Page:

In forty years, till the appearing of the next article on Mahima dharma, the specific characteristic of the Pancasakha was analysed which certainly had taken up Buddhist conception, but remodeled them in a characteristic way, developed them further and became there by the representatives of Orissa special Vaisnavism which was only partly covered with the theology of Chaitanya. In this connection a mention of the work history of Medieval Vaishnaism in Orissa7 by P.Mukherjee may be made in the first place.       A long Article "Studies in medieval Religion and Literature in Orissa"8 by Chittaranjan Das appeared in 1951. Das showed that the tradition of the Pancasakha continued to exist in the 17th and 18th centuries as well and brought out further works and continues to operate up to the present day. On these lines he gives in the last chapter of his article a short summary of the principal teachings of Mahima Dharma according to the present head of the movement, Visvanatha Baba and presents the inner relationship with and the factual dependence on the traditions of Pancasakha. His book Odisara Mahima Dharma9 is so far the only attempt towards a complete survey that restores the historical tradition, legends and doctrines and strives after portraying the conformity between the origin and development of Mahima Dharma movement and religions of the humanity on the whole.       In 1968 appeared a study of Tribal Research Bureau: The Impact of Satya Mahima Dharma on Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes in Orissa.10 This work enters for the first time, though in a very limited way, into the social structure of the sect and its expansion. The writers mainly tried to determine whether hand how far a conversion to Mahima Dharma is conductive to the integration of the tribes into the modern Indian society. The latest publication is, as far as I know, an article by Bijananda Kar, The Religious Philosophy of Mahima Gosvami and his school,11 which analyses the special philosophical position occupied by Mahima dharma in a few points between the systems of Advaita and Visistadvaita on the one hand, and Jainism and Buddhism on the other, without however, entering into the obvious link between Mahima and the theist Sankhya.       During my stay in Orissa in 1977 the Dayananda Anglo Vedic college at Koraput organized a congress on the topic "Mahima dharma" in which Visvanatha Baba also took part. The conference did not bring out any new revelation. However, it provided some material on the present dialogue between Mahima Dharma and the orthodoxy.   7Calcutta 1941.   8In: "Visva Bharati Annals", 1950 Vol public policy.107-194   9Santiniketan, 1952 10In: Adibasi 1968, vol. X, p. 44-76 11In: Bharati (Utkal University Journal: Humanities) 1969, Vol. III, p. 59-66

Page: