has 113 Chhandas (poetic meters). The translated version has two parts, Purva Bilasa and Uttar Bilasa, for readers’ convenience. The Purva Bilasa consists of 534 pages having 1,241 slokas while the Uttar Bilasa has 1,459 slokas in 625 pages.    

Dash Sharma has been awarded with the Bidyaratna Pratibha Samman and Sashibhushan Pratibha Samman and felicitated by various quarters. His another work Sashibhusan Charitam, which was published by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, is distributed among 100 universities of the country. 

The Sanskrit Baideheesha Bilasa was released on the occasion of State-level Sanskrit Day celebration organised by the Utkal Sanskruta Shikshak Mahasangh here on Saturday. The function was attended by School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra, Law Minister Arun Sahu, noted pundit Prabodh Kumar Mishra and hundreds of Sanskrit teachers.