Orissa Review * April - 2010

Origin and Evolution of the Name ODISA

C.B. Patel

The origin of the geographical name µOdisa¶ is Utkala, Mekala, and Andhra. Manu on shrouded in mystery. In ancient time Orissa was the other hand places the Odra people alongwith more famous as Kalinga and Utkala. But Pallavas, Kiratas, and etc. surprisingly a lesser known geographical unit However, these statements do not specify the µOdra¶, the home land of a tribe, called by the location and extent of the country. The µNatural Greeks as Oretes i.e. Oriya has given the History¶ of Pliny mentions that Oretes as a race nomenclature of modern Orissa to the entire inhabited a country where mount Meleus is glorious tracts of Kalinga and Utkal country of located. The Greek word Oretes is rendered in hoary fame. In ancient India most of the countries Sanskrit as Odras. The mount Meleus has been (geographical units) have been named after the identified with Malayagiri near Pallahada, now stock of tribes that inhabited the land or the ruler situated in the district of Angul. Further, mount that ruled the state. In the Bhagavata Purana1 it is Meleus is associated with a people called stated that the progeny of Ila-Sudyumna, Monedes and Sharis in the µNatural History¶. The Dirghatamas and Sudesna had six sons namely Munda and Savara tribes have been identified with , Vanga, Kalinga, Pundra, Sumha and Odra. the Greek Monedes and Sharis by many scholars. Orissa portion was ruled by their sixth son after This identification seems plausible because this whom the country was said to have been named region of Orissa is even now inhabited by the as µOdra¶. Mundas and Savaras. Medhatithi,2 the commentator of Manu The earliest epigraphic reference to Odras has described that µOdras¶ were a tribe who is found in the Soro copper plate grant of flourished in various parts of Orissa. The country Somadatta from which it is clear that Uttara Tosali probably owes its origin to them. Rajendralal with its visaya µSarepahara¶ identified with Soro Mitra3 opined that µOds¶ were an agriculturist of Balasore district was part of Odra Visaya. The community. They lived in many parts of Orissa inscription is dated to 7th century A.D. Uttara with concentration in the region around Khurdha. Tosali then forming parts of modern Medinapur This race represents the original tribe of Orissa and Balasore districts was a part of Odra Visaya. after whom the province has been named. This reference amply indicate that Odra was a Extent of Odra big and powerful territorial unit. According to the Mahabharata4 traditions Hieun Tsang5 who visited µWu-cha¶ i.e. the territory of the Odras lies along with those of Odra country in 636 A.D. has given a graphic

28 Orissa Review * April - 2010 account of Odra which was very probably the It is pertinent to mention that Odra Visaya of Soro copper plate grant. He Chodagangadeva conquered Orissa and assumed described the country as 7000 li in circuit with its the Sovereign title of µ Lord of sakala Utkala¶. In capital city spreading over more than 20 li circuit his Vizag copper plate grant of 1126 A.D. it is area. N.K. Sahu6 writes that 7000 li of the mentioned that he unified Utkala, Kalinga and Chinese pilgrim spreads over 1400 miles circuit Odra. His capital was at Yayatinagar which has area. Cunningham has located the country of been identified with modern Jajpur. It is interesting Odradesa on the basis of Hieun Tsang¶s account to note that this Yajatinagar or Jajpur was famous in the whole of Mahanadi valley and the lower as Jajnagar in the Muslim chronicles like course of Subarnarekha river. N.K. Sahu8 has Tabaquat-i-Nasiri, Tabaquat-i-Akbari, Riyadus given a very precise extent of Odra country and Salatin and Tarkhi-Firuz Sahi etc. Perhaps Muslim has written that Odradesa during the period of historians named the country as Jajnagar after the circa 700-1100 A.D. was more or less bounded name of its capital Yajatinagar even when the by the river Mahanadi in the north, Tosali capital was shifted to Abhinava Baranasi Kataka (Dakhina Tosali) in the east, (Dakhina (modern Cuttack) in 1212-1213 A.D. Blochmann Kosala) in the west and extended to the south has identified Jajnagar mentioned by Muslim west in irregular lines as far as the modern historians to be Orissa H.C. Ravetry10 has defined Paralakhemundi region. the boundary of Jajnagar based on his study as spreading over a vast area, apparently over the Muslim geographer¶s account of Odisa vast territorial domain of Chodagangadeva and Ibn Khurdadhbih in his µGeography¶ of Anangabhimadeva during the period from 1112 846 A.D. has referred to Kudafarid, Kaylkan, to 1212 A.D. Often we find confusion in the Kanja, Samundar and Ursfin etc. Russian scholar accounts of Muslim historians when they mention V.Minorisky9 has identified Kudafarid with Jajnagar and Udisa as separate territories. It Godavari, Kaylkan with Kalinga, Kanja with appears to us that when the Ganga capital was Kangoda and Ursfin with Orissa or Odradesa. initially shifted to Cuttack from Jajpur, the two Dr. N.K. Sahu accepts this identification. In regional units were palpably called as two separate another Persian Geography of 10th century A.D. geographical entities namely Odisa and Jajnagar. called µHudud al Alam¶ means µRegions of the In course of time both the regions found to be World¶ we find reference to Urshin which may mentioned as one geographical entity called be same as Ursfin, identified with Orissa or Odisa. µJajnagar-Udisa¶ in the accounts of Shams-i- Seraj-Afif by the end of 14th century A.D. It Muslim historian Alberuni (1025 A.D.) in apparently meant the unified and consolidated his book µIndia¶ has mentioned to a territory called Ganga kingdom under Anangabhima III with µUrdabishau¶ to have been situated 50 farsakhs Varanasi Kataka i.e. modern Cuttack as the (about 200 miles) towards the sea in the south capital. Saraladasa in his Oriya has from Prayag. This Urdabishau has been identified described Jajnagar as part of Odrarastra in the with Odda Visaya of Tirumalai Inscription of 15th century A.D. Rajendra Chola (1025 A.D.), because Alberuni has refered to µjaur¶ country i.e. country of Cholas The Evolution (of the time of Rajendra Chola) that started from The term µUdisa¶ used by Shams-i-Seraj- the end of Urdabishau. Afif is an improved version of the word Wucha

