Mitrabhanu Gountia: The epitome of Sambalpuri culture

Mitrabhanu Gountia is a Sambalpuri lyricist whose contribution towards the upliftment of cultural heritage of Western Odisha is immense. He was born at Bilung village of Sambalpur district during the pre-independence era that was on 17th March 1942. He recalls he started composing poetry in Sambalpuri vocal language when he was as young as 12 years old and had just passed out of upper primary school. In the year 1971 he got the approval certificate as a lyricist from the All India Radio(AIR) station of Sambalpur. Then television was unheard in this pocket of India. Radio was the only source of information and entertainment for the illiterate mass of Odisha.

So far Mitrabhanu has composed over 1,000 Sambalpuri songs. Rangabati is a song that has been composed by non-other than Mitrabhanu Gountia. It was a chartbuster Sambalpuri song. In the year 1978 this song was recorded in the special Surmalika programme at Sambalpur Radio Station of AIR. Even after 40 years this is the all time popular song of entire Odisha. No barat of any marriage procession move forward unless and until this song is played on the street by the music band. The music of this song was composed by Late Prabhudatta Pradhan while the male voice was of Jitendra Haripal, whereas the female voice was lent by Krishna Patel. 

In the year 1983 he explored all together a new field of art discipline. He started writing geeti natya which means the lyrical plays. "Bhai juntia" was his first gitinatya. It was played in All India Radio. Based on the popular tradition of sisters observing a religious penance for their brothers similar to that of Rakshabandhan which is observed by girls of North India. This lyrical play was well appreciated by people. By watching this  lyrical play on the stage people used to be enthralled. Mitrabhanu got good reviews and feedback from people of villages and towns wherever this lyrical play was staged. Followed by its success he composed many other Sambalpuri lyrical plays like  Krushna Avatar, Mahisa nasini, Gambhiribije, Khaiunjula, Kelikadamb, Rangakeli, Gujuna based on tribal culture.

During the late 80's of the last Century due to overpopulation, rampant mining activities and industrialisation in Odisha there started deforestation. While observing the alarming situation of damage to the environment Mitrabhanu composed a lyrical play write by the name Jharbania(dense forest). Social Forestry wing of Government of Odisha hired Mitrabhanu and his troop to perform the lyrical play of Jharbania in the hinterlands of Odisha so as to create public awareness for social forestry. The impact of this gitinatya in the society was enormous as a result in the year 1991 the social forestry department of Sambalpur Forest Division of Odisha bagged the prestigious Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award.

The two mythological playwrights that he has composed are Draupadi Haran and Tripura Sundari. The names of other two  social  plays  are  Sunar sakal(Golden morning)  and  Mantri asbe(Minister will come).

Because of the enormous success of the literary works  of Mitrabhanu Gountia the local administration of this small hamlet Bilung has been renamed as “Rangabati Bilung”.

Mitrabhanu Gountia is a man embossed with the rich Indian values. He says due to the massive commercialisation of education system now the values  and culture of our children has been completely depleted. Now students are taught on the subjects which does not carry cultural values. Apart from the computer science our children need to be taught on subjects like art, dance, music and sports.

           

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E.Kiran Mohan(The Writer)

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