Second part of my ancestry in my memoir Annytha Mullyaheena (otherwise worthless)

Date 04.10.2014 Vijaya Dashami. My ancestry (part two) in Annyatha Mullyaheena  


(   I feel proud my grandfather and father remembered the ancestry of several generations, my grand children already born (elder brother`s granddaughter and elder sister`s granddaughter) are the 8^th generation we have remembered.

                                            Rama

              Shankar…………………...Sapana

                   /                               /

                   Nandu                                        Bikala

                   /                                                  /

                Anama                                          Jagata

                     /                                                                                     /

Padna, Gopala, Madhaba, Ajaya       Madana Mohan(my father) and Gagana Bihari(my late uncle)

                                                                       /                                                  /                         Kartik Chandra, Pravatnalini, Ashok(late),Sandhya, Rabinarayan…Kishore Chandra, Muturi

               /                                                                        /                              /                   Roshni, Kiran,JyotirmayaJyotirmaya     SayamSuraj , SohamSamprit               Sipra, SmrutiRanjan

         Usually a generation is counted as 50 years so up to our generation we can tell we are aware of last 300 to 350 years. This matches my assumption that roughly my family started residing in Tulati from Rama. Let us presume Rama the great grandfather of my grandfather eloped with a Sita, may be of other caste or community so was driven out by his villagers, came to Tulati the foreign liberal atmosphere and permanently settled here..)

     I do not feel generations should be counted as 50 years it should be 25 to 30 years I do not know the procedure my father was born on 13.11 1936 his father in 2008 and grandfather in 1889 then what should be the length of a generation? Uncle Padana who is one generation senior to my elder brother is actually one year younger than my brother; number of years for their four generation is equal for our five generations. The age difference between a father and a son may be as less as 18 years on those days or maybe 45 years if several children died and last one survived. So no one can correctly tell the date of birth of Rama the great grandfather of my grandfather it may be anywhere in between 1795 AD to 1830 AD. He must have come with Sita at the age of 18 to 20 so the correct time of my family`s settlement at Tulati may be somewhere between 1813 AD to 1848 AD. There is also a chance that Rama`s father or grandfather were locals but they had not more than one son so the family was not extended.

     It is very interesting to know that the great grandfather of my grandfather Rama`s wife was Sita, in our side Sapana`s wife was Sharia, Bikala`s wife was Pata, Jagat`s wife was Janjali. My mother is Lakshmipriya and aunt again was Sita. I presume and what I had seen in my childhood women were never put in lesser place in our village. Our village`s life line the majestic pond of Kastura was dug by a lady Kasturi so how can anyone discriminate. This is the main reason why my grandfather remembered his great grandmother`s name and felt it important to teach my father. My father`s eye sparkled when I demanded to know their names, he told the name Sharia his great grandmother as if she was his own girl friend.

What is in a name? May be there is. Rama was a great name. His sons Shankar the Lord of destruction was a great name, the other son Sapana meant dream was a romantic name so also his wife Sharia. This suggest our forefathers were advanced they did not keep names like hagura mutura etc. How then came the names Nandu as Shankara`s son and Bikala as sapana`s son, so ordinary names. Nandu means shaved head and Bikala means melancholic. I assign one out of two possible reasons.

     The first maybe before Rama the Senapati family was great. Rama came moneyless to Tulati worked as a labor class man and the family lived miserably, although the tempo of keeping good names was there in next generation it lost its meaning in the third generation in a poor family. But I reject this proposal as on those days strong people earned more, my grandfather told his grandfather was very tall strong and stout, so also was his father, my grandfather as I remember was a tall man but was with diseased figure when I saw him, my father and brothers are very strong.My uncle Gagan Senapati was tall unfortunately was chronically asthmatic and died at the age of 37 in 1975. So also Shankara`s descendants were and are strong. Hard work is the hallmark of both the families. Of course our ancestors were not rich at any point. It was not possible someone settled in a new village not for any glorious work would be man of money or power.

     The second reason maybe on those days of high mortality many children died and people had belief that if ordinary names were chosen the Yamaraj  Lord of death ignores the kid. Such a practice was continued till to recent times. I support this theory as both the side had only one sons for continuous three generations, did they adopt any birth control, not a possibility it was because of high infant mortality. Yes my grandfather had three sisters all died, the last of them was a maternal death. My great grandfather had six sisters and all of them were leading family life in different villages nearby. Bikala Senapati died in 1942 at the age of 52 only, This was sudden from some febrile illness. Malaria?? His wife Pata survived till 1961 who was the dominating figure from 1942 to 1961 she did try for the improvement of the family and started money/ rice lending business. She was very short tempered and she wanted strict discipline. She on the date of her death had a dispute with a neighbor Fakira Sahoo on recovery of the money. The sick Fakira Sahoo had to return it to her instant but with displeasure, my grandfather sympathized the man. The old lady did not survive to enjoy the money returned. She went to attend the call of nature, was found dead in our family pond. Everyone thought it was accidental, can someone do a suicide following a dispute with a neighbor and after winning the dispute only because my grandfather sympathized the other man who was sick. Let us presume the hurt sick man`s curse my great grandmother could not survive. Fakira Sahoo was extremely sorry as he and everyone else loved the old lady. So what was the fun in being obsessed with the money you lent. My parents keep Pata in very high esteem, she made our family self dependant on agricultural output. Her son and grandson thereafter became able to certain extent to improve more to bring the family from lower class to middle class. Pata Senapati the widow recovered what Ramaji lost eloping with the girl Sita as a money less man to settle at a foreign village Tulati, the kingdom of Annyatha Mullyaheena.

     It is my pleasure to feel Shankar`s family the other side of Rama Senapati also became members of middle class at equal time. We remained humble with each other`s family and never forgot our forefathers were not very rich though we were Senapati meaning Commander`s family.