Seeing Cuttack: Memory, Identity, and the Fragility of Composite Culture
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
The author—a comparative literature scholar—traces how his understanding of Cuttack, the thousand-year-old Odisha city, evolved from childhood memories structured by Brahmana-Karana social order narratives to recognizing its suppressed diversity: Parsi candy stores, Muslim biryani, Telugu-inflected Odia, Urdu libraries, and Qadam-e Rasool dargahs. This realization prompts inquiry: “When the memory of a city is reconstituted as ‘timeless’ within a particular milieu, what gets forgotten and what is remembered?” Cuttack functioned as a contact zone where multiple identities intersected fluidly before colonial taxonomies imposed rigid classifications. Founded 989 CE as Varanasi Kataka, the city witnessed 13th-century king Anangabhima III instituting ritual-kingship through Jagannatha worship—assimilating Sakta, Saiva, Vaisnava traditions rather than fortifying Hindu exclusivity against Islam as contemporary Hindutva narratives claim.
Through 16th-17th centuries, Afghan and Mughal Persianate administration layered onto sacred infrastructures, with Sikandar Lodi banning idol-desecration and mansabdars participating in Jagannatha’s Rathyatra, creating neighborhoods like Dargah Bazaar where ulemas, darvishes, mahants, and gurus interacted. Material culture reflected this: ganjapa cards reworked Mughal aesthetics into pattachitra imagery; bhakti poet Salabega—son of Muslim administrator and Brahmin widow—became exemplary jabana devotee writing Jagannatha poems in Oriya. Yet 19th-century Oriya Language Agitation and figure Fakir Mohan Senapati faced pressures toward linguistic purity despite his cosmopolitan Persian-Bangla-English training. Senapati navigated this by grounding prose in lower-caste tadbhava/desaja vocabularies while retaining Persian-English for elite circulation, forging composite literary public where Oriya identity meant territorial belonging not religious-linguistic exclusivity. Post-1949 RSS consolidation in Cuttack, leaders like Nilakantha Das reframing “Hindu” as civilizational marker threatening Islam, and 2025 Dargah Bazaar violence demonstrate how historical syncretism—embodied in singer Sikandar Alam’s bhakti continuing Salabega’s devotional intimacy—becomes “increasingly inaudible within the high-decibel language of contemporary polarization,” revealing memory’s fragility against communal narratives.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Selective Memory Construction
Author’s childhood Cuttack structured by Brahmana-Karana normative grammar privileged middle-class formations—colonial buildings, bazaars, Chandi Maa—erasing Parsi Bilimorias, Khan Hotel biryani, Telugu-inflected Odia, Urdu Library, demonstrating how “timeless” city memories suppress diversity.
Pre-Colonial Fluid Identities
Before colonial taxonomies imposed rigid ordering, individuals navigated multiple intersecting identities—James Mill’s Hindu-Mohammedan-British periodization exemplifies classificatory violence requiring critical distance from both colonial epistemologies and contemporary communalized narratives.
Anangabhima’s Assimilative Kingship
13th-century king’s Purushottama temple and Jagannatha trinity introduction assimilated Sakta-Saiva-Vaisnava sects through ritual-kingship—not Hindu fortification against Islam as Hindutva claims—creating theo-political state consolidating Brahmanical authority via divine support.
Mughal Accommodation Patterns
Sikandar Lodi’s idol-desecration ban, Mughal mansabdars’ Rathyatra participation, temple protection demonstrated sovereignty articulated through ritual economy accommodation despite Persianate bureaucratic forms—inhabitants experienced state through officials, taxes, troops not religious rupture.
Transcultural Material Expressions
Ganjapa cards reworking Mughal aesthetics into pattachitra imagery, paper paintings depicting Mughal attire, Salabega’s jabana devotion to Jagannatha, Kabisurjya Baladev Ratha’s Persian-infused Oriya verses—material and literary cultures marked transcultural interactions complicating purity notions.
