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Origin of the name of the State Orissa
The name Orissa is derived from the Sanskrit Odra
Vishaya or Odra Desa. Both Pali and Sanskrit Literatures
mention the Odra people as Oddaka and Odrah,
respectively. Greek writers like Pliny and Ptolemy
described the Odra people as Oretes. In the Mahabharata
the Odras are mentioned along with the Paundras, Utkals,
Mekalas, Kalingas and Andhras, while according to Manu
the Odras are associated with the Paundrakas, Dravidas,
Kambojas, Yavanas, Sakas, Paradas, Pallhavas, Chinas,
Kiratas and Khasas. The location of the Odra territory
has been given in the Natural History of Pliny in which
it is mentioned that the Oretes were inhabiting the
country where stood the Mount Maleus. The Greek Oretes
is probably the Sanskrit Odra and the Mount Maleus has
been identified with Malayagiri near Pala Lahara. Pliny
associates the Mount Maleus with the people called
Monedes and Sharis who were probably the same as the
Mundas and the Savaras respectively inhabiting the
upland regions of Orissa.
The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-Tsang who visited Orissa in
about 636 A.D. gives an account of the territory named
Wu-Cha which is very likely the same as Odra. The
pilgrim states that the Wu-Cha (Wu-tu) country was above
7,000 li in circuit and its capital was above
20 li in circuit. The area of the territory,
which was 7,000 li or (2,253 km) in circuit,
was very extensive. General Cunningham who calls this
territory as Odra or Odra Desa writes as follows:
“The ancient province of Odra desa or Or-desa was
limited to the valley of the Mahanadi and to the lower
course of the Subarnarekha river. It comprised the whole
of the present districts of Cuttack and Sambalpur and a
portion of Midnapore. It was bounded on the West by
Gondwana, on the North by the wild hill states of
Jashpur and Singhbhum, on the East by the sea and on the
South by Ganjam. These also must have been the limits in
the time of Hiuen-Tsang as the measured circuit agrees
with his estimate”.
The Muslim geographer lbn Khurdadhbin who wrote his
geography in 846 AD refers to a territory called Ursfin
which is identified by the Russian scholar V. Minorsky
with Odra Desa. In another Persian geography called
Hudad-al Alam written towards the close of the 10 th
century A.D. mention has been made of a territory called
Urshin (Odra Desa) which has been associated with the
territories called N. Myas, Harkand, Smnder and Andhras
which were more or less contiguous. The territory called
N.Myas may be Mahismati and Harkand is suggested to be
Akarakhand (eastern Malwa). Urshin may be the same as
Odra Desa and Smnder may be the territory bordering the
sea. Andhras is without doubt the same as Andhra Desa.
Alberuni has referred to a territory called Udra Vishau
located 50 forsakhs towards the sea in the south from
the Tree of Prayaga. Fifty forsakhs is equal to about
200 miles or 321.86 km. So Udra Vishau may be the same
as Odra Desa.
In the mediaeval Muslim chronicles like
Tabaquat-I-Nasiri, Tabaquat-I-Akbari, Riyadus-Salatin,
Tarkh-I-Firuzsahi, etc., the Odra territory has been
referred to as Jajnagar probably after the capital
Yayatinagar or Jajatinagar. The territory of Jajnagar
very probably denotes to the Ganga empire during the
period from Chodagangadeva to Anangabhimdeva III when
Jajatinagar (modern Jagati on the Mahanadi) was the
capital of that empire. It was Anangabhimadeva III who
transferred the capital from Jajatinagar to Baranasi
Kataka. And even after the change of capital some Muslim
chroniclers continued to call this territory as Jajnagar.
Shams-I-Seraj-Afif called this territory as
Jajnagar-Udisa with its capital city Banaras on the
right bank of the Mahanadi. The word ‘Udisa’ added to
Jajnagar appears very significant. It is a developed
form of the word Ursfin or Urshin used by earlier Muslim
writers of the 9 th and 10 th centuries A.D. In Buddhist
literature this word is expressed as Odivisa or Udivisa
as found in the works of Lama Taranath and the author of
Pag-Sam-Jon-Zang. In the Tantric literature of the
mediaeval period the word Udisa has been frequently used
and in Tantrasara, Jagannath has been referred to as
Udisanatha. Poet Sarala Das mentions both the words Odra
Rastra and Odisa in his famous treatise Mahabharata
while Gajapati Kapileswaradeva (1435 – 1467 AD) in his
proclamation inscribed on the temple walls of Jagannath
calls his territory as Odisa Rajya. Thus from the 15 th
century AD onward the land of the Oriya people was
called Udisa or Odisa. |
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