The Academy of Yoga and Oriental Studies (AYOS) organised a seminar of much value and interest on ancient Odisha entitled “Odishi India” here last week. Noted social worker and orator Bishnu Padmo in his brainstorming speech maintained that ancient Odisha was the erstwhile centre of Aryans.
He dismissed most of the present recorded history as the figment of imagination by Western scholars and challenged the packed intellectual audience to accept the Puranic view of ancient Odisha and India.Citing an example, he mentioned that there are two Ganges, Bhagirathi Ganga and Goutami Ganga. The Bhagirathi Ganga refers to the river Mahanadi while river Brahmani is known as Brahmi Ganga of Odisha.
Bishnu Padmo also opined that in ancient India there were three powerful kingdoms, Kalinga, Magadha and Koshal. He was also of the view that the Himalayas as depicted in ancient Purans refers to the mountains of Odisha and not to the Himalayas mentioned in history.
He concluded that there are hundreds of Puranic and scriptural evidences to show that Odisha was the Aryabarta and its inhabitants are Aryans.The discussion was followed by question-answer session in which scholars like Maha Medhananda Saraswati, Prof VB Shastri, Dr Trinath Hota, Sugyan Choudhury and Jayashri Routray participated and ventilated their views by corroborating or contradicting Bishnu Padmo’s contentions.
Noted Sanskrit scholar Prof VB Shastri summed up the discussions by observing that the speech “Odishi India” was an attempt for “Easternisation of Indian history”.
Many scholars were of the opinion that this lecture would act as a culture shock since deliberate neglect was done for Odisha in the process of “Indianisation of history”. The meeting was presided over by Prof Shastri while AYOS Director Dr Indulata proposed a vote of thanks.
