About two years ago Dr. Pabitra Mohan Nayak, a retired Professor of English with a keen interest in ancient manuscripts of West Odisha and currently working as Director, Balmiki Ramayan Project, National Sanskrit University, Tirupati, enquired from me if I, being born and brought up at Sarangarh, had any knowledge of a Kavya named Jaya Chandrika written long ago by Prahallad Dubey who, in the hoary past, was perhaps a court poet of the Raja of Sarangarh. I had heard the name of Prahallad Dubey during my childhood at Sarangarh and subsequently came to know that he was the author of Jaya Chandrika but I had not tried to know anything about the book or the poet until Dr. Nayak requested me to do so.
After several rounds of enquiries from persons at Sarangarh, Raigarh and Raipur I finally came to know that a manuscript copy of the said book is available right under my nose i.e. at the State Museum in Bhubaneswar. Fortunately for me two officials working in the State Museum at that time, were from West Odisha and were well known to me. Shri Chandra Bhanu Patel was then the Superintendent of the State Museum and Dr. Prabhas Kumar Singh continues to be an Assistant Curator. With their help I was able to get a CD containing a digitalized copy of the manuscript of Jay Chandrika in no time. My younger son Shri Prasant Kumar Guru helped me to get a computer printed hard copy of the manuscript.
Meanwhile I, Dr. Nayak and Dr. Dadhibaban Mishra, a retired Reader in History staying at Sambalpur, in our consultations, decided that the verses of Jaya Chandrika should be translated into Hindi, Odia and English and the Kävya should be published along with the translations in the three languages. This, we hoped, would facilitate students of all the three languages to read, appreciate and carry on further research on the work as well as the history of the time. I read the manuscript copy of the book written in Dev Nagari script and though I am well versed in Chhattisgarhi (Lariya) language I could not make any head or tail of the contents of a larger part of the book. Both Dr. Nayak and Dr. Mishra had similar experiences. I, therefore, decided to contact other scholars of Hindi and Chhattisgarhi language both in and outside Odisha. But all my attempts were of no avail.
Later Dr. Mishra, who had prepared a copy of the book from my copy during one of my visits to Sambalpur, went through the book several times and expressed his willingness to write a historical note on the book which, he was confident, would go a long way in understanding the contents of the book. Accordingly he has written the historical note and the book is being published along with the historical note. Readers of the historical note and the book, in the years to come, will be the best judge of the utility of both. Personally I am of the view that the historical note will be of tremendous help to future scholars intending to carry on research both on the book and the history of the times in West Odisha.
The copy of Jaya Chandrika available at the State Museum, Bhubaneswar is a true copy (barobar nakal) written by one Binayak Dash of Balangir on the order of Mr. P. C. Rath, the then Superintendent of Archeology, Patna State in 1946. Mr. P. C. Rath in his article 'History of the Chauhans from the Jaya Chandrika of Prahallad Dubey' published in the Journal of Bihar & Orissa Research Society Volume XXVIII- Part V in 1942 writes that 'Last year through the courtesy of Sarangarh Darbar, the Archeology Department, Patna State got a manuscript copy of Jaya Chandrika.' Hence the copy of the book available with me is a copy of another copy, the original of which was there in Sarangarh palace. My enquiries revealed that all the books in the library of Sarangarh palace, after its merger with the present Chhattisgarh State, have been donated to the library of Rajkumar College, Raipur where the last king of Sarangarh, Raja Naresh Chandra Singh, was educated. I have not been able to verify this contention. However it is quite safe to conclude that the present copy available with us is a true copy of the original. The availability of no other copy of the book has so far been reported.
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