Decoding the dharma in Sarala Mahabharata

BANGALORE: Whoever is interested in history and mythology will be all ears at the lecture by B N Patnaik, who talk  about the dharma in Sarala Mahabharata, today  in the city. Sarala Mahabharata is an Oriya version of the Sanskrit Mahabharata. Sarala Dasa was famous for his three books — Mahabharata, Vilanka Ramayana and Chandi Purana. He has also written the book, Laxmi Narayana Vachanika. Sarala Dasa followed the main outline of Sanskrit Mahabharata in writing the Oriya Mahabharata. He made many alterations and also added quite a bit to the storyline of the original Mahabharata.In the final form Sarala Dasa's Mahabharata is a new creation analogous to Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa based on the Ramayana.Professor B N Patnaik taught linguistics in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kanpur (1978-2004) and was subsequently Fellow, CIIL, Mysore (2004-2006) and visiting faculty, IIIT, Hyderabad (2011). He was also visiting professor at IIAS, Shimla (1997). He is currently a member of the Government of India’s Committee of Experts to Consider Future Demands for Categorisation of Languages as Classical Languages and Technology Development of Indian Languages Working Group. He is also a member of member of UGC’s Committee on Indigenous Languages.He has published a number of papers and books on syntax, socio-linguistics, and computational linguistics including Globalisation: Language, Culture & Media (2006, co-edited with S Imtiaz Hasnain, IIAS) and The Architecture of Language (2000, co-edited with N Mukherji, R K Agnihotri, OUP). His current interests include Medieval Odia literature. His book Introducing Sarala Mahabharata is in press. He is working on another book on Sarala Mahabharata. English translations of stories from Sarala Mahabharata can be accessed from his blog                                                                                          www.saralamahabharat.blogspot.com.

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