Ashutosh Prasad Pattanaik was a great scholar and researcher who carried on research on a topic which continues to be dearer to the hearts of the Odias, the flourishing maritime trade and overseas activities of ancient Odisha.
Pattanaik has written a number of books on the maritime trade and overseas activities. All his books, The Early Voyages of the East, Aaa Kaa Maa Boi, Unveiling the Mystery of Jagannath, The Supreme God on Earth and Maha Devata directly or indirectly contain materials relating to early association of Kalinga with different countries of the world.
He has written in both English and Odia with equal flare. His writings have been widely appreciated by many State and national organisations. He made extensive field work and consulted original literary sources for his research. He was a good friend of Prof Karuna Sagar Behera, an eminent historian, who himself has done a lot of research on maritime history of Odisha. Together they have made many field visits to different port sites and historical places of Odisha. I for one have been part of some of these visits as well.
The fact admits no doubt that the Odias over the years have taken pride in the flourishing overseas trade and maritime activities of ancient Odisha. It is believed that the economic affluence of ancient and medieval Odisha was mainly due to its overseas trade and maritime activities. Historically speaking, the recovery of Kalinga even after the ghastly devastations of Kalinga war within a century or so during the period of Emperor Kharavela was possible probably because of the economic prosperity of the land due to its overseas trade. It is generally believed that the Kalingan traders, known as Sadhabas, invariably returned back from every trading trip laden with huge wealth in the form of gold and silver. Right or wrong, it has become synonymous with Odishan culture. It is glorifying to note that Kalinga for its geographical and political condition once upon a time had established commercial colonies in the far off South East Asian countries, which in due course became political as well as cultural colonies.
This glorious chapter of Odishan history relating to maritime trade and subsequent colonisation is not free from criticism by scholars. Absence of inscriptional evidence and over dependence on traditions make things complicated. Many scholars have accepted the facts in their face value and treat it as authentic history. There is a dearth of contemporary source materials and most of the facts are one-sided in nature. In other words, almost the whole thing relates to Kalingan side of the story. If Kalinga, at all carried on profitable overseas trade with different countries, then in all fairness of things, it is necessary that we study the political, economic and cultural background of those countries. Their economic viability is a matter of primary concern for a profitable trade. In the absence of such studies, the description becomes one -sided, prejudiced and chauvinistic in nature.
In this connection, the scholarly works of Ashutosh Prasad Pattanaik are noteworthy. Pattanaik has done a lot of original research on different aspects of the subject including the situation in the respective countries. Pattanaik has written a number of books on maritime trade and overseas activities. His books, Unveiling the Mystery of Jagannath, The Supreme God on Earth and the Maha Devata though are generally related to the origin and worship of lord Jagannath, yet emphatically contain information on the early association of Kalinga with far-off countries of east as well as the west. It is noteworthy that when most of the scholars have concentrated on the early contacts with the countries of the east and south east up to Cina and Japan, Pattanaiak has worked equally on east as well as west.
The existence of the figure of a giraffe on the walls of Konarak temple makes scholars generally trace the maritime contact of Kalinga with Africa and no historical evidence of going beyond Africa to other countries of the west is available. Pattanaik, however, in all his books has gone far beyond and up to the Red Indians and Mayan civilization to establish origin of lord Jagannath and close cultural and commercial interaction with them. His study on ‘Toponymy’ or place names of Kalinga and other countries is exemplary. In his book, Maha Devata he has attempted to establish the origin of lord Jagannath from the Sumerian civilization. According to him, the people of almost all the ancient civilizations of the world, the Sumerians, Asyrians, Red Indians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans visited the land during their respective periods. He has given enough proof in favour of all his arguments. The facts that the people of all these early civilisations visited this land make the land and people a developed one. In establishing his theory, he has mostly used the place names and similarity of language as his basic proof, which by itself is an accepted scientific historical methodology. He has quoted innumerable examples of similarity of language and place names.
Normally, it is not possible for anyone to have a comparison of place names and common words of spoken language of almost all the ancient civilisations of the world without a thorough study of all these civilisations. Hence, even though some scholars by and large don’t agree with some of his theories yet his dedication, sincerity and scholarly approach are admitted facts. His works will continue to inspire young scholars and researchers and act as dependable source material for historical research in future.
(Writer Prof Pattanayak is a former Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University of Culture, Bhubaneswar)