Name Gaganendra Dash | ||
Gaganendra Nath Dash (Odia: ଗଗନେନ୍ଦ୍ର ନାଥ ଦାଶ, born 1940) is an Indian scholar and an English and Odia-language author. His research as a professor was primarily on Odia language, literature and history of Odisha. His research was on inter-disciplinary research in humanities and social sciences in Odisha, disciplines of literary criticism, linguistics and its history, anthropology and economics.
Contents
Early life
Dash was born on 25 November 1940 at Kadei village of Jajpur district, Odisha. He passed M.A. in Odia (1961) from Visva Bharati, Santiniketan and Diploma in L.D.C. (1966) from Deccan College, Poona. That Diploma in L.D.C. is equivalent to M.A. Degree in Linguistics. (For equivalent reference pl. sees the ‘Prospectus’ (1971, p-15) of Deccan College, Poona)
Primarily trained as a literary critic in Odia, he later took formal training in structural linguistics in order to prepare the Ph.D. thesis on structural grammar of Odia language which resulted in a book Descriptive Morphology of Oriya, (1982), a pioneering work in the field, published in the Research Publication Series of Visva-Bharati (Santiniketan). Besides, he has not only studied the history of Odia linguistics in great detail but also worked on the history of Odia language, on the problems of dialectal (regional) variations in Odia and also has prepared, along with others, a grammar of Odia language in Odia. Because of his contributions he is acknowledged as a leading linguist of Odisha. (It may also be mentioned here that he played crucial role in the establishment of Department of Linguistics in the Berhampur University, the first ever such department in the state of Odisha and worked as a Professor there for more than fifteen years till his retirement in 2000.) While simultaneously pursuing his interest in literary criticism and linguistic studies with unabated zeal, he also worked as a language teacher-cum-linguistic consultant in the multi-disciplinary Harvard Research Project in the sixties of the last century under the direct supervision of the celebrated anthropologist Cora Du Bois, Zemmury Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University, U. S. A. (and also for sometime the President of the Association of Asian Studies in the U. S. A.). During his association with the Harvard Research Project he got an opportunity to observe at first hand and closely the inter-disciplinary research in social sciences and humanities.
Later, in the early seventies of the last century, on a strong recommendation from Prof. Cora Du Bois, he joined the interdisciplinary Odisha Research Project I (1970 – 1976), conducted by the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, Germany and sponsored by the German Research Council (DFG), as a Member and for some time worked as its Field Director. This Project aimed at studying the formation and function of the regional tradition centering round the Cult of Jagannath in Odisha. In this Project he, along with other Members, both German and Indian, undertook research with interdisciplinary approach on different facets of the Jagannath cult. Thus, he became one of the pioneers in Odisha in the interdisciplinary research in social sciences and humanities. (See website Orissa Research Project I)
His work in the Odisha Research Project I, had been multi-dimensional, thought-provoking as well as innovative and challenging. He emphasized the importance of traditional accounts as an important source material in the scientific historical research in modern times and at the same time introduced a completely new methodology to analyze the same at least in the context of Odishan historiography, which has been acknowledged by scholars such as Herman Kulke and K. C. Dash. (His books Janasriti Kanchi-Kaveri in Odia and Hindus and Tribals and several essays, both in English and Odia, on different traditional accounts of Odisha have thrown new lights on several dark corners of Odisha history and also on the hoary past of Jagannath cult and are considered important contributions in the field). He also for the first time claimed and most convincingly established the important role the temple servants (including the priests) of the Jagannath temple in Puri played in medieval Odishan politics mainly based on his studies of different traditional accounts.
