A forgotten Hero : Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Dev
By; Bishnu Mohan Adhikari
Some men are born great, while some achieve greatness during their lifespan. Yes , Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb, the scion of the great eastern ganga dynasty belong to both the leagues, An illustrious son of mother India and architect of first linguistic state Odisha.
Gajapati Krushna Chandra Deba did what other maharajas used to do in his time under the spell of royal pleasure and patronage . History has kept it both as secret and open secret. But, some more he did what other aristocrats used not to do in his time. That , he came out of all cell of his royal gravity and mingled himself in the main stream of the nation for the cause of freedom and became the outstanding spokesman for the people of odisha.
Maharaja born on April 26th, 1892 in paralakhemundi of then Madras presidency.He finished his schooling in parala , later entered Newington College , Madras for higher education. Meanwhile he lost his father and his kingdom was under courtofwards .In 1913 he took back the charge of the estate after death of father KCIE King Gourachandra Gajapati Narayan Deb.
Soon after getting his estate , the benevolent Maharaja donated huge amount of money to Satyabadi Bana Bidyalaya of Gopabandhu Das and Utkal sahitya Samaj Cuttack ,which was controlled by the great Madhusudan Das
During first world war , maharaja was made honorary 2nd lieutenant, later promoted as captain of Indian land force.His sincere and efficient discharge of duties as a military officer was much appreciated by the then government.His patronage for education and his farsighte of India’s development on scientific lines was again another unique feature of his life . Looking to his visionary skill, He was selected as adviser and governing body of Government agriculture college Coimbatore, after getting selected in Royal agricultural commission in 1927. He donated lakhs of rupees to Nutrition Research Institution at Connor , Tamilnadu . Apart from this he was selected as governing body and scientific advisory board of Indian research fund association, New Delhi . He donated a huge amount to medical college Patna , Bihar . In the field of education and activities for the welfare of the people , he appears as a outstanding figure among men of his class.A number of free boarding and lodging, innumerable scholarships , free ships and loan stipend etc,were provided to enable the poor indian students to goto these institutions inside and out side of india for higher education. Some eminent personalities like late Biju Patnaik got opportunity to get enroll in automobile and aeronautical engineering in London by getting such fund from Maharaja , as maharaja was the member of Royal Asiatic society , London.
He also firmly believe that Sanskrit learning can contribute to the perpetuation of India’s cultural heritage on strong foundation of morality. So he established a Sanskrit college in his estate. For skill and industrial development he built a industrial school in Parala.in 1913 he eracted a massive palace structured building Girls high school for state’s girl child education.
Not only he contributed to education and medical sector of India, he gave more emphasis on Agricultural development of the nation . During his tenure maharaja established 36 major and 479 minor irrigation project in Ganjam. Maharaja built Lakes like Krushna Sagar and NaleeniKrushna Sagar which are still providing water facilities to the fields .He always used to tell ” Master’s foot is best manure”. While visited Myanmar to deliver speeches before Immigrant odias , return to home he brought new verites of suger cane saplings to odisha for farming. It shows his agri- enthusiast nature.
For better communication and public business maharaja extended his father’s built Royal Naupada -Paralakhemundi lite Rail line to undevided koraput dist in 1930. He spent 25 lakhs from his pocket to run this project. It shows the high farsighted nature of maharaja.
Maharaja was very much fond of sports . He was mainting a good number of race horses in his Bangalore villa, Karnataka. Even he started a trophy for Darby named Kalinga trophy in Kolkata, west Bengal. Also he has keen interest in golf . In 1949 he established a golf club in Chennai and was the first president of the club. His love for cricket was so great. His first match in odisha with England team played in paralakhemundi’s Dahababada ground. Maharaja did promulgation of cricket in odisha . He used to invite teams from vizianagaram , Kolkata end Kerala to play in paralakhemundi. Under patronage of maharaja odia cricketers like Banabasi patnaik , Sahasank sekhar got chance as skippers in first Ranji team of odisha
Coming to the field of culture, and heritage preservation , Maharaja has immense contribution to this field. He donted huge amount money to tirupati Veda pathashala in Andhrapradesh and Andhra historical research journal association . He constructed a town hall in srikakulam . Coming to ancient temple protection he used to spend one fith of his money to maintain devasthanas of his estate. Specifically he renovated temples like Srimukhalingam ,Lihuri Gopinatha , Radhagobinda temple melliaputi and many more. He established odisha’s second oldest theater ” Padmanava Rangalaya”. He encouraged padmasri Dr SN Rajaguru to write history of Gangas.
He was one of the few men of vision, who helped many literary scholars . He gave re incarnation to N numbers of Odia and Sanskrit manuscripts by printing it in his own Gajapati press. He gave financial support to many emminat persons like Madhusudan Das , Gopala Chandra Praharaj , Pandit Gopinath Nanda Sharma, chintamani mohanty etc. He also supported Kavichandra kalicharan patnaik and odissi music exponent Apanna Panigrahi to enrich classical music of odisha.
He fought tooth and nail for unification of odia speaking tracts in to a separate state . He started this moment from Utkal sammilani’s 10th session which was held in paralakhemundi , hosted by jeypore king vikram dev varma. For separate odisha formation he visited London thrice, to attend Round table conference. He used to spend many sleepless nights and he was found busy in writing under a tree in the premises bungalow in the city of London.once ,Sri Ramaswami Mudaliar asked him if he could assist gajapati in speech. To this Maharaja replied ” You can write better language then myself, But how can you have the feeling of my odia heart!”.”
He delivered a historic speech and was so touching that he was able to convince the British authorites genuineness of the demands of odias.He kept the proposal , for the amalgamation of odisha in to separate province very precisely. Starting from Shimla meeting to Round table conference in London , Maharaja met each every delegates to make this happen. In between he met montegu-Chemsford , Philip Duff committee for need of new state formation. As a elected legislator of Madras Assembly in 1930 he played a remarkable part in politics and was regarded as distinguished leaders of whole south India.
After his speech in London , a resolution passed in the plenary session of round table conference for separate province formation of odisha state. Owing maharajas effort the viceroy appointed O Donnel , Phukan and Meheta for Odisha boundary committee. It recommended that if the state odisha was to be created it should be include odisha division consisting cuttack , Puri, balasore and sambalpur dist , anugul , khariar and the greater part of Ganjam and Vizagapatam dist. At last after several struggle British Parliament accepted the recognition of joint Parliamentary committee and with that deepest dream of maharaja had come true in 1 April 1936.
He served people of odisha as a prime minister for two times and perhaps he is the only person know to India history who donated all his earnings to welfare of public cause only . During his political career our very own Utkal university established in the valuable company of his minister Pandit Godavaris mishra. In addition to that SCB medical college , odisha high court was started functioning as pilot project in his tenure. He established Asia’s biggest Rice research institution in Cuttack.
Maharaja breathed last on 25th may 1974. To conclude it can be said the creation of separate odisha was a result of tireless and systemic efforts of Utkal Smmmilani leaders and not to forget specifically the ironpillar Maharaja Krushna C
