SOA Literary Fest Draws To A Close With Talks On Odia Poetry

Bhubaneswar: Literary creations, particularly poetry, should be comprehensible to the reader though incomprehensible writings are often viewed as quality literature, eminent poet Dr. Ramakant Rath said on Sunday.

“The idea that the poetry which is difficult to understand is high quality stuff borders on the ridiculous,” Dr. Rath said while addressing the valedictory function of the two-day 1st SOA Literary Festival here.

Poetry should be easy to comprehend for the reader and poets must keep this in their mind, he said adding if this was not the case then it would weaken literature as a whole.

Dr. Rath advised writers and poets not to be gratified by their own creations but be reminded of the timeless writings of previous generations and honour them. Though it was late Kanhu Charan Mohanty who blazed a trail in Odia novel writing, it was sad that a copy of his book was not available in the book stores today, he said.

The function, presided over by the Vice-Chancellor of SOA Deemed to be University Prof. R. K. Chauhan, was also addressed by Jnanpeeth Award winner Dr. Sitakanta Mahapatra and eminent Odia novelist Dr. Bibhuti Patnaik.

Dr. Mohapatra dwelt on the long tradition of Odia poetry saying it was reflected in the Mahabharat written in Odia by Sarala Das, Ramayan authored by Balaram Das and Bhagabat by Jagannath Das.

The same were also enshrined in palm leave manuscripts, known as ‘pothi’, he said adding that the Odia literary and performing art traditions worked in close tandem with each other even today.

The delegates attended 26 different sessions spread over the two days discussing different aspects of Indian literature.

The lit-fest was organized by the university for the first time saw around 100 litterateurs from all over the country.