Senapati’s Composite Negotiation
Fakir Mohan Senapati faced purity accusations despite cosmopolitan Persian-Bangla-English training—navigated by grounding prose in lower-caste tadbhava/desaja vocabularies while retaining Persian-English for elite circulation, forging inclusive Oriya identity meaning territorial belonging not religious exclusivity.
Master Reading Comprehension
Practice with 365 curated articles and 2,400+ questions across 9 RC types.
Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Memory Politics and Composite Erasure
Positions urban memory as political battlefield where dominant narratives systematically erase pluralistic histories serving contemporary communal agendas. Opening personal confession establishes methodology of self-interrogation before extending critique: Brahmana-Karana social order “shaped not only who could speak for city, but also which histories could circulate.” Selective memorialization structured process reconstituting cities as “timeless” within particular milieus. Shahid Amin’s “contact zone” framework provides theoretical apparatus: cities functioned as spaces where “diverse ideologies vied for dominance, each seeking legitimacy through engagement with other.” Thousand-year historical sweep demonstrates how each era produced particular mechanisms managing diversity, with contemporary moment marked by dangerous simplification flattening layered pasts into “sharply polarised civilisational categories.”
Purpose
Scholarly Intervention Through Personal Memoir
Functions as academic public engagement deploying personal narrative making sophisticated historiographical arguments accessible. Opening with family stories positions author within privileged castes before undermining that authority through self-critique—insider acknowledging limitations enables persuasive dismantling without alienating sympathetic readers. Serves multiple purposes: correcting Hindutva reinterpretations, refuting civilizational conflict frameworks, recovering composite traditions from nationalist hagiographies. 2025 Dargah Bazaar violence provides urgent contemporary resonance transforming historical exposition into political commentary. Elegiac tone mourns not idealized harmony but practical accommodations enabling coexistence, positioning street-level interdependence as fragile achievement requiring active preservation against high-decibel polarization drowning quieter devotional registers.
Structure
Layered Temporal Movement
Employs sophisticated temporal structure moving between personal memory, millennium-long historical sweep, urgent contemporary crisis without linear chronology, organizing through thematic layering revealing how past inscriptions persist in present landscapes. Opening personal vignette establishes epistemological humility modeling reader’s journey. Archaeological methodology excavates successive strata: 989 CE founding through Anangabhima’s ritual-kingship to Mughal layering demonstrating later formations didn’t erase earlier ones. Material culture section provides concrete evidence for abstract historical claims. Final section’s RSS consolidation and 2025 violence brings historical processes into present tense demonstrating not linear progress but cyclical threats requiring constant negotiation. Sikandar Alam’s bhakti provides counter-narrative: syncretism’s survival despite ideological pressures.
Tone
Elegiac Scholarly Intimacy
Balances academic rigor with personal vulnerability combining historian’s analytical distance with intimate first-person meditation creating elegiac register mourning not vanished past but threatened present. Opening confessional mode establishes informal accessibility despite sophisticated theoretical apparatus. Personal pronouns maintain individual perspective humanizing scholarly arguments through embodied discovery rather than objective pronouncement. Self-critical moments model intellectual honesty essential for credibility. Yet underneath personal modesty runs scholarly authority demonstrated through command of primary sources. Elegiac dimension intensifies toward conclusion particularly extended meditation on Sikandar Alam’s chaupadi performance creating contemplative space before violent intrusion. Final questions express not rhetorical accusation but genuine bewilderment at cultural amnesia, tone less angry than sorrowful recognizing how “affective archives could be eclipsed.”
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
Click each card to reveal the definition
Build your vocabulary systematically
Each article in our course includes 8-12 vocabulary words with contextual usage.
Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
Tap each card to flip and see the definition
Theories or systems of knowledge; philosophical frameworks concerning the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge and how we come to know what we know.
“Requires a critical distance from both colonial epistemologies and the communalised narratives.”
