The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.11

v2.c17.11

The houses are generally straggling, and scattered wide apart from each other; and most of them being intended as resting-places for pilgrims, are ordinarily left unoccupied. The shops are of the poorest description, designed only for the supply of the necessaries of life to the small population and the pilgrims, who visiting the place on their return from Puri, are generally too weak in purse to be able to offer any substantial encouragement to trade. The Brāhmaṇs, who form the bulk of the people, are all priests; they engage in no occupation or trade, and live mainly on what they can get from the pilgrims. Once the proud capital of a large and flourishing kingdom, the city stands now as only a monument of departed greatness. Its lands are no longer the dwelling-places of multitudes of princes, ministers, and of statesmen;