Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c11.31

c11.31

We have seen how the Utkalas lived in the present Balasore District and its neighbourhood. But the original habitat of the Uḍras cannot be determined. They are not mentioned in very early works. Some manuscripts of the Manusmṛti (about the third century A.D.; cf. X, 44) no doubt mention the Uḍras; but many manuscripts of the work read in its place the name of the Aṅgas or Cholas,¹ and either of these two may have been the original reading. The *Nāṭyaśāstra* ascribed to Bharata-muni mentions the people or land called Uḍra; but the work in its present form does not appear to be much earlier than the sixth century A.D.² Whatever the antiquity of the name Uḍra may be, it is sometimes used to indicate the whole of coastal Orissa from the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. Probably the Uḍras originally lived in the land lying to the north of the ancient Utkala country. The conquest of Utkala by a king of the Uḍra country may have led to the use of *Uḍra* as a synonym of *Utkala* and the extension of the power of a king of this Uḍra-Utkala region over the southwestern part of coastal Orissa at a later date may have been at the root of the use of both the names to indicate the whole of coastal Orissa. The known facts of early Orissan history appear to support this conjecture.