The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.9

v1.c6.9

The Province of Orissa is a place of this description. Cut off from the rest of India by ranges of hills and inhospitable wilds on the one side, and hemmed in by the sea on the other, it enjoyed perfect immunity for a long time from the inroads of the Muhammadans, and even in its worst days did not suffer so much as the rest of India. Commerce it had next to none, and its people lived happily and contented for ages under a national government, with every opportunity to cultivate the arts of peace, and to promote the prosperity of their fatherland. The ancient monuments it contains are therefore, more authentic than what are to be met with in most other parts of India, and, as such, have a peculiar interest and significance for the antiquarian. The greater part of the ground is all but a *terra incognita* to oriental explores; but few comparatively have ventured upon it, and then only upon its borders as it were, to confirm a foregone opinion, or indulge a momentary curiosity; so that the important question of its archaeology remains, for all practical purposes, unanswered to this hour.⁵