Bali Yatra is an annual festival celebrated in Cuttack, Odisha. It is observed in the time of Kartik Purnima (late October-early November), which is the time when the monsoon winds turn southeast. This was the time ancient mariners and traders from Bengal and Odisha would take off on their nearly six-month voyage to distant destinations, most commonly Bali, Java, Sumatra, Cambodia and Vietnam. Their families would gather at the shore to bid them farewell and pray for their safety on the high seas and foreign lands.
At present, when people gather at the banks of the Mahanadi river, float paper boats and sing songs, it is to remember and commemorate Orissa’s rich maritime history. They also light sky lanterns as a symbol of good wishes for the sailors. This festival is also associated with Tapoi.
The legend of Tapoi comes from a very famous folk ballad. The story goes that a family of seven brothers, all of them sailors, had a beloved youngest sister. In due time, they got married. When they were abroad, the wives would mistreat their sister, and thus she yearned for them to come home. However, the wives were caught by the brothers red-handed and disowned. Tapoi thus acknowledges the family members who suffered when their loved ones went overseas.
This festival has commemorated more than a thousand years of rich maritime history, in remembrance of swashbuckling sailors who sailed to far off lands; ostensibly for trade, but mostly for the adventure and thrills of the high seas, and a chance to meet people and cultures different from their own. These sailors were awe-inspiring figures back home, and countless works of literature and folklore have been dedicated to them and their various adventures and misadventures.
Of ballads and bravery
Folklore is one of the most overlooked sources of history for several reasons, chief among them being that it is not objective. In a land like India, history was usually transmitted through word-of-mouth, through ballads, dances, folk theatre, bard stories and shlokas. Kings, sages, merchants and courtesans were eulogised and mythologised over thousands of years of continuous and chaotic history, to a point where it is difficult to sort fact from fiction. They still have their importance when we study our ancestors, however.
Historian Supriya Sahoo stated, “Because stories create reality, stories of a people, by a people, must be taken into account for an informed understanding of each community.”
Folklore is an important signpost in the winding and confusing pathways of history and can provide various clues and insights that formal records cannot.
The Kalinga empire had always been powerful and influential and is mentioned in texts as ancient as the Ramayana. Kalinga’s grip on ocean trade was well known — in Kalidas’s monumental play Raghuvamsa, he refers to the king of Kalinga as Mohodadhipati (king of the Ocean). In fact, he is called the king of the seas in several ways in various texts — Sarala Das’s Odia Mahabharat and Yosawant Das’s Tika Govind Chandra are just a few examples.
Read More at https://www.thebetterindia.com/311017/untold-history-of-odisha-sea-trade-influence-on-ancient-empires-across-world/
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