Military commanders and administrators in the Mughal Empire who held ranks (mansab) determining their salary, military obligations, and administrative responsibilities.
“The participation of Mughal mansabdars in the Rathyatra of the Jagannatha temple.”
Words in modern Indian languages that evolved naturally from Sanskrit through phonetic changes over time, as opposed to tatsama (Sanskrit borrowings) or desaja (indigenous words).
“Anchored his language in tadbhava and desaja vocabularies, drawing from lower-caste and indigenous speech.”
A devotional song format in Odia literature typically consisting of four-line verses, often used in bhakti (devotional) poetry expressing love for deities.
“In one of his most evocative chaupadi performances, he sings of a dream-vision of Shyama.”
Traditional Indian playing cards (from Persian ganjifa), circular in shape and hand-painted, depicting Hindu deities and mythological scenes using indigenous artistic styles.
“Rare decks of ganjapa cards—circular in shape, small and beautifully painted images of Hindu gods.”
Traditional cloth-based scroll painting art form from Odisha, characterized by rich colors, intricate details, and mythological or folk narratives depicted in indigenous Indian aesthetic styles.
“Reworking the aesthetics of Mughal courts into depicting indigenous objects in pattachitra imagery.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, Anangabhima III’s construction of the Purushottama temple primarily served to fortify a Hindu kingdom against the Islamic threat.
2How did Fakir Mohan Senapati navigate the tension between linguistic authenticity and elite circulation in his literary work?
3Which sentence best captures the author’s central argument about how Cuttack’s historical complexity should be understood?
4Evaluate these statements about Mughal-era violence and religious relations in Cuttack:
Muhammed Taqi Khan’s attack on Jagannath Temple was purely motivated by religious intolerance toward Hinduism.
The article notes that rancor existed between Shia and Sunni communities during the same period as Hindu-Muslim tensions.
Mughal mansabdars’ participation in Jagannatha’s Rathyatra demonstrated sovereignty articulated through accommodation of regional ritual economy.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about why the author connects Sikandar Alam’s 20th-century bhakti music to the 2025 Dargah Bazaar violence?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Drawing on historian Shahid Amin’s terminology, the author rejects both celebratory syncretism narratives suggesting harmonious blending and communalist frameworks emphasizing inevitable conflict. Instead, the contact zone concept recognizes that “diverse political, religious, and social ideologies vied for dominance, each seeking legitimacy through engagement with the other.” This framework acknowledges real tensions—Muhammed Taqi Khan’s temple attack, Shia-Sunni rancor, Achyutananda Dasa’s anti-Islamic prophecies—while showing these conflicts occurred within systems requiring mutual engagement for legitimacy. Mughal mansabdars participated in Jagannatha Rathyatra not from tolerance but because sovereignty depended on accommodating ritual economy. Salabega’s devotion mattered precisely because as jabana (outsider) his worship demonstrated Jagannatha’s universal appeal beyond political instrumentalization. The contact zone framework focuses on “processes, structures, and causalities through which difference was both generated and contained,” enabling relatively stable governance despite ongoing contestation, avoiding both romanticization and reductionism.
Salabega—son of Muslim Mughal administrator Lal Beg and Brahmin widow—embodied liminality requiring him to navigate multiple identity frameworks simultaneously. Called “exemplary jabana (yavana or outsider, a word used for Muslims) devotee of Jagannatha,” he remained categorized as outsider even while cherished across Oriya households, showing inclusion didn’t erase difference. His multilingualism—proficient in Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit yet choosing Oriya for devotional poems—demonstrated strategic deployment of linguistic resources to reach desired audiences. The poems “reveal the other side of imperial power, showing devotion to the state deity was not merely a political instrument wielded by the ruling classes, but a deeply lived and personal spiritual reality for both Hindus and Muslims.” This matters because it complicates instrumentalist readings reducing religion to elite manipulation while acknowledging political dimensions of religious authority. Salabega’s position enabled critique: as outsider, his devotion couldn’t be dismissed as conventional piety, forcing recognition that Jagannatha’s appeal transcended communal boundaries. Yet the very category “jabana” reinforcing his outsider status even in devotion shows inclusion operated through marked difference, not erasure.
