He along with his legendary friends UTKALA MANI (The Pearl of Odisha) Gopabandhu Das, Godabarisha Mishra, Krupasindhu Mishra and Acharya Harihara formed the famous PANCHA SAKHA "Five Friends" who were freedom fighters, patriots, social reformers, educationists and philanthropists - way ahead of their time.
Pandit Nilakantha Das was was born this day, August 5 in the year 1884 in a village named Sri Ramachandrapur, not far from the temple town of Puri. He was his parent's only male child who followed his seven sisters.
His grandfather was a Tahsildar who died young at the age of 28, leaving his father in penury. It was the practice those days to pay the tax to government from borrowed money in order to meet the deadline and collect it later. Unfortunately his grandpa died before the collection, so his property was confiscated and auctioned away.
Pandit Nilakantha Das's father lived lot longer to see his son carving his niche in life. The young boy did not belied his dad's hope, being an outstanding student from childhood. Nilakantha Das's father at the age of 72 had a bad bout of cold and cough, and believed he wont survive anymore during a time seeing 50th birthday was considered a luxury. Certain of dying, he took opium to relieve his pain and making his death painless. But he continued to live until 89, a rare longevity those days.
Those days it was common for men to get married during their early teens and girls before reaching puberty. Still in school, an educated Nilakantha Das was very much sought after by prospective groom hunters. His father was approached by one such gentleman with a NAGADA (instant payment) cash offer of Rs.4,000 in advance, a hefty anount those days, with additional assurance of the bride's father bearing any addition cost involving higher studies by the prospective son-in-law.
The young Nilakantha reacted by reciting the following couplet in Sanskrit :
UTTAMMAM SWA ARJITA BITTAM,
MADHYAMAM PITRU ARJITA.
ADHAMAM BHATRU BITTAM,
STHEEE BITTAM MAHAMADHYAM.
Roughly transliterated....
"Excellent is money earned on your own,
Okay is the money received from father.
Bad is living on Brother's earning,
Worst is to live on wife's money"
His father got the message and did not proceed further on the proposal.
The Das triumvirate of Nilakantha, Gopabandhu and UTKALA GAURABA (The pride of Odisha) Madhusudan were instrumental in the creation of the State of Odisha, a dream realized after a lot of struggle. Madhu babu was the more educated and the dilligent one of the trio who used to address the public in a mode equivalent to today's Power point presentations - sharp and articulate, but lacking a storyteller's ability to arouse passion in the audience. Though a patriot and foused on his mission, being seen as an elitist from a ZAMINDARI (Feudal lord) background and not being a prolific public speaker he could barely connect with the commoners, unable to arouse interest and enthusiasm among the masses whose support he needed the most.
That hiatus was bridged by the "Dases" duo Utkalamani Gopabandhu and Pandit Nilakanta who were young, charismatic with epic sense of humor - who could connect better with the commoners with their amazing oratory skills & convincing capability. With their down to earth background closer to the milieu they could feel the pulse of the masses and the masses could feel it in their tone. The duo successfully carried Madhu Babu's message to them.
Together they complemented each other, forming a formidable proposition and propelling their cause towards their common goal of a unique, separate state of Odisha, now appealing to the public from far flung places like Barhampur, Sambalpur who were now motivated enough to join the movement. Finally an independent Odisha saw its birth on 1st April, 1936.
After independence Pandit Nilakantha Das dabbled in electoral politics, elected to legislature couple of times and later became the Speaker of the Assembly. Yes he could not succeed a whole lot in the murky world of politics - because he was a Statesman, not a politician. He passed away on November 5, 1967. Happy Birthday to the Odia legend, one of our many forgotten heroes.
No comments:
Post a Comment