Jagannath Das popularly known as Atibadi is a household name in Odisha for his Odia Bhagabata.During my childhood I was curious to know the meaning of 'Atibadi' which was explained as big or great. Sixteenth century Bhakti movement forerunner Sri Chaitanya used to refer Jagannath Das as atibadi. But later I found that there is no such word in Odia.Then how did this word come to exist?
Sri chaitanya viewed only Lord Krishna as the only male and all human beings as female including himself. So he referred Jagannath Das as atibadi thinking the feminie gender of atibada to be atibadi. But in Odia there is no such term unlike other Indian language such as Hindi.So in terms of linguistics atibadi is wrong. But the major fallacy is referring a male as female. Faith, belief is personal thing. One may consider himself or other person as female according to his belief;but nobody will accept a male using kumari or srimati before his or some other male person's name. Ironically in case of Jagannath Das this has happened. We are referring him as atibadi for last five hundred years. Across the world various mistakes are being corrected how old it may be. I think it is high time to think over it and take corrective measures.
