The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.31

v1.c6.31

It is impossible now to determine when Orissa first came to be known to the Aryan Indians. Its name does not occur in the hymns of the *Ṛgveda*. But the province was not then altogether unknown. It then formed, as it did for centuries afterwards, a part of the great maritime province, including the Deltas of the Mahānadī and the Godāvarī, of Kaliṅga, the name of which occurs in connection with the origin of the sage Kakṣīvat, who was the son of Dīrghatamas by the wife of the king of Kaliṅga.²⁸ Pāṇini is also silent about both Utkala and Oḍradeśa. In the *Rāmāyaṇa*, as already shewn, the Oḍras, as a race, are mentioned, and the name of their country is likewise given as distinct from that of the race. The *Mahābhārata*, in the same way, not only names the race, and in the *Sabhā Parva* describes a present of ivory given by one of its kings to the Pāṇḍus, but also alludes to the designation of his country. But it does not seem to have been, at the time, held in any great estimation ; it was described as a wild place, and its people were barbarians, ignorant of the rituals of the Vedas. In the middle of the third century before Christ, the country had risen to considerable importance ; and Aśoka, Emperor of India, deemed it desirable to publish edicts among its inhabitants, and to inscribe them on the scarps of its hills.²⁴ But neither in his records, nor in the minor Pali inscriptions in the caves of Khaṇḍagiri is there any mention made of either Oḍra or Utkala. Buddhism, at that time, was on the ascendant in the place, and a great number of monasteries and temples were erected to supply the religious wants of the people. The country was, then and for some time previously, included under the generic title of Kaliṅga or the coast country, the kings of which were Buddhists, and caused several of the caves to be excavated.