Papers by Dr.Mahendra K U M A R Mishra
All men are intellectuals, one could therefore say: but not all men have the function of intellec... more All men are intellectuals, one could therefore say: but not all men have the function of intellectuals in society.(…) There is no human activity from which every form of intellectual participation can be excluded: homo faber cannot be separated from homosapiens" Antonio Gramsci Two Programs under Scrutiny This paper aims at exploring two community-based programmes adopted in Orissa as the outcome of "principles" put in to "practices", to ensure an equitable quality education. One programme is "Multilingual Education" which aims at imparting mother tongue based multilingual education to linguistic minority children of the state at primary stage through thematic approach based on the philosophy of National Curriculum Framework 2005. Tribal communities have contributed their knowledge in framing the curriculum and preparing instructional materials for their children studying in 500 schools of the state. Some case studies have been presented to examine that how community knowledge can be the better instrument for cognitive development in classroom with a foundation of children"s cultural contest, ad community"s intellectual participation in school. Another programme is "Srujan" (creativity)a cluster approach to education introduced in tribal areas where the school and community members provide a space for the children to express their creative ability through community culture and connect this knowledge in school curriculum. The Focal Theme of This Article The focal theme of the paper is to establish that intellectual activity of the community can be more appropriate for the children who live in different cultural context where the parents and community as a whole can contribute their culture in shaping the education and learning of their children, thereby reducing the gap of school and community.
As the the official journal of the Folklore Foundation, Lokaratna is a bilingual, peer reviewed a... more As the the official journal of the Folklore Foundation, Lokaratna is a bilingual, peer reviewed academic journal published in Oriya and English. Located in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, the Folklore Foundation promotes folklore in the public domain and is committed to quality research. The literal meaning of lokaratna is 'gem of the people', the gem being the oral traditions that are created by people through their oral expression. The editor-in-chief of the journal is Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra
Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 2004
... Dr Anand Mahanand 5. Kondh Narratives in Kalahandi of Orissa Dr.Verellin Greet 6. Kui Oral Tr... more ... Dr Anand Mahanand 5. Kondh Narratives in Kalahandi of Orissa Dr.Verellin Greet 6. Kui Oral Tradition Anuja Mohan Pradhan Page 4. Lokaratna Vol III 4 Religion in Practice 7. A Kond Cultural Encounter in the Cult of Jagannatha Dr. Baba Mishra ...
... Dr Anand Mahanand 5. Kondh Narratives in Kalahandi of Orissa Dr.Verellin Greet 6. Kui Oral Tr... more ... Dr Anand Mahanand 5. Kondh Narratives in Kalahandi of Orissa Dr.Verellin Greet 6. Kui Oral Tradition Anuja Mohan Pradhan Page 4. Lokaratna Vol III 4 Religion in Practice 7. A Kond Cultural Encounter in the Cult of Jagannatha Dr. Baba Mishra ...
Social Justice through Multilingual Education, 2009
Anthropological Quarterly, 2005
Madeleine Biardeau, Stories About Posts: Vedic Variations Around the Hindu Goddess. Trans. AIf Hi... more Madeleine Biardeau, Stories About Posts: Vedic Variations Around the Hindu Goddess. Trans. AIf Hiltebeitel, James Walker, Marie-Louise Reiniche. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004, 358pp. Much of the history of existing scholarship on India's goddesses is the history of a "dichotomous thought-model," employed to serve the purposes of ordering and classifying the huge ensemble of data that scholars confront in textual sources and/or in the fieldwork. We only need to recall the desperate observation by W.T.Elmore that the material on the heterogeneous forms of worship in India "while almost limitless is fugitive." The "dichotomous thoughtmodel," has made its presence prominent with the works of Elmore (1915) and Henry Whitehead (1921), who constructed a major grid of dichotomies by naming a particular set of deities, especially the goddesses, as "Dravidian" and contrasting them with the Hindu-Aryan and male deities. This move, unfortunately, has sidelined the necessary scholarly skepticism that accompanied the concerns of the early writers on Indian religions, such as Gustav Oppert (1893). One should note here that though Oppert (1893) also regarded female energy to be of non-Aryan origin, he was quite reflective in asserting the genealogy of the Aryan-Dravidian dichotomous currents and the difficulty in discovering the "original source" of these currents. In this backdrop of texts and positions, Madeleine