By Omm Priyadarshi: Our prime minister, Narendra Modi, is in Bali for the G-20 summit. In the meantime, Odisha is witnessing Bali Yatra, one in every of Asia’s largest open-air commerce fares on the Mahanadi banks in Cuttack metropolis.

The celebration of the Bali Yatra takes us again to recollect our ancestral cultural heritage and marine legacy. This seven-day fest onset from Karttika Purnima symbolises sturdy historic ties between Odisha and Southeast Asia.

The Odisha province, often called Kalinga in historic occasions, was commanded by a really excessive place within the maritime actions of India previously. The heroic and ever-agile retailers of the traditional Kalinga kingdom have been making daring voyages to totally different far-off lands of the world and had maritime contacts with Roman Empire, Africa, the Persian coast, Arabian international locations within the west, and China, Japan, Siam, Champa, Burma, Ceylon, and so on. within the East.

In addition to, the international locations with which the folks of Kalinga maintained enduring industrial and cultural relationships between the islands of Java, Sumatra, Bali, and Borneo, collectively often called Suvarnadvipa or fashionable Indonesia.

Odisha’s superb maritime previous has been confirmed from the excavated supplies like Roman cash, Kushan cash, and Chinese language ceramic sherds discovered in several components of Odisha within the latest previous. Nice was the celebrity of Kalinga as a maritime energy in historic occasions that “Kalidas” in his Raghuvamsa (round fifth century CE) referred to the king of Kalinga because the “The Lord of the Sea” (Mahodadhipati).

Through the ceremony of Karttika Purnima, Odia netizens dressed up in conventional costumes launch tiny boats manufactured from cork, colored paper, and banana tree barks within the river or water tanks with lighted lamps inside, and Odia girls carry out the ceremony of ‘Boita Bandâna’.

An Odia lyric is normally recited i.e. ‘Aa-Ka-Ma-Bai, Pana-Gua-Thoi’. Aa-Ka-Ma-Bai connotes the month of A?a?ha, Karttika, Magha, and Baisakha of the Odia calendar. Whereas the interval from A?a?ha to Karttika (July- September) was the season of the outgoing voyage and Magha to Baisakha (February-April) was thought-about to be the season of the return trek.

The pageant is just like the ‘Masakapan Ke Tukad’ pageant of Bali, the ‘Loi Krathong’ pageant of Thailand (ritualistic floating of mannequin boats), the ‘Bon Om Touk’ Water Pageant of Cambodia, and the ‘That Luang’ Pageant of Laos all of which contain across the identical time of the 12 months.

Satisfactory agricultural manufacturing mixed with a flourishing maritime commerce contributed to the flowering of Odishan arts and crafts, particularly textiles. Quite a few communities of weavers and dyers grew to become energetic all through the state, perfecting methods just like the weaving of effective muslin, Ikat, Sambalpuri, and bomkai silks and cotton, applique, and embroidery. Odisha was additionally identified for its brass and bell metalwork, lacquered bins and toys, intricate ivory, wooden, and stone carvings, Patta portray and palm leaf engraving, basket weaving, and quite a few different vibrant crafts. Typically, ornamental methods relied on folks idioms, as within the painted, round taking part in playing cards often called Ganjifas.

Kalinga was additionally well-known for its elephants, for which it discovered a market in Southeast Asia, together with valuable stones, ivory, pepper, and betel nuts. In return, Kalinga imported pearls and silver from overseas. Corn and rice have been additionally exported. Merchants imported spices and sandalwood from the east. A ship depicted within the Solar Temple of Konarak within the thirteenth century comprises a giraffe, indicating commerce with Africa.

The geographical place of Kalinga, with a number of rivers, sheltered ports, and the ocean by its sides, supplied an excellent atmosphere for sea voyages. The well-known ports of Kalinga have been Tamralipti, Palur, Pithunda, Chelitalo, Manikpatna, and so on.

Tamralipti (Fashionable Tamluk within the Midnapore district of West Bengal) served as the primary gateway for historic Kalingan sea-going merchants and travellers, the place the royal family was of the Kaibarta caste. The Greek geographer Ptolemy within the second century A.D. known as it Tamailitis. Fa – Hien within the fifth century A.D. noticed it as a powerful maritime settlement of the Buddhists and left for Ceylon from this port.

One other essential port was Palur which is recognized with the trendy village of Palur on the coast of the Bay of Bengal within the Ganjam district. Dantapura, talked about within the Buddhist and Jain textual content, is maybe the identical as Palur since ‘Palla’ and ‘Ur’ are the 2 phrases in Tamil that point out the which means of tooth (Danta) and metropolis (Pura). Gerini, the researcher on Ptolemy’s geography additional refers to this port, from the place ships sailed to ‘Suvarnabhumi’ (Burma) and ‘Suvarnadvipa’ (Indonesia).

