History of Orissa
The history of Orissa makes an interesting case-study in that it’s history is in many ways atypical from that of the northern plains and many of the common generalizations that are made about Indian history do not seem to apply to the Oriya region.
The word Oriya is an anglicised version of Odia which itself is a modern name for the Odra or Udra tribes that inhabited the central belt of modern Orissa. Orissa has also been the home of the Kalinga and Utkal tribes that played a particularly prominent role in the region’s history, and one of the earliest references to the ancient Kalingas appears in the writings of Vedic chroniclers. In the 6th C. BC, Vedic Sutrakara Baudhayana mentions Kalinga as being beyond the Vedic fold, indicating that Brahminical influences had not yet touched the land. Unlike some other parts of India, tribal customs and traditions played a significant role in shaping political structures and cultural practices right up to the 15th C. when Brahminical influences triumphed over competing traditions and caste differentiation began to inhibit social mobility and erode what had survived of the ancient republican tradition.
Orissa, the land of the Oriyas, was known as “Kalinga” in ancient times. Its capital today is Bhubaneshwar. In the 3rd century BC (268 BC), Ashoka the great Mauryan ruler of the same dynasty, sent a powerful army to annex Kalinga into his empire. The battle of Kalinga was fierce and bloody. It led to much destruction and carnage. Kalinga was subdued by Ashoka at Dhaulagiri near Bhubaneshwar, but so was his heart, because after seeing the aftermath of the war, he felt great remorse. Seeing the ephemeral nature of everything earthly and the uselessness of running after it, he converted to Buddhism and spent the rest of his life spreading the light of Buddhist teachings far and wide. (The battleground is marked by a rock edict and a pillar at Dhuli, 5 km from Bhubaneshwar). His philosophy of life now was peace and therefore in addition to Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism also co-existed during the Mauryan Dynasty.
After the death of Ashoka, Kalinga regained independence. In the second century BC, it became a powerful country under the Kharvelas. The Kharvela king was a fervent Jain, who extended his empire. Description of his capital and kingdom remain recorded for posterity in the Udayagiri caves near Bhubaneshwar, through inscriptions and carvings. Many of the Jain caves were built under his and his Queen’s patronage.
With the death of Kharvela, Orissa passed into obscurity. In the fourth century AD, Samudragupta invaded Orissa, which lay in his path of conquest, and overcame resistance offered by five of its kings. In 610 AD, King Sasanka, an able ruler, ruled Orissa. After Sasanka’s death, Orissa came under the sway of Harsha.
Orissa had its own independent dynasty of rulers in the 7th century AD. This period was also an epoch making period of temple construction activities in Bhubaneshwar under the Kesaris (7th-12 century). In 795 AD, Mahasiva Gupta Yayati II came to the throne, and with him began the most brilliant chapter in the history of Orissa.
He was responsible for uniting Utkal, Kostala, Kangoda and Kalinga in the imperial tradition of Khasvela. The streak of the golden period in the history of Orissa continued under the kings of the Ganga dynasty (12th-15th century). The kings of this dynasty who were affluent due to trade etc., made and supported ambitious programs of developing temple architecture. They were responsible for the Jagannath Puri temple and the Sun temple at Konark, which was built under the patronage of king Nara Singha Dev.
From the 14th century, Orissa was ruled successfully by five Muslim kings till 1592, when Akbar annexed it to the Mughal empire. This period saw the destruction of temples in Bhubaneshwar and Puri.
The Marathas followed the Mughals in 1751, till the British took over in 1803.
In 1936 Orissa was made into a separate province by the state’s merger order (Governor’s provinces) of 1949. Princely states in and around Orissa surrendered their sovereignty to the Government of India and merged with the state of Orissa on 19th August 1949 (after India’s independence in 1947).
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