The irony that Gouri Shankar Ray—”himself born into a Bengali-speaking family”—became Oriya purity’s most prominent advocate demonstrates how nationalist identity formation operates through conversion narratives requiring zealous boundary policing by converts proving authenticity. Ray demanding rollback of Persian administration and critiquing Senapati’s Bangla-derived tatsama vocabulary despite his own linguistic background reveals purity’s constructed rather than organic nature. This parallels broader patterns where nationalist movements recruit marginal figures whose insider-outsider positions enable them to articulate boundaries more stridently than established members. The detail also establishes that Oriya identity “was not limited to a linguistic identity or even a religious one, but a comprehensive term that defined anyone who lived within its territories”—territorial belonging trumped linguistic or ethnic origins. Ray’s case proved “the people were defined by the identity of a language, place and region not the other way round,” meaning Oriya-ness could be claimed through commitment rather than birth. This inclusive definition ironically enabled exclusionary linguistic politics: precisely because anyone could become Oriya, policing proper Oriya-ness became crucial project for nationalist consolidation requiring pure linguistic form.
Readlite provides curated articles with comprehensive analysis including summaries, key points, vocabulary building, and practice questions across 9 different RC question types. Our Ultimate Reading Course offers 365 articles with 2,400+ questions to systematically improve your reading comprehension skills.
This article is rated Advanced because it requires navigating complex historiographical arguments while tracking personal memoir, millennium-long historical sweep, and contemporary political commentary simultaneously without linear chronology. Readers must understand theoretical frameworks like Shahid Amin’s contact zone concept, colonial epistemology critiques, and memory politics analysis while processing specific historical content: Anangabhima’s ritual-kingship versus Hindutva misinterpretations, Mughal accommodation patterns distinguishing religious from political-economic violence motivations, linguistic nationalism pressures on Senapati requiring him to balance tadbhava/desaja vernacular grounding with Persian-English elite circulation, RSS consolidation flattening layered pasts into civilizational binaries. The piece assumes familiarity with South Asian historiography debates, bhakti tradition’s role in identity formation, print capitalism’s effects on linguistic nationalism, and contemporary Hindutva’s selective historical appropriations. Advanced readers should grasp the rhetorical strategy: using personal vulnerability establishing authority before systematic dismantling of dominant narratives, elegiac tone mourning not vanished harmony but fragile coexistence mechanisms, and urgency conveyed through 2025 violence threatening devotional traditions linking Salabega to Sikandar Alam across centuries despite surviving previous pressures.
“Affective archives” refers to embodied cultural memory transmitted through emotional experiences—devotional music performances, neighborhood festival participation, shared food traditions, occupational interdependence creating “street-level coexistence”—rather than formal institutional records or official narratives. These archives persist in Sikandar Alam’s bhakti chaupadi continuing Salabega’s devotional idiom centuries later, in Telugu-inflected Odia diction, in Parsi candy stores and Muslim biryani restaurants becoming part of city’s sensory landscape. The 2025 Dargah Bazaar violence revealing “how easily the affective archives of devotion, music, and neighbourhood life could be eclipsed by louder political grammars” demonstrates their fragility: unlike formal archives protected by institutions, embodied memories require continuous performance and intergenerational transmission vulnerable to disruption. “Louder political grammars” of contemporary polarization—high-decibel communal mobilization, strident identity assertions, violent boundary enforcement—drown “quieter registers” where devotional intimacy operated. The devotional world “had not vanished—but it had been pushed into a quieter register, increasingly inaudible” shows persistence without vitality: archives exist but lack amplification competing with contemporary noise. This matters because it reveals memory politics operating through volume control: not erasing alternatives but rendering them inaudible, making their recovery require active archaeological excavation rather than ambient cultural transmission.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
