Kosali language movement kicked in the early 80s spearheaded by Pt Prayagdutt Joshi from Khadial and he was assisted by Dr Dolgobind Bishi from Titilagarh. Pt Joshi belongs to the royal priest family of Khadial, a Vaidya and scholar and Dr Bishi was then pursuing his PG in Utkal University. They met and exchanged letters. A movement was conceptualized.
In the early 80s Pt Joshi was invited to present a paper in a seminar organized by Odisha Lekhak Sammukhya, at Bhubaneswar. But when Pt Joshi was reading his paper a well known Odia writer present in the meeting stopped Pt Joshi from reading the paper and he leveled him as a separatist. The same paper was later on published as a book titling “Kosali Bhasara Samkhipta Parichay”. Pt Joshi has mentioned about the incident in the preface of the book too.
He returned back home with a bitter feeling from Bhubaneswar and then published the same paper in “Saptarshi”, journal of Sambalpur University in 1982.
Bargarh based linguist Prof. Hrudamani Pradhan in his book, “Amar Bhaasar Na” writes that “in 1982 an article of Pt. Prayagdutta Joshi titling “Swatantra Kosali Bhasa” published in Saptarshi created a huge uproar in literary and intellectual circle of western Odisha. Pt Joshi coined the name Kosali for the language of western Odisha. And it was opposed by Sambalpur based writer Dr Nilamadhab Panigrahi. The battle of Sambalpuri vs Kosali began. Dr Dolagobind Bishi wrote “Kosali Bhasa Sundari”(1984) and supported the name Kosali. He further edited a quarterly Kosali magazine “Koshal Sree” from 1988. Kosali Bhasa Sahitya Parishad the organization of Pt Joshi started publishing “Kosal Bharati”. But Dr Nilamadhab Panigrahi of Gulunda who is also famous for his epic “Mahabharat Katha” published “Nishan” magazine and its 4th issue was titled as “Paschim Odishar Bhasar Na Sambalpuri” and wrote an article “Samaleswari Banam Kosaleswari”. Finally to diffuse the conflict a meeting was held in Sambalpur on January 2nd and 3rd in 1993.”
We can examine the original paper which was later on published as book titling “Kosali Bhasara Samkhipta Parichaya” by Pt. Prayagdutta Joshi. Originally it was a paper written to present at a seminar organized by Odisha Lekhak Sammukhya, at Bhubaneswar. But when Pt Joshi was presenting his paper a well known Odia writer present in the meeting stopped Pt Joshi from reading the paper and he leveled him separatist.
In this book Pt Joshi has elaborately given accounts proving Kosali as an ancient, independent and rich language. He has proved it is not a dialect of Odia and also cited instances of how Odia lobby is continuously opposing Kosali as a separate language and even he has narrated about the helplessness of leaders of western Odisha.
Institution like Odisha Sahitya Akademi also commissioning to write and publish books like “Odia Upabhasa” by Satyanarayan Rajguru (1982), “Paschim Odishara Kathita Odia Bhasa” by Gopabandhu Rath (1988), “Sambalpuri Odia Sabdakosh” by Prafulla Tripathy etc which are trying to describe Kosali as a dialect of Odia.
The geographical condition of Kosal is responsible for the torture it is receiving many a times. With an unavoidable historical situation the western part of South Kosal accepted Hindi and the eastern part accepted Odia as their medium of culture and literature. The situation was worst. Even after the acquisition by Britishers this region like a football has been once in Bengal, once in Madhya Paradesh again with Bengal and then Bihar-Odisha and finally settled with Odisha. And in this transaction what this region has beard has known to all. This happened only because we could not keep the independency of our language. And till today it is going on.
When “Koshli Bhasa Sundri” a grammar book of Kosali language was written and published by Dr Dolagobind Bishi in 1984 exhibiting the independency of Kosali language, it was opposed by Odia Journal Jhankar:
“If they will try other than this, Sambalpuri language gets recognized as an independent language, then it is unreal and separatist mentality there is no doubt.” xxx xxx xxx “We cannot support the cause of Sambalpuri language as an independent language.” (Jhankar Editorial July 1985)
In his book Pt Joshi has demonstrated that Kosali is not a dialect of Odia rather it is an independent language.
Kosali is a direct derivative of Sanskrit. Each and every word is enriched with deep meaning and full of life. The soulful representation of its culture and environment is its insignia and represents its independency. For example, let discuss the origin of few Kosali words:
a) khaman means jungle. Khaman originates from Sanskrit word khaban. Khaban means sky touching jungle (AakAshaspaRshi baNa).
kh = AkAsh [sky]
According to the rule of Prakrit: Ba > Ma
Hence, Khaban = Khaman.
b) khglA is a traditional ornament put on around neck by ladies.
Kh = AakAsh (sky) = sunya (blanks) = round shaped
So, khglA is ‘kh’ (round shaped) around ‘galA’ (neck)
c) khpsA ( a kind of air breathing fish)
This fish is found moving up towards the sky through date tree so its name is derived or given from this unique feature. Please mark the formation of the word as below:
Kh = AakAsh (sky)
kasati gachhati iti > khakshh > khaksA (kas-kash gatou soutra dhatu)
The name of this fish in Odia is ‘gaDishA’ which means the fish which rolls. There is no such vast imagination as like as there it is found in Kosali language.
d) kulihA (Jackal)
This animal is fond of crab and it search crab from holes in crop fields so ‘kulihA’ word forms as below from this activity:
kulirNg hanti iti kulirahA > kulihA
e) karlA (Bitter Melon)
The formation of the word ‘karlA’ is a very strong example to prove that the claim of Odia scholars is vague that Kosali is not a dialect of Odia and words of Kosali are not formed simply by deforming Odia words rather it supports in favour of formations of Odia from Kosali.
Sanskrit > Prakrit > Hindi > Kosali > Odia
kArbell (Sanskrit) > kArell (Prakrit) > karelA (Hindi) > karlA (Kosali) > kaLarA (Odia)
Few more examples:
Sanskrit > Prakrit> Kosali
AtasI > AlasI > Alasi
AamRam >AmbNGa >Aam
AadRam > Aallam/AdhNGa > Ol, Uda
Genealogical analysis shows two different sources of origin of the two languages; Odia and Kosali. One is from the Magadhi Prakrit and another from Ardha-Magadhi Prakrit. So there are remarkable differences between the two in the sphere of phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax.
Saket Sreebhushan Sahu comments on culture and politics