KENDRAPARA: After more than two centuries, genealogy researchers have traced the descendants of legendary writer Vyas Kabi Fakir Mohan Senapati at Kusida village of Kendrapara district recently.
Noted researcher Dr Basudev Das said, “We did hard work to trace the family tree of survivors of Fakir Mohan, who in his famous autobiography ‘Atma Jibani Charita,’ had mentioned that his ancestors originally came from Kusida village of Kendrapara sub-division.”
The father of modern Odia literature in his autobiography had said, “My great-great grandfather, Hanu Malla, originally hails from Kusida village of Kendrapara sub-division. Our caste is Khandayat. During the Maratha rule in Orissa, Hanu Malla came to Balasore to work as a commandant (Senapati) for which he was called as Hanu Senapati. Hanu died leaving behind his son Gobinda. Later, Gobinda died leaving behind my grandfather Kusa, who had two sons namely Purusottam and my father Laxman Charan.”
Dr Das said, “the Maratha administration of Odisha effectively began from 1751 and Raghuji Bhonsle-I became the new master of the territory. The Maratha rule lasted in Odisha for a brief period and Hanu Malla had left Kusida village during the fag-end of eighteenth century. During the research, we interacted with some of the Malla families in Kusida and its nearby villages. Pradeep Malla, a college teacher of Balia Women’s College, produced a genealogical tree of his eight generations. The genealogical table covers an era from eighteenth century till date. The pedigree table reveals that Narottama Malla, who died around 1800, had a brother namely Hanu Malla. Taking the cue from the autobiography of Fakir Mohan, we believe Pradeep is descendant of the great writer.”
Pradeep said some of their relatives bear some physical resemblance to Fakir Mohan by pointing out the photo of his grandfather Bramhananda Malla. Few in Kendrapara know that Fakir Mohan had worked as the manager of Zamindar Radheshyam Narendra from 1899 to 1901 in the district, he added.
Fakir Mohan had stayed for about two years in a two-storey building near New Bus Stand in Kendrapara while working as the manager. However, the house is in a state of ruin. While the district is dotted with statues of several political leaders, writers and freedom fighters, even the house where Fakir Mohan resided has no photograph of the great writer, he said.