Languages and Literature in Bhubaneswar

The city of Bhubaneswar has a rich history and heritage of more than 3,000 years. This city of temples is mainly surrounded by Hindu temples and thus also by the Hindu followers. The chief language spoken in Bhubaneswar is Oriya. But since it is a part of the Indian sub-continent, Hindi is also widely spoken and understood by a major section of the people. English, though is not a natural medium of expression, is used by many offices and institutions.

Literature in Bhubaneswar

The Oriya language is rich in terms of literature and has become able to achieve a prominent position among the regional literature in India. The Odisha Sahitya Akademi, an institution of letters was established in the Year 1957 for working actively for the development of Oriya Language and Literature and to set high literary activities and to promote through them all, the cultural unity of the State. This is the apex literary organization of Odisha.

The Odisha Sahitya Akademi seeks to:

1. Promote co-operation among men of letters and literacy associations, Universities and cultural organizations and to encourage the establishment and development of representative literary associations concerned with the advancement of Oriya literature.
   
   
2.  To encourage or to arrange translation of literary works from different Indian languages into Oriya and also from foreign languages into Oriya and vice-versa.
   
   
3. To publish or to assist associations and individuals in publishing literary works including bibliographies, dictionaries, bilingual or multilingual encyclopedias, basic vocabularies etc. in the Oriya Language and publishing, literary journals, reviews and lists of publications in Oriya.
   
   
4. To sponsor or to hold literary conferences, seminars and exhibitions.
   
   
5. To award prizes and distinctions and to give recognition to individual writers for outstanding works.
   
   
6. To promote research in Oriya language and literature and to encourage the propagation and study of such literature.
   
   
7. To improve and develop the Oriya and other scripts in use in Odisha and to encourage publication of selected books in Oriya language in the Devanagari Script.
   
   

Intellectual Festivals like the Think Literature 2012 are organized by the authors and alike in the city of Bhubaneswar where writers, thinkers and innovators from the country and abroad share the same platform and fin the opportunity to interact and debate!