Quick Facts
Biography
Jagannatha Dasa (c. 1491-1550) was an Odia poet and litterateur. He wrote Odia Bhagabata.
Early life
Dash was born in Kapileswarpur Sasana part-1 (one of the 16 traditional Sasana villages in Puri) on Radhastami in 1491, in a Kaushiki Gotri Utakali Purana Panda Family. His mother was Padmabati Debi and his father was Bhagabana Dash.
His father was a speaker on the Bhagavatam in Odisha. King Purushottam Deva was pleased with Bhagbana Dash's explanations of the Bhagavata philosophy and gave him the “Purana Panda” title. He trained Jagannatha to follow him as a Purana Panda. Jagannatha Dash was almost the same age as Chaitanya. Soon after their chance meeting under the Kalpa Bata, a spiritual kinship grew between the two that developed into a warm, lifelong friendship. Chaitanya was an avid admirer of Das and called him "Atibadi."
Literary works
Dash wrote Odia Bhagabata. It had a great influence in the standardizing of the Odia language. Its popularity in Odisha reached to the level of itbeing worshiped in many Odishan homes. The villages in Odisha used to have a small house or room known as bhagabata tungi, where villagers would gather to listen to recitations of Dash’s Bhagabata. Many of its verses have become proverbs and are cited by people throughout Odisha.
The work includes 12 volumes and each volume has 10-30 chapters. Each chapter has 50 to 300 stanzas.
Gananatha Das translated the Odia Bhagabata into English. The English translation is Readings from Bhagabata