Radhanatha Granthabali Odia Book

Krishna Rout322 Oct, 2022Business

Though the medieval Odia literature was rich and distinct literary tradition and history, some of the Bengali educationalists wanted to abolish Odia language as the medium of teaching from schools. As Bengal was under by British rule much before Odisha, the Bengalis had the privilege to motivate the Anglicist scholars to prove Odia as a branch of Bengali language. However, John Beams, a British officer of East India Company first tried to prove that Odia is more ancient language than Bengali, and it had a richer literature which Bengali had not. In the Odisha division, there were only seven Odia School teachers; Bengalis formed the majority of teachers, even in the remote areas. Consequently, Bengali text books were prescribed for Odia students. At that time, Radhanath was one of prime figure along with Fakir Mohan Senapati, who fought against the expansionism of Bengali educationalist to eradicate Odia language from Odisha.