We are informed by Mr. M. Chakravartty that the Chasas or Tasas of Jhankerpur have now raised themselves to the status and dignity of the Karanas. The language of the poet, though unpolished, is simple and expressive the metrical system is onlv seemingly defective, for what are regarded as defects are made up for when sung with proper accent and tune. This remark regarding metre applies equally to the writings of all the early poets. I have already sa^d that the Mahabharata story has been re-told by the poet in his own way the extracts will show how the poet has given many things from his own imagination without caring to narrate correctly what occurs in the Sanskrit Mahabharata. This is how the poet has made his work popular. Sarala Das has become a popular national poet, but the learned Pandits could not tolerate
Tasa.
him to give to the public the real Mahabharata many Sanskritists translated the main story of the Mahabharata into Oriya, but the people did not accept them. Raja Krisna Singha of Dharakota employed some Pandits to translate the Mahabharata and tlie HarivamSa at a comparatively later time, and his attempt wa<5
,
his Harivamsa, however, is still in manuscript Mahabharata, though published, has not become popular. Extracts from the aforesaid Harivamsa in manuscript and from the Mahabharata have been appended at the end of the first section of
really praiseworthy
and
his
the Typical Selections, only to enable the readers to see why the of the learned people have failed to efface the popular work of Sarala Das. I need hardly repeat that Raja Krisna Singha does not belong to the early period of Oriya literature. It is very remarkable that this Oriya poet acquired celebrity in Bengal, and his Mahabharata was introduced in Bengali translation not later than the early part of the sixteenth century. Babu Dines Chandra Sen informs us that only the Virata Parva portion of what is called Sarala Mahabharata of Orissa now
works
survives.
—
Bhlmi Dhibara. The booklet entitled Kapata Pasa, by Bhima Dhibara, who is rightly regarded as an early poet, is an interThat an ordinary fisherman could receive good esting work. education and could secure the situation of a poet in the early times, is a matter of much significance. We do not get any picture of the classical days in the poem the poet rather awakens the familiar scenes of Orissa in the minds of his readers. For example, the house in which Draupadi is found, the manner in which a search is instituted for Draupadi, and the manner in which Kunti takes her seat at the threshold, are things which strongly resemble what one becomes familiar with in the villages
of Orissa.
The learned Brahmans may disregard the poem
in their
contempt foi the vernacular literature enriched by the low class people, but the poem has continued and will continue to be a good asset of the popular national literature.
