Sambeet Dash

Maritime Trade and Odisha

Today is KARTIK PURNIMA, the last full moon day of Fall (Autumn). This special day has a historic significance for the state of Odisha, where it is celebrated to commemorate its rich heritage. In the Western hemisphere, it is called the Beaver Moon shining bright on a cool, crisp sky.

Once upon a time, Odisha used to be an independent state and a maritime superpower. It’s SADHAVAS (traders) use to go on trading expeditions to faraway lands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo (modern-day Indonesia and Malayan peninsula), bringing in riches and laurels. This full moon day with high tide and the advent of winter with calm seas assisted by favorable trade winds were considered apt and auspicious to launch a commercial mission.

Many on this day in my home state flock in drove early in the morning to the nearest river, lake or pond to revisit the past. They float miniature yachts with lamps, slowly pushing them into water. Propelled by the rippled waves they waver a few feet with the lamps flickering before getting submerged – probably symbol of the waning and faltering present state of our state.

kartik purnima

My father, whom I rang up, told me that there is invariably a huge queue in front of the pond near our house to float the flotillas associated with this festival. Each year, the line gets longer. The reason – most water bodies inside the city have either dried up or gobbled up by land sharks who topped them with soil to form the bottom of the ever expanding concrete jungle.

History depicts Kalinga (modern-day Odisha) as an independent, indomitable Republic of the time. A maritime superpower, it was rich and robust enough to challenge and resist the powerful Maurya Dynasty for years. Both Chandragupta Maurya and his son Bindusara spectacularly failed to conquer it.
 
CHANDASHOK (Ashok, the Cruel), their scion, won a pyrrhic victory over his old adversary in the year 261 BC as the citizens of Kalinga fought bravely till end. The war was bloody enough to transform CHANDASHOK (Ashok, the Cruel) into DHARMASHOK (Ashok, the Pious). A couple of centuries later KHARABELA, the emperor of Kalinga avenged the defeat by conquering and ransacking Magadh (modern-day Bihar).
 
From 11th to 15th century AD, the Gajapati (Lord of Elephants) kings of Odisha built embarkments on rivers, created impressive architectural feats like the Sun Temple of Konark (Black Pagoda), defended aggression from enemies and built a great civilization. At one point of time the Kalinga empire extended from Ganges in North to Godavari in the south under King Kapilendra Deb.
 
But in the age sans contraceptives, the mighty King maintained both Queens and Concubines who kept on delivering broods of legitimate and illegitimate progenies, laying the seeds for future fratricidal wars. His descendants got involved themselves in internecine wars to capture the throne and managed to sow the seeds of the demise of the great Kalinga empire.
 
A scene from the Hindi movie ASHOKA still rings a bell. When Prince Ashok, played by the popular actor Sah Rukh Khan arrives in KALING (modern-day Odisha), he is offered food by a native who says KALING MEIN KOI BHUKHA NAHI RAHTA (nobody goes hungry in Odisha).

More than couple of thousands of years after Ashok it sounds irony by itself. Poverty and malnutrition keeps Odisha in the news cycle as the state lags behind in Human Development Indices. In Odia there is saying “KARPURA UDI JAICHI, KHALI KANA PADICHI”, meaning the smell of camphor is gone, only the cloth remains. Gone are those glorious days, only left are the golden memories down the lane to cherish.

Chhadkhai

The day after KARTIK PURNIMA is called CHHADAKHAAI (Feast after the Fast), when the Odias make trip to the local fish, meat market. They do it to break the logjam of their month-long absence from non-vegetarian food of fish, meat and poultry they cherish. This hiatus can be an entire month for the few devoted ones or just 5 days (PANCHUKA) of absence from the titillating foods at the fag end for most.

The prices of fish and meat skyrocket as the vendors often try to seize advantage of the demand. It’s not uncommon for street vendors being beaten for selling substandard fish and meat. I remember reading in a local newspaper sometime in the 1990s, public thrashing of a guy accused of selling dog meat in the guise of goat meat. This day also marks the beginning of the winter months, a very pleasant season which lasts for couple of months.

Happy KARTIK PURNIMA to all!

(Sambeet Dash is an Odia technocrat living in Georgia ,US)

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