AN OVEVIEW

1. ORISSASCENIC,SERENE,SUBLIME

2. LOCATION Located on the eastern coast of India. At 17° 49' North - 22°0 34' North Latitude & 81° 29' East-87° 29' East Longitude. Adjacent to Madhya Pradesh in the west, Andhra Pradesh in the south, West Bengal in north-east, Bay of Bengal in the east and Bihar in the north. Area = 1,55,707 Sq. Km.

5. ABOUT THE STATE Capital of Orissa is Bhubaneswar. Language spoken is Oriya. Orissa consists of 30 districts.

6. GEOGRAPHY Fertile plains along the coast. and forested highlands towards the interior. Western and northern portions of the state are occupied by the Chotanagpur plateaus.

7. FLORA & FAUNA 33% forest area Forests are repositories of Bamboo, Teak, Rosewood, Sal, Piasal, Sanghvan and Haldi White Tigers, Sloth Bear Mongoose, Flying Squirrel, Olive Ridley Turtle Alexandrine Parakeet , Indian Pied Hornbill, Hill Mynah

8. HISTORY The ancient name was Kalinga. Controlled and traded with most of the sea routes in the Bay of Bengal. Mahapadmanabh of Nanda dynasty who ascended the throne of Magadha in 362 B. C. conquered and instituted Kalinga to his extensive empire. Kalinga became economically prosperous under the Nanda rule.

9. KALINGA WAR In 261B.C., the Mauryan emperor Ashoka invaded Kalinga which resulted in the Kalinga war. It is presumed that the war took place in the banks of Daya river. After occupying Kalinga, Ashoka took up the path of non-violence. He beacame an instrument in spreading Buddhism all over Asia.

10. Bank of the Daya river atop Dhauli hill.

11. MAHAMEGHAVAHANA KHARAVELA Kharavela was the third ruler of the Mahameghavahana dynasty. He flourished during the second half of the 1 st century B.C. The hatigumpha inscription furnishes detailed accounts about the life and activities of Kharavela from his boyhood to his 13th reigning year.

13. BRITISH PERIOD In 1803, the British under the British East India Company occupied Orissa. In 1823, Orissa was divided into the three districts of Cuttack, Balasore and Puri. Large scale irrigation projects were undertaken in the last half of the 19th century. The coastal section was separated from Bengal and made into the Province of Bihar and Orissa in 1912.

14. ANCIENT NAMES Orissa has many ancient names like : Kalinga Utkal Utkalraata Udra Odra Odrabisha Oda Odrarashtra Trikalinga Koshala Kangoda Toshali Chedi (Mahabharata) Matsa (Mahabharata)

15. CULTURE DANCE MUSIC LITERATURE ART AND CRAFT SAND ART CUISINE

16. CLASSICAL DANCE ‘Odissi’ is the classical dance of Orissa. Originally developed in the temple of Lord Jagannath. This dance has been closely connected with the day to day activities of the temples. Strongly linked with the religious movements of Orissa.

18. Origin of Odissi Gained recognition in early 60s. The dance form nearly went extinct during the British period. Before that, there were devadasinritya and gotipuanritya.

21. FOLK DANCE Chhau dance (or Chau dance) Sambalpuri dance originated from the western region of Orissa. Tribal dance in the district of Koraput known as dhemsa dance.

24. MUSIC Odissi music is a combination of four distinctive kinds of music, namely, Chitrapada, Dhruvapada, Panchal and Chitrakala. A unique feature of Oriya music is the Padi, which consists of singing of words in fast beat. the five broad categories of oriya music are Tribal Music, Folk music, Light Music, Light-Classical Music and Classical Music.

25. LITERATURE Orissa rich in oriya literature. Jaidev’sGeetagovinda is the basis for odissi dance. Radhanath Ray tried to write his poems with the influence of Western Literature. Fakir Mohan Senapati is famous for his oriya fictions. 21st century famous novelist Manoj Dash is also a pride for Orissa.

26. ART AND CRAFT The pipili work and the silver filigree work at Cuttack The Sambalpuri textiles is famous for its artistic grandeur. The handloom sarees available in Orissa can be of four major types; these are Ikat, Bandha, Bomkai and Pasapalli. Pata painting is considered an important form of Orissan painting which originated from the temple of Jagannath at Puri in the 12th century. Mural paintings can be seen in the caves of Khandagiri and Udaigiri.

32. BRASS OR BELL METAL Practised by particular caste of people in Puri, Cuttack, Ganjam and Sambalpur Districts brass is an alloy of copper and zinc bell metal is an alloy copper and tin.

34. SAND ART A unique type of art form is developed at Puri. To carve a sand sculpture, the raw material is the only clean and fine-grained sand mixed with water. Poet Balaram Das is famous for his sand art of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. SudarshanPattnaik is one of the famous sand artists of the present time.

37. CUISINE Rasagolla is basically an oriya invention. The Salepurrasagolla are very famous. Kheer is originated in Puri 2000 years ago. A typical meal in Orissa consists of a main course and dessert.

38. SALEPUR RASAGOLLA

40. TEMPLES Jagannath temple in Puri Sun temple in Konark Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar Rajarani temple in Bhubaneswar Mukteswar temple in Bhubaneswar

41. JAGANNATH TEMPLE

42. MAHAPRASAD

44. SUN TEMPLE

45. LINGARAJ TEMPLE

46. RAJARANI TEMPLE Built in 11th century Name has been a subject of debate Famous for the aesthetic concept of miniature temple sculptures clustered around the main tower.

48. MONUMENTS Buddhist monuments are Dhauligiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri Jain Monuments are located at Khandagiri and Udayagiri

50. FESTIVALS Major Jagannath Temple Festivals include RathYatra Special Festivals include Konark Festival, Puri Beach festival, Rajarani Music Festival, KalingaMahotsav, EkamraUtsav,ShreekshetraUtsav Tribal Fairs and Festivals include Bali Yatra,ChaitaParava