Pithunda was the subsequent essential port of Kalinga. The Jain textual content Uttaradhyana Sutra mentions that being a well-known centre through the day of Mahavir, retailers from Champa used to come back to this place for commerce. Kharavela’s Hatigumpha inscription mentions Pithunda as a metropolis of Kalinga. Che-li-ta-lo (Chhatra) as described by well-known Chinese language Pilgrim Hiuen – Tsang was one other port city located on the sea-coast of Odradesha (North Odisha). Manikapatna, situated shut to the current mouth of Chilika is considered a sheltered port of historic Odisha.

The invention of celadon ware and a coin of Sahasamalla, king of Sri Lanka exhibits commerce relations with China and Sri Lanka within the early mediaeval interval. Undoubtedly Manikapatna had an essential function within the east-west maritime commerce. Abul Fazl, the courtroom historian of Akbar, mentions Manikapatna as a big port the place salt dues have been collected throughout his time.

Odisha performed a big function within the evolution of Hindu tradition in Bali. A bit of Brahmanas within the Karangasem district of Bali styled themselves as Brahmana – Bouddha – Kalinga. It appears very doubtless that their ancestors have been immigrants from Kalinga. On this context, it’s worthwhile to say that some phrases and usages regarding vocabulary, crafts, spiritual practices, types of worship, meals habits, and manners prevalent in Bali are indubitable of Odia in origin. There are linguistic parallels between Odisha and the island of Bali. For instance, within the coastal districts of Odisha, the mom is addressed as bou and the daddy as bapa and in Bali, the previous is named bu (boo) and the latter as bapa.

Cina/China is the Balinese phrase for groundnut, whereas in Odia, it’s china or chinabadam. Each Balinese, in addition to Odias, used to name raw rice made out of part-boiled (or sun-dried) paddy as arua. The plow is named lengallo in Bali whereas the Odias used the time period langala for a similar. One other very attention-grabbing instance is the usage of the phrase peja or pejo; each in Odisha and Bali it denoted the thick fluid which is separated from cooked rice earlier than serving it. The Brahmin priest in Odisha is commonly known as Panda whereas in Balinese temples he’s known as Padanda.

Each the Balinese and the Odias’ meals habits appear to have some widespread likes and dislikes. Each are keen on consuming saga, particularly sajana saga (younger inexperienced leaves of the drumstick tree). Different favorite greens widespread to each embody banana flowers (bhanda) and core stem (manja) of the banana plant. The Balinese additionally favored to have their meals on banana leaves as in Odisha and Bengal. Equally, truffles made out of rice flour often called manda and enduripitha are additionally favorite dishes of each. The behavior of chewing betel and conserving the components in a picket field is present in each areas.

The similarity in another social patterns of each Odisha and Bali offers tangible proof of maritime contact between the 2 locations. The kids, whereas passing alongside elders sitting or standing on the best way, bend down, separating themselves by stretching down their proper arms in direction of the bottom. Elevating folded arms, as a typical type of greeting, is a apply in each Odisha and Bali.

Like Odisha, on the island of Bali, if a visitor involves a household, he’s first handled with a betel leaf and a nut. On auspicious events like marriage, the Balinese invite family to their home by sending betel leaves and nuts as it’s in apply within the coastal districts of Odisha. Rounding of hair by girls in a typical bun is alike within the villages of Odisha and Bali. The type of dance and music on the island of Bali additionally bear many similarities with that of Odisha.

In Bali, through the wedding ceremony, the bride and the groom put on a kind of headdress (mukuta), which could be very very like the headdress utilized in marriage ceremonies in Odisha. In addition to, various kinds of ornaments utilized by girls in Odisha virtually half a century in the past are nonetheless in use within the distant villages of Bali and Java. Final however not the least, the worship of three deities in Bali, represented by masks, very a lot resembling the trinity, Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Subhadra in Odisha.

By celebrating Bali Yatra for lots of of years, Odisha seeks to revive the previous connectivity and people-to-people diplomacy which grew to become the idea of emotional closeness between the residents of Odisha and Bali. Our subsequent era, after they go to Bali, can see how the cultural traits and habits of the shut relationship stay as if frozen in time.

(The writer is the Prime Minister Younger Creator Awardee and Fellow at Nationwide E-book Belief, India; steadily writes on socio-political, coverage, and gender-related points. He tweets @iommpriyadarshi)