SALEPUR: Week-long birth anniversary celebration of Ganakabi Baishnab Pani began at his birthplace at Kothapada, a remote village situated on the banks of river Birupa, here today.
Pani is remembered mostly for his contribution to Oriya dance-drama. Sadly Ganakabi’s enormous talents were only recognised after his death.
Hordes of people from various places visited Kothapada to pay floral tribute to the poet. The celebration is being observed not just in Kothapada but also in every part of Mahanga and even in adjacent Salepur and Nischintakoili blocks. Literary and cultural activities are lined up all over the place in the poet’s memory.
An integral part of the celebration is the staging of Pani’s dance-dramas. Pani was born in 1882 to a poor Brahmin Sudarsan Pani of Kothapada village. Satrughna as he was named by his parents was an ailing child. Unable to afford his treatment, his parents dedicated him to great banyan tree of Matha Bada Chhata in Puri for his wellbeing and changed his name from Satrughna to Baishnab.
Pani was encouraged to study by Bholanath Mishra, the then headmaster of Kothapada Middle English School. However, poverty forced him to drop out while he was in Class VII. But gifted as he was, Pani became a popular ‘pala gayak’. Beside Oriya literature, Pani had grasp over Sanskrit grammar and literature.
Following his second marriage to a washer man’s daughter, Pani was ostracised by the conservative society of those times. But he never repented for it. Pani went on to form his own opera troupe and toured Kolkata and Jamshedpur where he performed and chal-lenged stalwarts like Gopal Das, Mohan Goswami, Krishna Prasad Basu and Bala Krishna Mohanty. His plays were appreciated not just in Orissa but in West Bengal too. He became popular as Ganakabi- poet of the people.
At the age of 21, Pani wrote his first dance-drama ‘Meghanada Badha’ . Between 1903 and 1940 he wrote about 600 dance-dramas. Pani’s literary works were not only based on mythology but also touched contemporary social, political and economic issues.
Pani was not only a writer but also a director and a music composer. The music created by him is popularly known as ‘Pani Music’.
Though the Information and Public Relation Department has produced a documentary on Pani, the State Government is yet to take initiative to popularise his works. Locals feel the government should set up a museum where Pani’s manuscripts and his other daily-use articles can be preserved for posterity.