Bhubaneswar, Feb. 16: The influence of Buddhism has always been visible in the state right since the time of Ashoka. There is significant Buddhist influence in architecture, lifestyle as well as music in Odisha.

City-based singer Susmita Das is reviving the centuries old musical link in her new music album that has been launched recently. The album ponders over the tantric form of Buddhism.

Titled Deha Videha, the album is a transformed version of the well-known author Haraprasad Das's poems that explore the tantric aspect of Buddhism that had Odisha under its spell between the 7th to 12th century AD.

The eight songs in the compilation have been composed by Omprakash Mohanty with a tinge of contemporary touch. The mystic poems written by Haraprasad Das seek to recreate the resonance of metaphors expressed in the tantric form of Buddhism.

"Odisha is the uddiyan pitha of Buddhist theology. The founder of Lamaism in Tibet, Acharya Padmasambhava also hailed from Odisha. The secrets of the esoteric quests of Buddhism lay buried under rites, rituals, symbols, metaphors and pure sounds," said Susmita. "In Buddhist philosophy, metaphorical allusions and a maze of euphemisms are used. Here, the body connects the spirit in binding flashes of sensuous overtures by the sombre reminder of deliverance," Susmita said.

All the eight songs of the album capture this essence. The first song elaborates the blissful unity of a yogi and yogini, which is akin to salvation while the second song depicts the transformation of Shavari into an age-worn princess. There are songs based on the unending cycle of birth and death as well as the restless pursuit of worldly elements, which only lead to false hopes. The final composition focuses on the unity of the body and the spirit that eventually leads to enlightenment.

The music album also has a commentary in the voice of the poet himself.