INTRODUCTION.
XXVI
in the Jagannath temple and gave the poet a good education in Sanskrit. Jagannath finished his school education when he was 18 years old, and it seems that he took to the composition of the Ramayana in Oriya some time before the advent of Chaitanya in Orissa. The reference to this literary performance occurs in the
following words of Divakara
Kara
This Ramayana, however, does not exist either Balaram Das has effaced this work or that the writer of Bhagabata did not care to give his maiden work to the public. Jagannath Das renounced his Brahmanism, becoming a disciple of Chaitanya, and became the founder of the Atibadi Vaisnava sect. It is reported that poet Balaram Das was first initiated into Vaisnavism by Chaitanya and Balaram Das who got then the name att w^rcw induced Jagannath to accept the new creed. The accounts of the life of Balaram Das and of Jagannath Das as recorded in the book named Dadbyata-Bhakti are fanciful and thoroughly unreliable the only fact we get in this book, which is correct, is that both these poets flourished in the time of Raja Pratapa Rudra Deva. How Jagannath Das could secure this unique position in literature has to be stated to explain the nature of influence he exercised and still exercises in the country. The establishment of the cult of Jagannath, enshrined in a temple as awe-inspiring and admiration-extorting as the huge edifice at Bhubanesvar, was an epoch-making affair. That the genuine Hindu people of all classes lose their caste distinction in the presence of god Jagannath, has been a great factor in the enlargement of the religious views of the people. When Chaitanya preached his religion in this land dominated by the deity Jagannath, and the common people got the message that they can obtain salvation without the intervention of the Brahmans, by only having faith in God, and by doing good deeds, an epoch of self-culture ensued. When the Brahmans were the custodians of the religious books, the non-Brahman people could not have access to them, even though they learnt the Sanskrit language that the words of the Sacrod Books do not lose their sanctity by being translated into the speech of the common people, was a great edifying lesson to the non-Brahmans who everywhere form the majority. When the people learnt that the Bhagabata. which is the most sacred of all sacred books, was within their easy reach, the people took to the study of the vernacular with uncommon zeal and energy. This is why the art of reading and writing is known and practised by the common people more extensively in Orissa than in Bengal. Long ago, Bhudeb Makerjee as Inspector of Schools duly observed this fact of Oriya mass education, and reported the matter in his public report. There cannot be any hesitancy in making this statement that Jagannath Das, by presenting his Oriya Bhagabat to the people, induced all classes of men of his country to cultivate the vernacular language.
