Born in a royal family in south Odisha, Santha Arakshita Das (1772-1782), the saint poet, worshipper of Bramha Abadhuta an extraordinary and versatile genius is tipped as one of the conspicuous voices of Abadhuta cult as attested by his poetry Anthology 'Mahimandal Gita'.
Sunya Purusha Bramhadarshi Santh Arakshita Das was born and brought up in a royal family of Ganga dynasty in Badakhemundi royal estate of Ganjam. But he had given up all that royal privilages and left home to become a saint at very early age. He had to move to hundred of places in search of tranquillity but settled at Olasuni Hill, where he had achieved 'Prajna' and composed 'Mahimandal Gita' con-sisting of 93 chapters. The manuscript was compiled and edited by Dr. Bijayananda Singh and published by Odisha Sahitya Akademi bearing the title 'Mahimandal Gita of Santha Arakshita Das' in 2017. The same script has taken a new shape in English Language by the hard labour of Prof. Jachindra Rout. The various Forms and metres have been transcreated into the form of Blank verse. It's the artistic and poetic vision of Prof. Rout have made this work possible, in which he tried his best to preserve the meaning and sense of every and each line of the original text intact. After a through reading, what I find, there is no breakage of thoughts, poetic coherence and composition of textual lines so far my little knowledge is concerned. Hope, the non-Odia enthusiastics may find the same feelings from the transcreated Anthology of 'Mahimandal Gita' what we the Odia readers understand and feel, reading the original text from Odia version.
Prof. Jachindra Rout is a scholar in both English and Odia language and literature with fairly long academic career. He had authored several volumes covering different aspects of poet's life and work. He has pieced together details of the saint's journey from his mundane existence to his spiritual heights in mixed form of blank verse. I am grateful to him for allowing Odisha Sahitya Akademi to bring out his latest trans created version of 'Mahimandal Gita', of the saint-poet Arakshita Das in our humble attempt to attract the attention of international readers. The endeavour of the writer would certainly discover a new horizon on Santha Arakshita's creative world.
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