A two-day national conference on the writings of eminent poet Padmashri Professor Jayanta Mahapatra was held in Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University from 12/02/23 to 13/02/23 in the University conference hall. The conference titled "Autobiography as Affective Archaeology: Exploring the Creative Oeuvre of Poet Jayanta Mahapatra" was jointly organized by the University and the Forum on Contemporary Theory, Vadodara. On the first day of the conference, Prof. Prafulla Chandra Kar, Director, Forum on Contemporary Theory presided over and hailed Prof. Jayanta Mahapatra as a living legendary figure and enunciated the portrayal of human appeal in the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra., Chairman of the PG Council Professor Pramod Kumar Satapathy delivered the welcome speech and gave information about the purpose and approach of the conference. In the introductory speech, Professor Kalidas Mishra, Former Professor in English, Sambalpur University and the convenor of the seminar showed how vividly the picture of trees, rivers, ponds, village life is reflected in the poetry of poet Jayanta Mahapatra.
On this occasion, Poet Jayanta Mahapatra was felicitated by the university. In his address, Poet -Jayant Mahapatra spoke about how poetry has shaped his life and reflected his lifelong struggles. The answer to poetry is not a one day job but a life-long practice and a good poem takes the poet from one level of life to a higher level. He never wanted to be a poet himself but he became a poet in the course of destiny; and today it is ‘poetry’ which is helping him living his life, he said. Calicut University Professor P.P. Ravindran in his keynote speech, considered poet Jayanta Mahapatra as the greatest poet of his time and a living monument and said that poet Jayanta Mahapatra's poetry is a combination of honesty and sincerity.
In this programme, the book "Being Us" written by Dr. Shaktisankar Dandpat of English Department of the University was launched by the guests. At the end of the inaugural program, poet Dr. Rabindra Kumar Swain offered vote of thanks. The program was attended by all the faculty members of the university and the students of various language departments, internationally acclaimed artist Birendra Pani and the literature-loving scholars and intellectuals of Mayurbhanj and the state. In the evening of the first day program, the guests were entertained with Santali dance, Sambalpuri dance, songs and music.
In various sessions on both the days, Professor P. Ravindran, Kailash Baral, Kamdev Sahu, Rajashree Biswal, Chittaranjan Mishra, Namita Jagdev, Raja Rao, Bhagwan Tripathi, Balabhadra Tripathi, Rachita Swain and other researchers addressed various aspects such as place, history, memory, Identity, human suffering due to class and gender differences, existential crisis and human suffering and cosmic experience in the poems of Jayanta Mahapatra. In the evening, there was a poetry reading session by Professor Jayant Mohapatra, Kalidas Mishra, Pritidhara Samal, Rabindra Swain, Namita Jagdev, Ajit Kumar Kullu and others and students of the university.
One of the most important and interesting parts of the seminar was the art exhibition titled 'Re-Vision Relationship', presented by New Bridge India in association with Forum of Contemporary Theory, Vadodara, Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University, Baripada and Sarat Chandra Library, Baripada. It was an interesting ‘visual-literary engagement’ in which internationally recognized Art historian, curator and cultural thinker Dr. Rajashree Biswal conceptualized and curated the exhibition based on Birendra Pani’s traveling art exhibition Re-Vision (New York, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata 2009-2011) and poet Jayanta Mahapatra's seminal poem Relationship (New York, 1980 and India in 1982). Marking the striking similarities in these two cultural texts as well as interweaving them through ‘intertextuality’, this exhibition ‘Re-Vision Relationship’ was a new cultural text urging the viewers to relook, re-engage and reconsider with Odisha's land, landscape, history, memory, culture and heritage, and identity in today's globalization era. With the strategy of ‘reproduction aesthetics’ i.e. through the ‘reproduction’ of the images of the paintings as well as the text of the poem in this exhibition, it reached out to a different viewers/audience for a new cultural and aesthetic sensibility.
In the valedictory session, certificates were distributed to the participants by Prof. Jayant Mahapatra, Prof. Pramod Kumar Satapathy and Prof. Kalidas Mishra. Prof. Pramod Kumar Satapathy announced all these events as a part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the University and expressed for more and more collaboration with Forum of Contemporary Theory in future.
