By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: “Fakirnama”: Saga of Odia Identity’s Iconic Architect, a bilingual book on Fakir Mohan Senapati, written by her great granddaughter Monica Das, was released at Bhubaneswar. The coffee table book celebrates the life and literature of Utkala’s Vyasakabi, who pioneered the process of Odia literature acquiring a global identity.
Co-authored by Prof Monica Das, the Chairperson of the Fakir Mohan Foundation and Rabindra Kumar Das, the book has many rare photographs. The book chronicles the life and times of the great litterateur, who was a saviour of Odia Language.
Monica Das, an academician based in Delhi, has a passion for rediscovering writers who have contributed immensely for awareness on girl child education and their socio-economic status in pre-independent India. She said that Fakir Mohan Senapati is among the sixteen most prominent authors who have created an identity across the nation.
Speaking on the occasion, A.B.Tripathy IPS (Retd) the State Convener of Intach said that Fakir Mohan was a sage and a renaissance man whose writings have a contemporary relevance even today. He said that even though Fakir Mohan did not have a good formal education, he successfully used the folk speech in his writings and established a connect with the readers. His daring adoption of the scorned common speech as a literary medium was a pioneering literary adventure.
Eminent painter Jatin Das said that Odias need to team up and prove their identity as even till date people are undermining the Odias, despite the rich illustrious culture, art, tradition and literary legacies to boast of. He said that Fakir Mohan, through his writings, mobilised public opinion and gave Odias the confidence to unify their homeland and create a single province of Odisha.
Eminent writer and translator and former Eastern Region head of Central Sahitya Akademi, Mihir Ranjan Sahoo, who is also the present Executive Director of the Fakir Mohan Foundation , and INTACH’s Bhubaneswar Chapter Convener Anil Dhir too were present during the release of the book.