29 Orissa Review * April - 2010 of Hieun Tsang of 7th century A.D. Ursfin of Ibn geographical paradigms. Phonetic evolution of the Khurdadhbih of 9th century A.D. and Urshin of term from Greek Oretes i.e. Odra, through Hudud-al-Alam of 10th century A.D. The original Odravisaya-Oddavisaya-Odivisa and Udisa, the name was Odra or Odradesa which found term Odisa seems to have been finally culminated. mention in ancient literature and mediaeval Similarly through phonetic metamorphosis Odra epigraphs. It was mentioned as Odra Visaya in became Odriya and finally Odia with the present the Soro copper plate grant of 7th century A.D. anglicised form, Oriya. Alberuni described it as Urdabishau in 1025 A.D. References : In the Tirumalai Inscription of Rajendra Chola of circa 1025 A.D. the word Odda Visaya is met 1. Bhagavat Purana - IX, XXIII-5, Gaudiyamath Edition. (Jagannath Das who has rendered the with. Further the term evolved into Odivisa or Bhagavata Purana into Oriya in 15th century A.D. Udivisa in the accounts of Lama Taranath. In the has also mentioned the name Odra). tantric literature of late mediaeval period we find 2. N.K. Sahu-Utkal University History of still slight variant of the term as µUddisa¶. The Orissa,Vol.I, p.75. µTantrasara¶ mentions God Jagannath as µUddisa- 3. R.L. Mitra, Antiquities of Orissa, Vol.I, p.4. natha¶ while µJnanarnaba¶ speaks of Uddisa as 4. N.K. Sahu. op. cit. p.139. one of the Sakta pithas. 5. Watters, II, p.193. The Culmination 6. N.K. Sahu-op.cit. 141. It is evident from the foregoing discussion 7. Cunningham, The Ancient Geography of India, that by 15th century A.D. the word Uddisa or pp.586. Udisa has already evolved. For this, Saraladasa 8. N.K. Sahu, op.cit. p.142. made Odrasrastra synonymous with Udisa or 9. N.K. Sahu-op.cit. p.148. Odisa. His Odrarastra Odisa found mention as Odisarajya in the royal proclamations of Gajapati 10. N.K. Sahu, op.cit. pp.150-1. king Kapilendradeva (1435-1467 A.D.). In the 11. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, LXII, Jagannath Temple Inscription of Kapilendradeva 1893, p.93. dated 1443 A.D. we find conspicuous mention 12. P. Acharya, Studies in Orissan History, of Odisarajya. The Tarikh-i-Akbari of Archaeology and Archives, pp.161-163. Nizammuddin exclusively mentions Odisa as a geographical entity. From this time onwards the geographical term Odisa stood for the entire Oriya speaking tract. Through ages the word has been Dr. C.B. Patel is the Superintendent of Orissa State used by various authors in ethnic, linguistic and Museum, Bhubaneswar.

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