Is there any forest where no human beings reside? There may be.Is there any forest where trees can talk, sing, listen to, laugh, cry, and offer fruits sensing one’s mind? There may be.Maybe, hearing the human’s footsteps, they will be silent, or else they will be quiet by the stroke of an axe.Had they had wings, the trees would have flown miles over miles, but had they had the wings, what would human beings have done? There would not have been any civilization, society, or exploitation.To the continuous exploitation, indecisive harassment, and plundering, the infinite number of documents of man’s materialistic greed in the name of civilization, religion, party politics, and dumb witness is the forest. Forest is the cornerstone of human civilization.I have never seen such a tree. It may happen so that the trees may not talk to me. So, imagining such a play through direct experience may not be expected.In contemporary society, and the decline derived from that, the languor of defeat is created in the human mind. Very mysteriously, an opposite idea is made: “Had it been so, what would have happened!” To the artist, conscious of the situational needs, this type of idea and whim is necessary, for there is the hope that, maybe, the literature created out of this will make the people aware of, and the human civilization may sustain from the forthcoming disaster/apocalypse.

The play Bewildered God, comprising fourteen scenes, unleashes a different taste to the readers and audience of Odia literature. In this play, the playwright Dr Narayan Sahoo has been unique and different from his earlier predecessors and contemporary playwrights of Odisha in the sense that he has tactfully and sarcastically dealt with the voice of dissent against communalism, violence and bloodshed, of human beings’ religion and livelihood.Jagannath, Ram, Ishwar, Jesus, and Allah are different names of only one omniscient, omniscient, and omnipresent soul. Though the learned pundits and experts of all religions undisputedly have accepted this view, today in Ayodhya, the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid issue is now pan-Indic, not confined to Hindu and Muslim communities only. As the different feet of an Octopus spread in different directions, the deadly poison of communalism has infected the people and their lifestyle of entire India. Today, God is not the faith of devotees but rather a toy in man’s hands, or if we speak, as stated by the playwright, Man is a master, and God is the magician to run the show as directed by the master.The horrible Gas Tragedy had happened in Bhopal in 1984, and by that, many people were disabled, and so was Mary. She lost her procreative power. Her unfortunate husband Joseph knew this, but he couldn’t express this bitter truth to Mary. The playwright has very beautifully penned down the sheer reality of life. One day, human beings were considered as the children of God because of the existence and development of heavenly feelings in them. The cadre of attendants attached to the temple, such as priests, servitors, and administrators, were worshipped and respected in the society. But today, the Head Priest and Head Servitor in the play, engrossed in their carnal desire and longing for money, have used God as an instrument. Today, Ishwar Nivas (Dwelling Place of God) turns into a playground of pretension, deception, hypocrisy, and corruption, instead of being the storehouse of devotion and conviction, . The Head Servitor has not withdrawn himself from enjoying the bodily pleasure of devadasi (a female dancer attached to a temple) Leelamayee at the dead hour of night. However, the Christian Mary’s youth and money are the objects of his temptation. For that reason, Mary couldn’t protect herself. It was not for Mary only, but for God who was worshipped on Ratnabedi (the raised platform), and that His flute and uttariya (Shawl) the servitor has stolen is a trivial matter. At the same time, for his self-interest, this man has blamed God. Therefore, God becomes helpless for his release from social criticisms and blemishes. It is marked that his existence is practically possible only because of the Head Priest and Head Servitor. The title of the play is properly justified. Despite this, everyone is to be tested with the touchstone of Time. Time is also an imaginary character in the play. Forfeiting God’s interest, the people erect here the boundaries of communalism among them and created the mountain of religion, and are continuously engaged in inhuman activities. These are closely marked by Time and will be watched in future. Time is only the silent observer of all these happenings in the world. There will be no community, religion, deception, and hypocrisy in future- but only the supremacy of Time- with this possibility, the playwright has ended the play. As ‘God’ and ‘Time’ are characters in the play and have expressed their views, the play generates a new excitement in the hearts of the readers and viewers.

The traditional account of Kalapahad, a Hindu renegade and an iconoclast has influenced the Odia social and literary space. According to some historical documents, his original name was Rajiv Lochan Ray or Kalachand Roy Bhadury, a Bengali (Barendra Brahmin) who fell in love with Dulari, the beautiful and charming daughter of Sulaiman Karrani, the Nawab of Bengal. He married her after his conversion to Islam.But he repented of his deed as he faced boycott in the society. Therefore, he wanted to return to Hinduism.

But the Hindu society refused to accept him as a Hindu. At last, he came to the Temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri to perform expiation to convert himself to Hinduism. But the priests scornfully turned down his prayer for conversion. He got enraged and assumed the name of Kalapahad and vowed to ruin Hindu religion, images and temples.Madalapanji, the temple chronicle holds that Kalapahad desecrated the Jagannath temple. According to this tradition, “when the servitors of the temple heard of Kalapahad’s design on the temple, they took the images out of the temple and hid them at a place named Hatipada near Chilka lake. But Kalapahad learnt of this and brought the images from that place on elephants. He carried them to the bank of river Ganges and set fire to them. Just at that time a miracle happened. His body got cracked into pieces. Being perplexed by this, he brought out the gods from the fire and dumped them in the Ganges. Holy Ganga carried the Brahma (or Brahma Pinda) downstream where a Vaishnava devotee Bishar Mohanty extracted the immortal part (Brahma). Later he consecrated the Brahma at Garh Kujanga temple. The ‘Brahma’ was worshipped there for seven years, (1568A.D to 1575 A.D). In 1575 A.D during the rule of Ramachandra Dev, the first king of the Bhoi dynasty, ‘Brahma’ was brought from Garh Kujang and kept at Khordha Garh by him. Next year in 1576 A.D, the construction of new images, their entry in to the temple along with the installation of ‘Brahma’ in them were performed. This account of Kalapahad has been mentioned by Dr.Sarat Chandra Biswal in his article, “Sri Jagannath and Kalapahad” published in Odisha Review.