The earliest adaptation of Vyasa’s Sanskrit Mahabharata into Oriya, the language of the people of Orissa State in India , was done by Sarala Das. Also known as the ‘aadi kavi,’ or the first poet, of Oriya Literature, Sarala Dasa undertook the monumental effort of translating Sanskrit Mahabharata into Oriya in the 15th Century. Sarala Mahabharata cannot be exactly termed as an Oriya Translation of the original because the author makes serious intelligent digressions and interpolations to adapt it into the tradition of Orissa. The greatness of the Oriya Mahabharat of Sarala lies in the fact that it is not a mere literal translation. Sarala Das cleverly incorporates culture, customs, folklore and other native aspects of Orissa tradition and purposefully avoids philosophy in order to reach out to the large majority of rural audience. It must be noted here that Sarala was not a Brahmin and to attempt to write a classical text like Mahabharat in the 15th century in a regional

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