124 



C. W. ODLING^ C.S.T., M.INST.C.E.^ ON ORISSA : 



from 3101 B.C. to 1803 a.d. In these mythical legends there is 

 a reference to an invasion of Orissa hetween 538 B.C. and 

 421 B.C., the date assigned in the Ceylon temple records to the 

 Buddhistic descent on Orissa. The invaders are said to be 

 lonians or Yavanas, a term which must be taken to include not 

 only Greco-Bactrians, but the whole series of Buddhist invaders 

 from the north. The rock inscription of Asoka, which belongs 

 to the third .century before Christ, mentions Antiochus, the 

 Yona King, and at this time Antiochus Theos (261-246 B.C.) was 

 at the height of his fame. The reign of the intruders, Yavanas 

 or lonians, who had brought Buddhism into Orissa, came to an 

 end in 474 A.D. when the dynasty of the Lion Kings, in the 

 person of Yayati Kasuri, was established, and the Sanskrit 

 gods, who had never entirely disappeared, asserted their 

 supremacy in the garb of modern Hindu deities. 



The reigning monarchs of the Lion line were devotees of 

 Shiva, the all-destroyer, and their capital was at Bhubanessur, 

 where to this. day five or six hundred Shivaite temples exist; 

 they exhibit every diversity of architecture, from the crude 

 conceptions of the sixth century to the artistic designs of the 

 twelfth, and there are plaster imitations of the present day. 

 The great temple is said to have been commenced in a.d. 500 and 

 to have been completed a.d. 657 by the fourth King of the Lion 

 line. The creed of the dynasty in time became the religion of 

 the people, to whom its sanguinary rites appealed more forcibly 

 than the cold theism of Buddhism, whilst by the higher classes 

 the all-destroyer w^as worshipped as the re-creator, death 

 meaning, not passing into a state of non-existence, but a change 

 into a new form of life. 



Shiva worship was, however, not altogether dependent on 

 new converts ; migrations of Brahmans from Upper Hindustan 

 passed from time to time into Bengal and Orissa ; ten thousand 

 are said to have been brought from Oudh, and were endowed 

 with lands near Jajepur, which became the priestly capital of 

 Orissa. The new-comers found a priestly class of Buddhists 

 already in the field, whom it was not possible to ignore, and 

 they accordingly recognised them as Brahmans. The equality 

 was, however, nominal, inter-marriage was never allowed, and as 

 the new-comers gained in strength the Buddhist ]h\ahmans 

 merged into the cultivating class, ploughing with their own 

 hands and only distinguished by the Brahminical thread, which 

 they still wear over their left shoulder. They are to this day 

 the most intelligent, enterprising and industrious of the Uriya 

 agriculturists, but are not regarded by the g(?neral population 



