Adivasis of Orissa

History of Orissa

The history of Orissa makes an interesting case-study in that its 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 anglicized 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 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 BC. 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.

Kalinga (very early in Kalingan history), the Kalinga’s acquired a reputation for being a fiercely independent people. Ashoka's military campaign against Kalinga was one of the bloodiest in Mauryan history on account of the fearless and heroic resistance offered by the Kalingas to the mighty armies of the expanding Mauryan Empire. Perhaps on account of their unexpected bravery, emperor Ashoka was compelled to issue two edicts specifically calling for a just and benign administration in Kalinga. Unsurprisingly, Mauryan rule over Kalinga did not last long.

By the 1st BC, Kalingas Jain identified ruler Kharavela had become the pre-eminent monarch of much of the sub-continent and Mauryan Magadha had become a province of the Kalingan Empire. The earliest surviving monuments of Orissa (in Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar) date from his reign, and surviving inscriptions mention that Prince Kharavela was trained not only in the military arts, but also in literature, mathematics, and the social sciences. He was also reputed to be a great patron of the arts and was credited with encouraging dance and theater in his capital.

Although the bravery of the Kalingas became legendary, and finds mention in the Sahitya Darpan, it is important to note that a hereditary warrior caste like the Kshatriyas did not take hold in the region. Soldiers were drawn from the peasantry as needed and rank in the military depended as much on fighting skills and bravery as on hereditary factors.

In this (and other) respects, Oriya history resembles more the history of the nations of South East Asia, and may have been one of the features of Oriya society that allowed it to successfully fend off 300 years of raids initiated by numerous Islamic rulers until the 16th century. Metallurgy, Crafts and Trade Owing to its vast mineral resources, metallurgy developed quite naturally in ancient Orissa and may have been an additional factor in catapulting the region to considerable importance during the Iron Age. Iron tools were used in agricultural production, digging irrigation canals, stone-quarrying, cave excavation and later monumental architecture. Rice cultivation got a particular fillip and during the Iron Age irrigation works from Orissa spread to the regions of ancient Andhra and Tamil Nadu around 300 BC.

Orissa also became a major steel producing centre and steel beams were extensively used in the monumental temples of Bhubaneswar and Puri. Being a coastal region, maritime trade played an important role in the development of Oriya civilization. Cultural, commercial and political contacts with South East Asia, particularly Southern Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia were especially extensive and maritime enterprises play an interesting part in Oriya folk-tales and poetry. Historical records suggest that around the 7th Century AD, the Kongoda dynasty from central Orissa may have migrated to Malaysia and Indonesia. There is also evidence of exchange of embassies with China. Records of Oriya traders being active in the ports of South East Asia are fairly numerous and in his descriptions of Malacca, Portuguese merchant Tome Pires indicates that traders from Orissa were active in the busy port as late as the 16th Century. (There is evidence to suggest that trade contact between Eastern India and Thailand may date as far back as the 3rd or 4th Century BC. Himanshu Ray (The Winds of Change - Buddhism and the Maritime Links of Early South Asia) suggests that at least eight oceanic routes linked the Eastern Coast of India with the Malayan peninsula, and after the Iron Age, metals (such as iron, copper and tin), cotton textiles and foodstuffs comprised the trade. She also suggests that the trade involved both Indian and Malayo-Polynesian ships. Archeological evidence from Sisupalgarh (near Bhubaneswar) in Orissa suggests that there may also have been direct or indirect trade contacts between ancient Orissa and Rome dating to the 1st-2nd Century AD (or possibly earlier). The chronicles of Hiuen Tsang refer to Orissa's overseas contacts in the 7th Century and by the 10th Century; records of Orissa's trade with the East begin to proliferate.)