Further, he has done pioneering work on the construction of Odia identity with the publication of his paper Jagannatha and Oriya Nationalism in 1978/2014 as a part of the final report of the Orissa Research Project I published under the title The Cult of Jaganath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa eds. A. Eschmann, H. Kulke, G. C. Tripathi (1978/2014, New Delhi, Manohar). This paper containing rare insight has attracted the attention of scholars, both Indian (such as, R. Champaklakshmi, Nivedita Mohanty, B. N. Mohapatra, Sudhir Chandra, R. K. Barik, Kunal Chakrabarti, K. C. Dash, Pralay Kanungo, Jayant Sengupta, Pritish Acharya, Ishita Banerjee Dube, B. Mallik etc.) and foreign (H. Kulke, Burkhard Schnepel, Akio Tanabe, Julia A. B. Hegewald, Susan Seymour, etc.). In it he claimed, again for the first time, and established with convincing arguments, how Lord Jagannath, one of the most famous Hindu deities and a (Hindu) religious symbol has also become a symbol of Odia nationalism, an icon of Odia identity, which is, at the same time, secular in character/nature. (It may be pointed out that this essay Jagannatha and Oriya Nationalism is considered as a ‘seminal paper’ by Hermann Kulke and an ‘insightful exploration’ by Bishnu N. Mohapatra in his Oxford dissertation.). Furthermore, his elaborate studies on (i) the Kanchi-Kaveri tradition, which was originally constructed as a religious and mythical tradition was later transformed into the national legend of the Odias, and (ii) the ‘Save Odia (language) Movement’, in the 19th century, are very valuable contributions in the field and highlight the different facets of the larger picture of the Odia identity. (His Odia books Janasruti Kanchi-Kaveri, 1979, and Odia Bhasha-Suraksha Andolana 1993, dealing with above two aspects of Odia identity have been considered disturbingly stimulating.) Besides, he has also made some other contributions in the domain of Odishan history.
Later he also worked in the Odisha Research Project II ‘Various Identities : Socio-Cultural Profiles of Odisha’s in Historical and Regional Perspectives (1999-2006)’ sponsored again by the German Research Council (DFG) and as such participated in several international seminars held in Germany and edited a compendium of medieval texts on the cult of Jagannath, which has been published under the title. Jagannatha and the Gajapati Kings of Odisha.( A Compendium of Late Medieval Texts) in 2010 by Manohar, New Delhi. (See website Orissa Research Project II).
Because of his successful collaborations with the western scholars in scholarly domain, he has played the role of a cultural bridge between the East and West.
As far as literary criticism in Odia is concerned, he again stands apart from many of his contemporary literary critics who are not prepared to go beyond specific literary texts. On the contrary – again with an interdisciplinary and holistic approach in studying literature - he invariably contextualizes specific literary texts and literary issues in order to be able to comprehend its real meaning and implications. Thus, among other things he has thrown considerable new light in the understanding of Odia literature of both medieval and modern periods especially on the literary contributions/works of Sarala Das, Abhimanyu Samanta Simhara, Fakir Mohan Senapati, Radhanath Ray and Surendra Mohanty etc. As such and because of the rigour he has consistently maintained he is considered as one of the front ranking literary critics in the field of Odia literary criticism. His studies on Fakirmohan Senapati and his fictional works have been highly acclaimed. Because of that one of his essays was selected to be published in the Economic and Political Weekly which issued a special section on Fakirmaohan’s Chha Mana Atha Guntha in November 2006 ed. by S. P. Mohanty and H. Trivedi. Incidentally in this special issue three other essays on Chha Mana Atha Guntha were written by scholars based in the universities of the U. S. A. and he is the only Odia scholar based in India. Further, in another anthology of essays on Fakirmohan’s works, titled ‘Colonialism, Modernity and Literature: A View from India’ ed. By S. P. Mohanty and published by the Palgrave Macmillan in the U.S. A and Orient Black Swan in India his essay, Rediscovering Ramachandra Mangaraj has been included.
Besides all these research activities, he has taken active interest in documentation and has collaborated with Hermann Kulke to prepare a comprehensive and classified Bibliography of research works on Odisha and also in collaboration with Purna Chandra Mishra has prepared a bibliography of publications on the cult of Jagannath. 2013. Further, he is one of the editors (along with Hermann Kulke, the Chief Editor, and Nivedita Mohanty, Dinanath Pathy.& J. K. Nayak, K. K. Mohapatra, P. K. Dash) of the recently published Imaging Odisha in which a highly successful attempt has been made to strike a balance between the documentation of facts on one hand and the Interpretation of documented facts on the other (2013) Prafulla Pathagara).
He has participated in many national and international conferences and seminars, both in India and abroad. Moreover, while keeping his scholarly pursuits intact he has also occasionally written feature-articles, belles letters, travel accounts, short stories and poems etc. He has visited some countries, like United Kingdom (3 times 1972, 1976 and 2004), Germany (5 times, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004), West Germany- 1971, West Germany (3 times- 1971-72, 1975–76, and 1987–88), France (2 times 1971 and 1975), Switzerland 1971 and Greece 1972.