Construction of an Identity Discourse Oriya Literature and the Jagannath Cult, 1866-1936

This book focuses primarily on the Oriya identity as defined and constructed in the two important Oriya identity-makers, i.e., Oriya literature and the Jagannath cult. Although the study pertains to the historical period, from 1866-1936, it moves back and forth in the time frame, in order to show continuity and get an historical perspective on the subject. Both Oriya literature and the Jagannath cult, over a long historical period have served as means to define and project Oriya identity. This study delves into how since Sarala Dasa’s Mahabharata composed during the fifteenth century, Oriya literature has been a repository of identity-constructions, using common history, tradition, legend, geography and nature, and even ‘otherness’. The identity-construction in literature became categorical, vivid and well defined in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries under historical compulsions which arose out of two contradictory forces, British colonialism-imperialism and nationalism.