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Debendra K. DashDipti R. Pattanaik 63view. During the last fifty years Chittaranjan Das in hisAchutananda O’ Phansakha Dharma, Studies in MedievalReligion and Literature of Orissa, Santha Sahitya and BalaramDas reinforced the thesis that all the saint poets werecontemporary and they consolidated the Oriya identity throughtheir writings, bringing literature, society and religion on thesame plane. However citing historical inaccuracies,contradictions Sachidananda Mishra provided an alternativeviewpoint that the concept of the panchasakha is a myth, anddoes not stand the test of rigorous historical scrutiny. Later onNatabara Samantaray published two books titled SakhahinaPanchasakha and Panchasakha Parikalpana wh ich tried toprove that those saint poets in question were not contemporariesand there could be a gap of two hundred years between Balaramand Jagannath on the one hand and the other three on the other.There has not been any further study refuting the theses putforward by Mishra and Samantaray. Another historian KrushnaCharan Sahoo puts forward an argument that there were severalpoets bearing the same name across these times, so the textsascribed to each one of them could be doubtful. However, basingan argument on those doubtful texts alone, the entire concept ofPanchasakha should not be discredited. For the presentdiscussions, we go along with the view put forward by the latestone by Sahoo (Sahoo 1999-2001).6. Most of the scholars of Oriya literary history have ascribed thistext to Sarala Das because Bilanka Ramayana is by SiddheswarDas, which happened to be the original name of Sarala before hewas blessed by the Goddess Sarala. In Chandi Purana Saraladeclares that the Ramayana was his first work. Until the seventhdecade of the 20 th century, since no other version of Ramayanahad been ascribed to Sarala, this text was commonly accepted ashaving been written by Sarala. In the seventies SatchidanandaMishra discovered a palm-leaf manuscript titled Bichitra