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{{Short description|Odia poet and writer}}
{{original research|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix = Adi Kabi
| name = Sarala Dasa
| image = Painting of Sarala Dasa.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Siddheswara Parida
| birth_date = 15th century
| birth_place = Tentulipada, [[Jagatsinghpur District|Jagatsinghpur]]
| death_date = 
| death_place =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| period = ''Sarala juga''
| notableworks = ''[[Mahabharata]]'', ''[[Vilanka Ramayana]]'' and ''Chandi Purana''
| occupation = Poet • Scholar
}}
'''Sarala Dasa''' (born as '''Siddheswara Parida''') was a 15th-century [[poet]] and scholar of [[Odia language|Odia]] literature.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mansinha |first=Mayadhar |title=History of Oriya Literature |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |year=1962 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwFIAAAAMAAJ&q=mayadhar%20mansingh%20history%20of%20odia%20literature |page=50 |access-date=21 March 2021 }}</ref> Best known for three Odia books — ''[[Sarala Mahabharata]]'', ''[[Vilanka Ramayana]]'' and ''Chandi Purana'' — he was the first scholar to write in Odia and his revered as the ''Adi Kabi'' (First Poet) of Odia literature.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shri Naidu hails Sarala Das as Adi Kabi, Adi Aitihasika and Adi Bhougolbith at the poet's 600th birth anniversary event |url=https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1709219 |publisher=PIB |access-date=2 April 2021 }}</ref> As an originator of Odia literature, his work has formed an enduring source of information for succeeding generations.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-07-06|title=In Conversation With: Paramita S Tripathy|url=https://www.purplepencilproject.com/paramita-s-tripathy-interview/|access-date=2020-07-10|website=Purple Pencil Project|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Life==
The early life of Sarala Dasa is not accurately known. He was a contemporary of the [[Gajapati Empire|Gajapati]] King [[Kapilendra Deva]]. Though the date of his birth cannot be accurately determined, he can safely be placed to the 15th century AD.<ref name="Bryant 2007 p. 141">{{cite book | last=Bryant | first=E.F. | title=Krishna: A Sourcebook | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-19-972431-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2n4VDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA141 | access-date=2020-09-13 | page=141|quote=His exact dates are not established; it is only known that he as contemporary of King Kapilendra dev.Sarala Dasa was born as Siddheshwara Parida in a farming family, in a village about forty miles from Puri.}}</ref> He was born at a village called ''kanakavati patana'' known as Kanakapura at the Tentuliapada, [[Jagatsinghpur district]].<ref name="Orissa Review 2004 p. 57">{{cite book | title=Orissa Review | publisher=Published and issued by Home (Public Relations) Department, Government of Orissa | issue=v. 61, nos. 1-6 | year=2004 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVhQAQAAMAAJ | language=or | access-date=2020-09-13 | page=57|quote=He was born at Kanakavati Patana ' is known as Kanakapura, one of the șidhikshetras in Jagatsinghpur District . His early name was Siddheswar Parida }}</ref> Sarala Dasa belonged to [[Chasa (caste)|Chasa]] community.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mallik |first=Basanta Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOnZAAAAMAAJ&q=balarama+dasa+karana |title=Paradigms of Dissent and Protest: Social Movements in Eastern India, C. AD 1400-1700 |date=2004 |publisher=Manohar Publishers & Distributors |isbn=978-81-7304-522-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Sarala Dasa had no organized early education, and what he achieved through self-education was attributed to the grace of Sarala, goddess of devotion and inspiration. Though his early name was '''Siddheswara Parida''', he was later known as ''Sarala Dasa'', or 'by the boon of Sarala'. (The title ''Dasa'' means a slave or a servant of a particular god or goddess. A long list of poets, preceding and succeeding Sarala Dasa, have names ending this way. For example: Vatra Dasa, Markanda Dasa, Sarala Dasa, Jagannatha Dasa, Balarama Dasa, and Yasovanta Dasa.) A story – similar to those told of other Indian poets, such as [[Kalidasa]], supposedly illiterate in early life until helped by the goddess [[Saraswati]] – tells that Siddheswara as a boy was once ploughing his father's field and singing so melodiously that the goddess Sarala stopped and listened to his song and endowed him with her power of composing beautiful poems.

There are several indications in his ''Mahabharata'' that he served as a soldier in the army of the [[Gajapati Kingdom|Gajapati]] King of Odisha.

