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



for enlarging on the praises of a land in which the gods loved 

 to dwell." I sojourned in this happy land for ten years, and 

 tliough I have some doubt as to whether my soul has received 

 all the benefits promised by the Hindu Seer, as a consequence 

 of my residence there, I at least gained some knowledge of 

 the country and its people. The history of a people, especially 

 in the East, is bound up with tlieir religion, and the changes 

 wh'ch have occurred in the same, in the course of long years, 

 I may say ages. It is, therefore, to events connected with 

 variations in their religious beliefs, that a history of the country 

 must be looked for, and these changes are again inseparably 

 connected with the migrations of the tribes who successively 

 invaded and settled in Orissa. 



Previous to the time when Orissa became tlie holy land, 

 first of the Buddhists, and then of the Hindus, it was inhabited 

 by forest tribes and fishing settlements of non-Aryan descent. 

 Eemnants of these primeval races in different degrees of 

 degradation still exist. Three of them, the Kols, whose country 

 is to the nortli, stretching beyond Chota Nagpore; the Kandhs, 

 who occupy the centre of the Orissa Highlands ; and the Savars 

 to the south, whose main habitat is in the mountainous back- 

 ground which rises from the Madras coast, still preserve their 

 identity, and have a history which to some extent has been 

 traced. To tlie Sanskrit writers, the forest races and the 

 Buddhist invaders were equally detestable. The former they 

 denounced as a people without a religion, whilst their abhorrence 

 of the latter was such that they are not even mentioned in 

 their records. But the relics of Buddhism are carved in solid 

 rock. These relics commence w^ith single cells, small and 

 inaccessible holes rather than habitations, which show no trace of 

 doors. They are followed by excavations, some of which are 

 roomy with pillared verandalis, apparently intended for 

 meetings of the l)rotlierhood, and with smaller apartments, 

 probably used as cells for the spiritual chiefs. Eventually, when 

 Buddhism was at its zenith, two-storied buildings with court- 

 yards and numerous chambers, finely sculptured, were cut out 

 of the hillside. 



It is not possible to give dates with anything like historical 

 precision, but Sir W. W. Hunter divides the ancient annals of 

 Orissa into three long chapters, one of which is wholly 

 obliterated, and the other two more or less effaced. The first 

 begins with the legendary Aryan conquest of tlie kingdom of 

 Xalinga, of which Orissa formed a pari, at least 8U0 years 

 before Christ ; the second dates from the death of Bhudda, 



