Excerpt : Mahanadi – The Tale of a River
Anita Agnihotri translated from Bengali by Nivedita Sen
Mahanadi is a uniquely long and copious Indian river. It originates from the foothills of the Sihaoa hills in the Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh, flows through Chhattisgarh and then enters Odisha. In 1955, a dam was built on the Mahanadi in Sambalpur in Orissa, which created the huge reservoir of Hirakud. After Sambalpur, it flows through Subarnapur and the Boudh district and reaches the deep, forested gorge in Tikarpada. From here, it traverses through Nayagarh, then goes through the Cuttack district and meets the Bay of Bengal at Jagatsinghpur. In its long journey, there are mountainous plateaus at some places, uninhabited forests at others, habitations elsewhere and a desolate emptiness in still other places. At the source of the Mahanadi, there are remains of the Paleolitic Age. Various ballads and medieval panegyrics in verse have been composed around this river. Attracted by the dynamism of its waters, farmers, weavers and various craftsmen have settled down at its banks. On the other hand, sundry villages sank due to the ceremonious building of dams on the river. People who have got uprooted from their homes have left in tears to look for new shelters.
This novel is the narrative of a dynamic, live entity that has got entwined with the accounts of the lives of people living at its source, the middle portion and the river basin. The river is the main thread in this narrative, as it moves into changing landscapes and people stay where they are. On the changing canvas of the river, therefore, human beings have come and gone.
I have seen the Mahanadi in so many ways: in the early morning light, in the reclining afternoon glow, in the blaze of the midday and in the shadow of orange tinge of the sunset. I have seen this river in the form of its narrow current in winter, amidst profuse rain, in the forested region where it originates, and in the turbulent boundlessness of the estuary. And each time the river, serene, terrifying and quiet, has filled my mind with tremendous joy and nostalgia. Many people, both at the origin and basin of this river, are known to me. Their lives, inextricably linked with the river, have made me think, and have both fascinated and enriched me. The chronicle of this river, therefore, is also an extract of my life.