Biardeau's Stories about Posts figures as an important landmark, for it restores the skepticism about the dichotomous framework back into religious scholarship. As Biardeau succinctly dismisses the idea of the goddess "as a specifically Dravidian contribution to the structure of Hinduism," she, in the same breath, challenges the related "irreducible duality," constructed in terms of great tradition vs. little tradition or great Hindu temples vs. tribal or 'primitive' contributions in the works on Hinduism today. Biardeau's challenging mission, supported by her ethnographic fieldwork during the 1970s and 80s in the Deccan (including Orissa) and Southern Tamilnadu, culminates in the thesis that "through variations found in the cult of the Goddess-in both her royal and village aspects," stories about posts can be traced. Her interpretive method, which she describes as the "path followed after" field investigations, "deliberately" orders the material on goddess worship for the purpose of tracing the discourses of posts. Anchoring her study to the practices of goddess worship, Biardeau finds a common cord in the form of post running through these practices from Orissa through Andhra to Tamilnadu, and stretches this common cord to the anterior Vedic sacrificial post or yupa. Part One of the book pays special attention to the "subaltern god" Potu Raju, who is the younger brother of goddesses in Andhra, and the current rituals connected to posts of buffalo sacrifice at royal temples of goddesses in Orissa. Represented by a wooden post or pole or a processional icon and participating in the festivals of his sister-goddess, this god-in-his-symbolic form is located back to the Vedic sacrificial ritual complex of the yupa, the sacrificial post of torture, the sacrificial pit, and the sacrificial victim. Textual sources on the Vedic ritual as well as textual and oral ethnographic details gathered from Orissa assist the author in this enterprise. In the course of her inquiry, she raises a crucial question concerning the Vedic ritual and the "mythico-ritual complex" of the buffalo sacrifice to the goddess: "Did the sacrifice of the buffalo to the goddess correspond to the disappearance of the practice of solemn Vedic sacrifices with their animal victims?" (p. 92). As Biardeau admits that a verifiable historical correlation between these two is not possible, she approaches the question structurally by juxtaposing the two contexts of the sacrificial arena and the battlefield, and arrives at the notion of "double inversion:" namely, one, the inversion of "individual" Vedic (brahmanic) sacrifice to the collectively practiced buffalo sacrifice in the goddess worship, and two, the inversion of the "sex of the deity" and the "category of the victim" foregrounded by the sacrifice, (pp. …
Human Immunology, 2013
Aim: The Nordiag Arrow is an automated genomic DNA and RNA extraction system from virtually any s... more Aim: The Nordiag Arrow is an automated genomic DNA and RNA extraction system from virtually any source. Using paramagnetic bead technology, the Nordiag Arrow extraction system processes 1-12 samples in just 50 minutes. We have compared quality and quantity of the DNA extracted from buccal swab between the Nordiag Arrow and a leading competitor system. Methods: To test the hypothesis that the Nordiag Arrow system is comprable or exceeds a leading competitor system, DNA from 10 buccal swabs was extracted according to the procedures. The genetic material was checked with NanoDrop for DNA quality and quantity. Some samples were tested for Luminex SSO HLA typing. Results: The quantity of DNA extracted with the Arrow (0.0146 ± 0.008lg/lL) was on average 50% higher than that obtained from a competitor system (0.0070 ± 0.003lg/lL). The purity of the genomic material extracted with the Arrow (ratio:1.839 ± 0.134) was superior to that of the competing system (ratio:2.368 ± 0.463).[figure1]Some of the DNA was aslo tested with Luminex SSO Class I and II typing to very that amplifiable DNA was obtained. Conclusions: The Nordiag Arrow system provides an efficient and reliable automated way of extracting up to 12 samples at the same time. The quality and quantity of DNA extracted has been tested with Luminex based SSO HLA typing and gave robust amplifications and successful hybridizations. The system is user friendly and has a very low maintenance schedule. In our laboratory, we currently use the Nordiag Arrow system for DNA extractions from blood or swabs for both SSP-and SSO-based tissue typing. Validation of cell isolations for CDC crossamtching and chimerism minitoring is in progress using the Nordiag Arrow.
Journal of Folklore Research Reviews, 2009
Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Craig J. Reynolds Year: 2006 Pages: 376 Publisher: University of W... more Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Craig J. Reynolds Year: 2006 Pages: 376 Publisher: University of Washington Press ISBN: 0-295-98610-7 (soft cover). Prices: $35.00 USD(soft cover).
