The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.11.2

v1.c6.11.2

I do not, however, remember to have noticed the hibiscus or shoeflower as particularly abundant in those parts of the Puri and Cuttack districts through which I have passed, and, though greatly esteemed by the Uriyās under the name of *mandāra*, or the representative on earth of the fabled *pārijāta*⁸ of Indra's heaven, it does not appear to form by any means a prominent feature in the flora of Orissa. It is not likely, therefore, that the province should be named after the plant. In the Institutes of Manu mention is made of a tribe of men named Oḍras who were originally Kṣatriyas,⁹ but who were degraded and deprived of the privileges of their caste for non-observance of religious rites. They are put under the same class as the Pauṇḍras, Drāviḍas, Kāmbojas (Afghan), Yavanas, Śakas (Scythians), and other aboriginal or non-Aryan races.¹⁰ The *Mahābhārata*, in the *Harivaṃśa Parva*, names them along with the Surāṣṭras, Bāhlikas, Madras, Ābhiras, Bhojas, Pāṇḍyas Aṅgas, Kaliṅgas, Tāmraliptakas, Pauṇḍras, Vāmāculas and the Keralas,—most, if not all of whom were [3] either aboriginal or non-Aryan.¹¹ In the same way the *Rāmāyaṇa*¹² reckons them along with a great number of barbarous races, none of whom found a place within the pale of pure Brahmanism, and it may be fairly concluded that they were a race of aborigines like the Coles, Bheels, Khonds and other primitive races, and the province was named, as supposed by Sterling, after its inhabitants, "the country of the Oḍra race".