346 M. M. Cliakravarti — Language arid literature of Orissa. [No. 4, 
In addition to the Ramayana, Bajarama Dasa composed numerous 
smaller pieces, a list of which is to be found in Hunter’s Orissa , App. ix. 
The) T amount to twenty-two and deal with various religious and ethical 
topics. Of these I have seen in manuscripts, the Arjuna Gita (No. 2), 
Gupta Gita (No. 14), and Tulabhina (No. 23) ; and in print, Bedha- 
parikramd (No. 1), Gajanistarana Gita (No. 10), and Mruganistuti 
(No. 17). I have also seen in print Kanta Ko-ili (^Tnf which 
was composed by Ba]arama Dasa, but which has not been mentioned 
in Hunter’s list. This song is put into the mouth of Sita and describes 
the events from her abduction by Ravana to Rama’s abhiseka. 
The next great epic of Sanskrit, the Mahabharata has also been 
rendered into Oriya. The popular version was by Sarola Dasa. He 
was a fudra by caste, and while lie professed to be a Vaisnava and 
speaks devoutly of Jagannatha, he was at heart a worshipper of the 
goddess Candi. The closing lines of each parva speak of Sarola Chandl 
Thakurani; and in his last page he says — 
% jffa i(^I3 || 
“ The (goddess) Higgula Candi Sarol5 dwells at Jakhemrapura. 
She is my tulasi ( Ocymum ) garland that swings over the breast.” 
Then again his last lines are 
h ms. Folio 245 . 
“ At the feet of pri-Candi, the resident of Jakhempura, the pudra 
ascetic Sarola Dasa seeks refuge.” 
The goddess Candi is said to be of Jakhem which is probably the 
older form of the present village Jhagkara in Thana Tirtola, District 
Cuttack. Here the worship of Sarola Thakurani is widely prevalent 
and attracts considerable local pilgrimage. 
It is impossible at present to fmd out the precise date of this work. 
It must be older than the 3rd Agka of Ramacandra Deva, Mithuna21st, 
on which date the oldest manuscript I have seen was copied. The 3rd Aijka 
of Ramacandra Deva II. falls in 1732-3 A.D. 1 How much older he was 
there is no means of knowing. But from its popularity and veneration, 
from its uneven versification, and peculiar forms of several of its words 
and grammatical terminations I infer that the work cannot be later than 
1 Appendix IV of this article I have shown that Riiniacandra Deva began to 
reign in 1731-2 A.D. His 3rd Aijka or the 2nd year should therefore be 1732-3 A. D 
