Purnamasi Jani

Purnamasi Jani is a Kui poet, singer and spiritual leader from Kandhamal district, known for devotional songs that carry messages of social reform to tribal villages. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of art, from Odisha ^[1].

Songs at Tadisaru

Purnamasi Jani was born on 1 January 1936 into a Kui tribal family in Dalapada village, Kandhamal, and was married young to Nilakantha Jani of Charipada ^[2]. In 1969 she went to pray on Tadisaru hill, sacred to the Kui people, and after deep prayer began singing bhajans, aratis and devotional songs for two to three hours at a stretch ^[2]. Though she cannot read or write and speaks only Kui, she has sung in Odia, Kui and Sanskrit ^[2].

Songs with a message

Going from village to village in Kandhamal, she uses her songs to warn against superstition, drinking, child marriage and misinformation about family planning ^[2]. She has helped mend broken families, brought wayward young people back into society and pressed for girls’ education ^[2]. Her work has spread from Kandhamal to Boudh, Kalahandi and the old Koraput district ^[2].

Honours

She received the Odisha Sahitya Akademi award for poetry in 2006, a South Odisha literature award in 2008 and the Ananya Srikhetra Samman in 2017 ^[2]. The Sri Jagannath temple administration honoured her in 1996 ^[2].