Journal of Folklore Research Reviews, 2006
Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Diane P. Mines Year: 2006 Pages: 240 Publisher: Indiana University... more Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Diane P. Mines Year: 2006 Pages: 240 Publisher: Indiana University Press ISBN: 0-253-34576-6 (hard cover). Prices: $60.00 USD(hard cover).
Surrounded with hills and forests, rivers and streams, birds and animals, palace and huts, Kalaha... more Surrounded with hills and forests, rivers and streams, birds and animals, palace and huts, Kalahandi is a region in southwestern part of Orissa. Chhatishgarh in southwest, Kondhmal in the east, and Bolangir district in the north of Kalahandi has formulated a cultural network-a silk way to the greater Indian culture through middle India. But the cultural scenario of Kalahandi is akin to the culture of western Orissa through its language affinity. The unique character of Kalahandi is that the flora and fauna, the land and the people share their belongingness. The race memory of Kalahandi expressed in their cultural creativity in manifold art forms. The district extends over an area of 11,835 Sq. Kms. and constitutes 7.75 per cent of the total area of the State. Fifty percent land are cultivable plain land, with natural facilities of irrigation whereas the rest fifty per cent land is covered with plateau, mountains and jungles. The life pattern of the people of this area is regulated and adapted according to the geographical and natural resources of this region. Total population of the district is 1335494 out of which male literates are 349473 and female literates are 163910.Total literacy rate of male in the district is 62.7 and female is 29.3. The gender gap of literacy is 33.4. This indicates the level of literacy of males in comparision to the female. There are 30% Scheduled tribes in the district. The Kondh, the Gond, the Paraja, the Bhatara are dominant tribes in the district. People speak local Oriya language. Tribal people have their own language. The Kondhs are divided into Desia-plain Landers and Kutia-hill and forest dwellers. There is 5% urban population to the total population of the district and 95% people live in rural areas. Out of 13 Blocks tribal people thickly dominate four blocks. Bhawanipatna is the district headquarters. Junagarh, Kesinga and Narla, M Rampur aresome small towns with business center. Meriah-human sacrifice was the religious practice among the Kondh tribe of Kalahandi. Major Campbell and McPherson suppressed the practice during the mid eighteen-century with the help of local kings. The purpose of such sacrifice was to get ample harvest. Culture in kalahandi mainly based on food gatherers and later on food producers. The gradual transformation of food gathering practice to food producing practice is found in the oral narratives and religious rituals. Pod puja-Buffalo sacrifice festival of the Kondh tribe in Kalahandi still bear the symbol of human sacrifice. Heritage: Kalahandi was known as Mahakantara (great forest) in ancient India. The ruling dynasties like Parvata Dwaraka, Nala, Sarabhapuriyas, Ganga and Chindaka Naga, were ruling over Kalahandi. Kalahandi, also known as Karunda Mandal is the treasure of precious stones like karandam (Manik), Garnet (red stone), Beruz, Neelam (blue stone), and Alexandra etc. Mr. P. K. Deo. The Ex Maharaja of Kalahandi, in one of his articles expressed his view that the historical significance of naming Kalahandi as Karunda. Mandala is based on the availability of corundum in this region. Manikeswari (the goddess of Manikya) the clan deity of the Naga kings of Kalahandi may have also necessitated the adoption of the name.
Journal of Folklore Research Reviews, 2007
Reviewed Medium: book Translators: Dawood Auleear, Lee Haring Year: 2006 Pages: 116 Publisher: Na... more Reviewed Medium: book Translators: Dawood Auleear, Lee Haring Year: 2006 Pages: 116 Publisher: National Folklore Support Centre ISBN: 81-901481-7-6 (soft cover). Prices: $10.00 USD(soft cover).
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Papers by Dr.Mahendra K U M A R Mishra
animals, and spirituality. We envision a society where technology and the environment can coexist
while respecting the dignity of all people and preserving cultural heritage and languages.
The themes of the books is all about the oral tradition and ritual performances in teh cultural practices have been researched during 1985- 2002 and have been interpreted based on modern folklore theory and methods. Most of the essays in this volume are the out come of field research in western Odisha and Chhattishgarh.
Vanhemmilla, erityisesti vanhemmilla sukupolvilla, on paljon elämänkokemusta, jolle he luovuttavat sen nuoremmille sukupolvilleen tarinoiden ja anekdoottien muodossa.