Orissa, India

Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Scheduled Tribes in India. It neighbours the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west, and Andhra Pradesh to the south. Odisha has a coastline of along the Bay of Bengal in Indian Ocean. The region is also known as Utkala and is also mentioned in India's national anthem, "Jana Gana Mana". The language of Odisha is Odia, which is one of the Classical Languages of India.

The ancient kingdom of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (which was again won back from them by King Kharavela) in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War, coincides with the borders of modern-day Odisha. The modern boundaries of Odisha were demarcated by the British Indian government when Orissa Province was established on 1 April 1936, consisting of the Odia-speaking districts of Bihar and Orissa Province. The first of April is celebrated as Utkala Dibasa/Odisha Day. Cuttack was made the capital of the region by Anantavarman Chodaganga in , after which the city was used as the capital by many rulers, through the British era until 1948. Thereafter, Bhubaneswar became the capital of Odisha.
The economy of Odisha is the 16th-largest state economy in India with in gross domestic product and a per capita GDP of . Odisha ranks 32nd among Indian states in Human Development Index.

Etymology

The terms ''Odisha'' and ''Orissa'' () derive from the ancient Prakrit word ''"Odda Visaya"'' (also "''Udra Bibhasha''" or "''Odra Bibhasha''") as in the Tirumalai inscription of Rajendra Chola I, which is dated to 1025. Sarala Das, who translated the ''Mahabharata'' into the Odia language in the 15th century, calls the region 'Odra Rashtra' as Odisha. The inscriptions of Kapilendra Deva of the Gajapati Kingdom (1435–67) on the walls of temples in Puri call the region ''Odisha'' or ''Odisha Rajya''.

In 2011, the English rendering of was changed from "Orissa" to "Odisha", and the name of its language from "Oriya" to "Odia", by the passage of the ''Orissa (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2010'' and the ''Constitution (113th Amendment) Bill, 2010'' in the Parliament. The Hindi rendering () was also modified to (). After a brief debate, the lower house, Lok Sabha, passed the bill and amendment on 9 November 2010. On 24 March 2011, Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, also passed the bill and the amendment. The changes in spelling were made with the intention of having the English and Hindi renditions conform to the Odia transliteration. However, the underlying Odia texts were nevertheless transliterated incorrectly as per the Hunterian system, the official national transliteration standard, in which the transliterations would be and instead.

History

Prehistoric Acheulian tools dating to Lower Paleolithic era have been discovered in various places in the region, implying an early settlement by humans. Kalinga has been mentioned in ancient texts like ''Mahabharata'', ''Vayu Purana'' and ''Mahagovinda Suttanta''.

According to political scientist Sudama Misra, the Kalinga janapada originally comprised the area covered by the Puri and Ganjam districts. The Sabar people of Odisha have also been mentioned in the Mahabharata. Baudhayana mentions Kalinga as not yet being influenced by Vedic traditions, implying it followed mostly tribal traditions.


Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty conquered Kalinga in the bloody Kalinga War in 261 BCE, which was the eighth year of his reign. According to his own edicts, in that war about 100,000 people were killed, 150,000 were captured and more were affected. The resulting bloodshed and suffering of the war is said to have deeply affected Ashoka. He turned into a pacifist and converted to Buddhism.

By c. 150 BCE, Emperor Kharavela, who was possibly a contemporary of Demetrius I of Bactria, conquered a major part of the Indian sub-continent. Kharavela was a Jain ruler. He also built the monastery atop the Udayagiri hill. Subsequently, the region was ruled by monarchs, such as Samudragupta and Shashanka. It was also a part of Harsha's empire.

The city of Brahmapur in Odisha is also known to have been the capital of the Pauravas during the closing years of 4th century CE. Nothing was heard from the Pauravas from about the 3rd century CE, because they were annexed by the Yaudheya Republic, who in turn submitted to the Mauryans. It was only at the end of 4th century CE, that they established royalty at Brahmapur, after about 700 years.

Later, the kings of the Somavamsi dynasty began to unite the region. By the reign of Yayati II, c. 1025 CE, they had integrated the region into a single kingdom. Yayati II is supposed to have built the Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar. They were replaced by the Eastern Ganga dynasty. Notable rulers of the dynasty were Anantavarman Chodaganga, who began reconstruction on the present-day Shri Jagannath Temple in Puri (c. 1135), and Narasimhadeva I, who constructed the Konark temple