Rosogolla for God in Odisha, for common men in Bengal
Bhubaneswar: “It has become difficult to criticise God these days”, lamented eminent mythologist Devdutt Patnaik.
Patnaik, while speaking at the Mystic Kalinga Festival, here on Sunday, said there is way of showing ones devotion by criticising the God. In devotional song tradition, there is a trend of reverse devotion or denounce God. However, one can not do that in open media these days. For, there would be a retaliation by a section of people who believe that God and Goddesses are very sensitive.
Dwelling on the controversy over the origin of Rosogolla, Patnaik said that Odisha Rosogolla is for Gods and Goddesses while Bengal Rosogolla is for common men.
Patnaik said that offering exotic dishes to God is a form of showing ones devotions to God. The tradition of offering Sathia Pauti Bhoga( 60 types of dishes) to Lord Jaganath in Puri temple is considered to be offerings to God by rich and wealthy. Common men like Dasia Bauri offer coconut and Prasad, he added.
Odia culture scholar Pratik Patnaik spoke about feminism in mythology citing couplets from 500 year old Lakshmi Purana.
Eminent author Arsia Sattar said that each region in the country has its own version of Ramayana. She said, the Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana is based on Tulsidas’ narration which is different from Balmiki Ramayana. She pointed out that the Lakhana Rekha in the Ramanand Sagar’s serial is found mentioned only in Tulsidas Ramayana and in any other Ramayana, not even in Balmiki Ramayana.
Established poets Sitakanta Mohapatra, Bishnu Narayana Mohapatra, Kedar Mishra and Sharmila Biswas engaged themselves in a discussion on spiritual and devotional songs of India, while Arundhati Subramanium, Jerry Pinoto, Mani Rao, Anand Thakur and Rahul Soni recited poems of Meera Bai, Tulsidas, Tukaram and Surdas translated into English.
