Bali Jatra - Odisha's maritime heritage

S. Balakrishnan *

Every year on the full moon day of Kartik month, to commemorate Kalinga's (the present Odisha) glorious maritime history, an annual fair called "Bali Jatra" is organised. What has the distant Bali Island of Indonesia got to do with Kalinga! It was initially with Bali, Java & Sumatra Islands (of the present-day Indonesia) that Kalinga's traders had deep seafaring connection for many centuries.

The fair is held on the mighty Mahanadi River front in Cuttack for a few days beginning from Kartik Poornima. Cuttack is the historical old capital city of Odisha, 30 kms. northof the new capital city of Bhubaneswar. Cuttack is still considered to be the cultural capital of Odisha. In the early morning of that day, a public ceremony is organised on the river bank. Recollecting the past, people float diyas (small earthen lamps) in the swirling waters of Mahanadhi.

The hundreds of diyas that float up and down theMahanadhi waters present a lovely sight as they sail towards the distant Bay of Bengal. Elsewhere also, invarious parts of Odisha,people observe such a ceremony along the waterfronts. It was at this time of the year that favourable wind flow started when sailors sailed off for distant lands.

The diyas were traditionally set afloat on plantain barks but nowadays in designer boats fashioned in thermocol. It was in 1980 that I first had a chance to witness Bali Jatra; preparations for the fair were on but there was an irresistible call from my friend Sundaram to witness Taj Mahal on that full moon night, called by a different name in U.P. as Sharad Poornima night. So it was in the next year, in 1981, on the cold morning of November that I saw hundreds of twinkling diyas float by along the course of Mahanadhi River.

I visited the fair near the historical Barabati Fort and the Barabati Sports Stadium, near the river bank. The stalls were mostly of eateries and merry go rounds, selling routine wares, nothing unique; no handicrafts or handlooms, no tribal wares or products and things like that; simply, nothing worthwhile to buy for a bachelor. Hope the present day fair is informative and entertaining at the same time. I ate the big puri there and finished my dinner. As a bachelor it was a relief - a chore completed. Let us worry about the consequences later.

The present state of Odisha has a coastline of 480 kms starting from Balasore on the North to Ganjam on the South. Ancient Kalinga, also known as Utkala, had a much longer coastline extending from Tamralipti(the present Tamluk in Midnaporeof West Bengal)to Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

It was almost double the present coastal length of Odisha. Many monuments are located on this vast coastline or very close to the coastline, including forts, temples and remains of old ports.Among the coastal landmarks are the remarkable Sun Temple of Konark that was called the Black Pagoda and the lime-washed Jagannath Temple of Puri which was called the White Pagoda by the foreign sailors.

Besides acting as navigational landmarks, a few of these were also centres of boat making and sea voyage. The coastal forts served the interests of maritime trade and related activities. As maritime trade flourished and traders from across - the British, the French, the Portuguese, the Arabs,The Chinese, the Danes and the Dutch - flocked, these centres thrived.

These ancient trading ports find mention in the notes of well-known geographers and travellers like Ptolemy, Pliny, Fa-Hien, Hiuen Tsang and others.Besides other items, copper, fine cloth, silk, elephant tusks were notable export items. The ancient port of Tamralipti was famous for exporting - yes, you guessed it right - copper (tamra), besides other items. It is referred to as Tamalities by Ptolemy, the GreekGeographer of the 2nd century CE.

Buddhist Jataka texts make frequent references to the voyages from Tamralipti to Suvarnabhumi (Sumatra)in connection with trade and Buddhist missionary activities. At this juncture it would be fit to remember that it was on the very soil of Utkal that Emperor Ashoka,after the infamous Kalinga war, embraced Buddhism. His son and daughter went on missionary voyages near & far, and the Buddhist legacy established then still continues in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), Thailand,Vietnam,China, and Cambodia.

The archaeological excavations and findings in these various ancient ports indicate naval connection with Rome, Greek, China, Arabian countries, Sri Lanka, South-East Asian nations like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. Coins from these countries, porcelain, pottery and countless other objects, someunique to these countries, have been excavated. There is much to be explored and discovered, though.

Kalinga's strong maritime relation had left a deep impact in these countries. It is said that there is much similarity between the Hindu culture of the Island State of Bali in Indonesia and that of Odia culture.

However, there was decline in Kalinga's seafaring activities after the 13th century. It seems the ancient Odia traders were overshadowed by the Arab traders in maritime trade after 13th-14thcentury and the overseas trading of Odia merchants almost came to an end. Thus, the many ports that dotted the Utkal coast vanished in the course of time due to natural disasters and reasons like accumulation of sand, change of river course, etc., besides waning commercial interests.

The traditional huge vessels in which the 'Sadhabas' (sea traders) sailed off are called Boita. Hence the Odias celebrate the KartikPoornima day as Boita Bandana, reminiscent of the maritime heritage of ancient Kalinga. It is also another puja festive occasion, that of Lord Karthik. It is not for nothing that it is called KartikPoornima. His images are worshipped in public pandals and then taken out for immersion. After the series of pujas like Ganesh chathurthi, Durga Puja, Laxmi Puja and Karthik puja, the waterfronts must be really polluted. That is a serious issue to be thought of.

As I revisited the Bali Jatrasite in January 2018, after almost four decades, old memories flooded by. The fairgrounds was empty but there was a lone Karthikeya statue leftatop a huge tree; the image was safely placed inbetween the forked branches of one of the old, huge trees lining the banks of Mahanadhi, looking towards East, the Bay of Bengal direction, beyond which Odisha's maritime trade flourished in the hoary past.

There seems to be an exclusive Maritime Museum in Cuttack but we missed it as there was not much publicity. Odias are a much modest people, it seems.Only now they have woken up to claim Rasgulla as their own cuisine, and not Bengal's.

Now, on this Karthik Poornima night (23rd Nov. 2018), as I reminisce about Bali Jatra sitting in Chennai, I hope against hope to visit Cuttack during Bali Jatra which now seems to be more glitzy than in the 1980s!

Reference Courtesy - Maritime Museum & Odisha Review