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C. W. ODLING, C.S.I., M.INST.C.E., ON OEISSA : 



states have been added to Bengal, and the Orissa Commissioner- 

 ship now contains practically the whole of the Uriya-speaking 

 people, and is quite the size of Scotland. 



The Uriya language, I may observe, is not a dialect of Bengali, 

 but entirely distinct, having even a special alpliabet of its own, 

 said to be derived from Nagri, though it is only an expert who 

 can trace any resemblance between them. My own introduction 

 to the language was simple : six months after my arrival in 

 India I was sent to a place called Patamundi, forty-four miles 

 from Cuttack, to take charge of famine works, or, to put the 

 matter more correctly, to find work for some 100,000 famine- 

 stricken people. I had one clerk who knew English, and some few 

 of my subordinates could speak Hindustani, of which language 

 I had a very rudimentary knowledge, but the remainder of the 

 officials and the people with wliom I had to deal knew Uriya 

 only. Within a radius of about thirty miles of my head- 

 quarters there were some twenty-five relief centres, where wages 

 were disbursed and food sold ; the accounts from these depots 

 were in Uriya, and these accounts it was absolutely necessary 

 that I should read. Most things are possible at nineteen years 

 of age, and it was not long before I was able to do what was 

 necessary. I soon learnt the figures, entire words of common 

 occurrence came next, and in a short time I was able to decipher 

 the accounts and to check them. It may be of some interest 

 to say, that though the money at the depots was kept in not 

 very large wooden boxes, and thousands of rupees were sent to 

 me periodically from Cuttack in bags and distributed to the 

 depots, I never lost a rupee by theft ; one misguided subordinate 

 endeavoured to make away with some 150 rupees in his charge, 

 but I fished it out of the bottom of the tank in which he had 

 thrown it, and he did two years' rigorous imprisonment. To 

 return to the Uriya language, I never advanced further than 

 being able to read simple letters and accounts ; I was obliged to 

 pass an examination in Hindustani, and was content with the 

 knowledge of Eastern languages which that test involved. The 

 ancient records of Orissa were written on palm leaves with an 

 iron pen, and though paper and a reed or quill pen are now 

 mostly used, tlie practice of writing on palm leaves has by no 

 means ceased. There is said to be no original composition of 

 any merit in tlie Uriya language, but there are numerous 

 translations of Hindu works. 



The printing press was brought into use, in the year ISoT, 

 by the ]>aptist missionaries, who have been stationed in 

 Cuttack since 1822. It is not too much to say that the 



