334 M. M. Chakravarti — Language and literature of Orissa . [No. 4, 
planatory notes on Sanskrit classics. Small pieces, such as Gundica - 
bijay a or Gundica-campu (description of Jagannatha’s car festival), or 
Hdsydrnava (collection of comic verses) hardly deserve the name of 
works. Gradually even this Sanskrit scholarship declined and Brahmins 
fairly well acquainted with Sanskrit classics or philosophy grew smaller 
in number. Young students were obliged to go to Benares for studying 
Sanskrit grammar or Vedanta philosophy, or to Nadiya in Bengal for 
studying Nyaya or logic. 
It should not however be understood that because compositions 
in Sanskrit dwindled, Sanskrit language itself ceased to influence. 
Both Telugu and Urdu did not escape the influence of Sanskrit study, 
and so could make no change other than a general inclination towards 
the use of the vernaculars. The vehicle of expression alone changed ; 
the intellectual atmosphere underwent no great change. Sanskrit 
classics, specially the later ones such as the Naisadhiya and the 
(fiQupala-vadha were considered models to be closely imitated ; while 
Sanskrit grammars and rhetorics supplied the rules of elegant com¬ 
positions in Oriya. Thus whether in versification or in the senti¬ 
ment underlying them, in the outer forms or in the inner ideas of Oriya 
poetry Sanskrit continued to dominate. At the time of discussing the 
later Oriya poets, this preponderating influence of Sanskrit classics and 
rhetorics will be more fully seen. 
The earliest compositions in Oriya were 
(A) Songs or 
(B) Translations of the Sanskrit religious works. 
These are generally in poetry. Certain prose works, such as 
Ma data Pdnji or the chronicles of the Jagannatha temple and Vamgavalis 
or genealogies of royal families had been begun from old time. They 
have however no literary merits and their historical value I will treat 
at the end of this article. 
SONGS. 
Songs are the articulations of man’s heart deeply moved, and are 
as common to the civilised as to the savage. They are based on a 
single sentiment, or a single incident, and do not require long conti¬ 
nuous thinking. Hence they precede serious compositions, and take 
their birth from the early childhood of a language. Oriya could not have 
been an exception, and Oriya songs must have been current from an 
early period. The earlier songs are lost. The only song which I am 
inclined to think as pre-Mahomedan is Kesaba Kd-ili (^«T of 
Markanda Dasa. This is known widely in Orissa, and is taught to 
children in the pafhfalas. From its wide popularity it would appear 
