Ramshankar Ray’s Bibasini (1891), believed to be the second full length novel in Odia, the first being Umesh Chandra Sarkar’s Padmamali (1888), is a novel with an intricately woven plot structure written in style that is at once descriptive, informative, and lyrical. Viewed mostly as a work of fiction delicately poised between a historical romance and a socio-political narrative, Bibasini relates to the period of Maratha hegemony over Odisha spanning from 1751 till the British occupation of the province in 1803. It holds out a panoramic view of Odisha reeling under the tyranny of the Maratha ruler Shambhuji Ganesh Rao during 1769 to 1771, and of the native resistance offered in terms of sporadic but organised assaults launched on the oppressors and collaborators by the Bhuyan dacoits acting at the instances and with the support of the king of Kujanga, Paradip.

The plot that seemingly centres round a tragic love story is actually a complex one, knitting many strands of random episodes into an attractive and coherent tale of unmerited suffering, of crime and vengeance, of sin and retribution. The novel is thronged with characters from different socio-cultural backgrounds, portraying multiple contours of Odisha, the social, cultural, economic and religious ones being the most pronounced amongst them. The novel chronicles the agrarian crisis in Odisha during the Maratha rule and the debacle of the famine that threatened to bring the peasantry of Odisha down to a state of collapse. It narrates the hardship and the misery of the common man especially those who earned their living through farming, had to pass through under the repressive measures of a tyrannous governance and the selfishness and all-devouring avarice of the moneyed local landowners or zamindars.

It is also a gripping tale of a band of burglars, motivated by a romanticised ideal of plundering the rich to sustain the poor, assuming the role of the vindicators of socio-economic equality. They declare themselves as the god’s chosen moral agents for delivering violent justice to the wrongdoers. At the same time the novel camouflages a satire on the hollow morals of a socio-cultural system that compels a Hindu widow to practice religious austerity and denies her the right of living the life of a normal woman.

The novel also details the spread of a new religious cult, Vaishnavism, in Odisha that advocated the worship of Lord Hari( Vishnu) and pleaded against a discriminatory caste system that deprived the people of the lesser caste and poor economic status of their legitimate rights. The preachings of the Vaishnava monks Hanuman Dasa and Giridhari Dasa, appears to reflect a semblance of the mystique.

About the book: Chhayasoudhara Abasesha (The Remnants of a Shadow house), a novel by Sahitya Akademi award winning author Gourahari Das is an excellent departure from the conventional fictions written on brothels and red-light areas. Keen and critical observation of characters, graphic portrayal of their metempsychosis and the interpretative analysis of the issues in question are some of the special features that set the novel apart from the traditional ones. For Minu, the protagonist, motherhood without shedding any blood is not possible. She who had once reared numerous colourful dreams was disgraced as a blood-thirsty witch and later a damned wretch. Still, she had the unbound zest for life which she wanted to share with all, particularly with the unfortunates. Minu, the prostitute rebelled against the flesh traders and saved the girls dragged forcefully to this heinous profession at the cost of her life. The presentation of a stirring and thought-provoking theme having immense socio-ethical relevance enriched with pathos-ridden mellifluous language and nostalgia beyond any doubt, gives the novel a unique and prestigious place among the must-read Indian novels.

This is a historical novel, a fictional account of Odisha in the second half of the 19th century. It gives a panoramic picture of the political, social, cultural and literary history of the State of Odisha. The book was chosen for translation into all Indian languages by the National Book Trust under their Aadaan Pradaan scheme, and it has been translated into Hindi, Bengali and English. A film project based on the book is underway. In his translator’s note to the English translation A Time Elsewhere, published by Penguin Books, Prof. Jatindra K. Nayak has the following to say about the book: It tells the story of the transformation of a traditional society under the impact of colonial rule….it seeks to construct an alternate narrative in which the colonized is not content to be only written about; he is seen as shaping his own destiny.