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44 Translating Medieval OrissaRamayana Champu that also belonged to the ornate Sanskrit poetictradition. However, Patnaik’s text Suchitra Ramayana written in1754 abandons the style of the original, which combines both theprose and verse forms and the entire text, and is written in verse. Headmits that though the theme he has undertaken is sacred, he is moreattracted by the poetic skills employed in the original. In order tosharpen the poetic skill, that is part of the ornate tradition and toheighten the emotional content or rasa, he has deviated from theoriginal at a few places. His text can be characterized as an iconictranslation in which his faithfulness to the original sometimes causesartificiality of expression.The last text taken up for consideration is the Gita byKrishna Singh, the king of Dharakot belonging to the latter half ofthe 18 th century and the translator of the more popular Mahabharataand Haribandha. Like Dinabandhu Mishra he has tried to follow theoriginal faithfully. In the introductory verses, he establishes hisidentity as a devotee of Jagannath, as done in his other translationslike Mahabharata. However, unlike in the Mahabharata, he hasfaltered at places while interpreting the subtle nuances of the abstractphilosophical formulations of the original Srimad Bhagabata Gita.Krishna Singh’s translations are an example of the limitations oficonic translations of philosophical texts into the Oriya language.This brief analysis of some representative texts belonging to aperiod spanning three hundred years, from the early 16 th century toearly 19 th century, reveals a heterogeneous field in which varioustranslational and interpretative practices coalesced. Barring a few textstowards the end of the period, most of the texts demonstrate thesimultaneous presence of multiple strategies current at the time.However, most of the works do not designate themselves as‘translations’ but as ‘revelations’. By expressing their obeisance tosome super human creative agency, they not only legitimize theircreation/translation but also problematize the whole question of the