History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c16.2

Language: English

v1.c16.2.1

Oḍra is clearly Northern Orissa, consisting of the modern districts of Midnapur, Balasore and Cuttack with that part of Puri which lies to the north of the marshes along the northern fringe of the Chilka lake. The description of the pilgrim is very short and does not agree with the present state of the country. For example, he states that the people are uncivilised, tall of stature and of a yellowish-black complexion. The average Oriya can hardly be called tall in stature and yellowish-black in complexion. He is usually dwarfish in stature and brownish black in complexion. The next remark of the Chinese pilgrim is quite accurate: "their words and language (pronunciation) differ from Central India." Watters translates this passage in a slightly different fashion: "The people were of violent ways, tall and of dark complexion, in speech and manners, different from the people of Mid-India." The pronunciation of the people of Orissa is still quite different from that of Bengal and Mahākośala or the Chhattisgarh division of the Central Provinces. The most marked difference is in the pronunciation of the semi-vowel, e.g., Ṛshi is pronounced Rushi. This is the beginning of the Southern fashion of the pronunciation of this letter. It is not possible to determine in what way the manners of the people of Orissa differed from those of the people of Bengal in the North and of those of Andhra in the South.

v1.c16.2.2

Yuan Chwang states that the people loved learning and were indefatigable students in those days, a characteristic which has lost ground in more recent times. In the middle of the 7th century, the majority of the inhabitants of the country were Buddhists. There were very nearly one hundred Buddhist monasteries and about ten thousand monks, all of whom were followers of the Mahāyāna. Deva temples or Hindu temples numbered nearly fifty, in which followers of different sects worshipped together. Yuan Chwang mentions a famous monastery called Pu-sie-p'o-k'i-li, i.e., Pushpagiri, which has not been satisfactorily identified as yet. Dr. L. A. Waddell's extremely unwise suggestions about modern Jajpur have not been accepted by the majority of scholars. This Pushpagiri appears to be the monastery, the ruins of which can be seen above the big undeciphered rock inscription at Udayagiri in the Cuttack district. Yuan Chwang states that "to the north-east of this tope in a hill-monastery was another tope like the preceding." This appears to refer to the ruins on Ratnagiri. The Chinese pilgrim mentions a city on the sea-shore in the south-east of this country named Che-li-fa-lo. This has been rendered into *Charitra* in Sanskrit and identified with Puri. In fact, with the exception of Puri there is no other city or port in South-Eastern Orissa with which it can be identified.

v1.c16.2.3

The city is described, "above twenty *li* in circuit, which was a thoroughfare and resting place for sea-going traders and strangers from distant lands. The city was naturally strong and it contained many rare commodities. Outside it were five monasteries close together, of lofty structure and with very artistic images." So far no Buddhist ruins have been discovered inside or in the neighbourhood of Puri. It is also strange that no mention is made of the shrine of Jagannātha which must have existed at this place in some form, because the present temple was built by Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga at the close of the 11th century A. D. No mention has been made also of the Jain temples and relics at Puri, numerous specimens of which are known to exist in the neighbourhood. Several Jain images were found by the present writer in the walls of the *Jagamohana* of the present temple at Puri. The Chinese pilgrim then proceeds to state that the island of Ceylon was 3,330 miles distant and that from *Charitra* on calm nights it was possible to see the brilliant light from the pearl on the top of the *stūpa* over Buddha’s Tooth in that country. Watters notes that in the life of Yuan Chwang it is stated that the Buddhists of Orissa were all Hīnayānists. This statement of Hwui-li is most probably a mistake, because in the 8th century the king and many of the monks were Buddhists.

v1.c16.2.4

The king Śubhakara copied with his own hands the Sanskrit text of the Mahāyānist treatise called Ta-fang-kuang-Fe-hua-yen-ching or chapter on the practice and prayer of the Bodhisattva Sāmantabhadra in the Mahāvaipulya-Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra.¹