Sarala Dasa spent his last time at ''Bila Sarala'' but the native place ''Kanakavati Patana'' known as ''Kanakapura'' at ''Tentuliapada'' with a religious establishment known as ''Munigoswain'', which marks as the traditional spot, where he composed his works. This period of his lifetime was known as the medieval period.

==Works==
As well as the three books for which he is best known – ''[[Sarala Mahabharata]]'', ''[[Vilanka Ramayana]]'' and ''[[Chandi Purana]]'' - Sarala Dasa also wrote the book ''[[Laxmi Narayana Vachanika]]''. The ''Adi Parva Mahabharata'' opens with a long invocation addressed to the Lord [[Jagannatha]] of [[Puri]], from which it is known that Sarala Dasa started writing his ''Mahabharata'' in the reign of Kapileswar, otherwise known as [[Kapilendra Deva]], the famous Gajapati king of Odisha (AD 1435–67). He tells us that " ''କଳିକାଳ ଧ୍ଵଂସନକୁ ଭୋଗ କୋଟି ପୁଜା, ପ୍ରଣମିତେ ଖଟଇ କପିଳେଶ୍ୱର ରାଜା"'' Or Maharaja Kapilesvara with innumerable offerings and many a salute was serving this great deity and hereby destroying the sins of the Kali age.

Though Sarala Dasa followed the main outline of the [[Sanskrit]] ''[[Mahabharata]]'' in writing the Odia ''Mahabharata'', he made numerous deviations and added to it copiously the stories of his own creation and various other matters known to him. In the final form Sarala Dasa's ''Mahabharata'' is a new creation analogous to ''Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa'' based on the Ramayana.<ref>This contribution is a nearly verbatim reproduction of "Sarala Dasa, the Originator of the Oriya Literature" by Debendra Nath Bhoi and Priyadarshini Bakshi in the [http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/oct2004/englishPdf/saraladasa.pdf ''Orissa Review''] of October 2004</ref>

''Mahabharata'' brought to light about [[the 18 parvas]]. The ''Chandi Purana'' was based on the well-known story of Goddess [[Durga]] killing ''[[Mahishasura]]'' (the buffalo headed demon) given in Sanskrit literature but here also the Odia poet chose to deviate from the original at several points. His earliest work, ''Vilanka Ramayana'', was a story of the fight between [[Rama]] and [[Shahasrasira Ravana]] (thousand headed Ravana).

He wrote the poems in Dandi chand (in which chand the number of letters in the verses is not fixed is called as dandi chand). The verse of Sarala Dasa is simple, forceful and musical, without artificiality. Applying colloquial words for his poetical purpose, his writing was free from Sanskritisation. His work can be seen as adapting the popular oral conventions of earlier Odia folk songs which were used in folk dances such as the ''Ghoda-nacha'' (Horse Dance), ''Dandanacha'' and ''Sakhinacha'' (Puppet Dance). One metrical peculiarity of these songs is that both the lines of a verse do not contain an equal number of letters though the last letters of both the lines produce the same sound. All Sarala Dasa's works were composed with this metrical peculiarity, and so the metre used by him can be regarded as a direct descendant of that used in the folk songs. By the fifteenth century the Odia language had assumed almost its modern form and had become ripe for literary compositions.

The predominant sentiment in Sarala Dasa's poem is not love but war. He was also motivated by a strong religious zeal to compose religious books in a language intelligible to all and to make them available to the general public in Odisha. He tells in no uncertain words that he composed his poems for the benefit of "human beings". There are several indications in his Mahabharata that he served as a soldier in the army of the Gajapati King of Odisha and his association with the army brought to him a variety of experiences. The stories he heard the battle scenes which he witnessed, the places that he visited with the company of the army the historical incidents and names that he could know all remained stored up in his mind to be utilized in his writings.

==See also==
* [[List of Indian poets]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.newodisha.in/adikabi-sarala-das/ Adikabi Sarala Das] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412064211/http://www.newodisha.in/adikabi-sarala-das/ |date=2020-04-12 }}
* [https://pocketnews.in/odia-mahabharat-katha-sarala-mahabharat-odia/ About Sarala das mahabharat ]

{{Jagannath}}
{{Odia literature}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dasa, Sarala}}
[[Category:15th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:People from Jagatsinghpur district]]
[[Category:Odia-language poets]]
[[Category:Poets from Odisha]]
[[Category:Odissi music composers]]

Sarala Dasa - Revision history

Harman23: creating new info first draft!