318 M. M. Chakravarti— Language arid Literature of'Orissa. [No. 4, 
This supposition is partly borne out by the traditions of the people. 
The Aryanisation of Orissa is principally due to the higher castes, such 
as the Brahmins, the Karans and the upper rank of the Khandaits. 
Now the Sasani Brahmins trace their descent more or less from Kanauj. 
This descent receives some support from their generally fairer com¬ 
plexion and from the use of such upcountry surnames as Dobe, Mi^ra, 
Tripathi, Ac. Furthermore the Jajpur Brahmins repeat at the time 
of their marriage ceremony a stanza which declares that these Brahmins 
were brought down from Kanauj at the instance of the god Brahma. 1 
Similarly harana is an old caste name mentioned in the Mann Samhita 
and its use by the writer-caste of Orissa indicates that they came from 
the upcountry. This is somewhat corroborated by the name karana being 
applied to a subclass of the writer-caste in the Bhagalpur and Hazari- 
bagh Districts. 2 3 The Khandaits include several families who came from 
the North-West Provinces, 8 though the bulk of course were aboriginal 
tribes who originally dwelt in the Garjats. The upper castes would 
thus appear to be more or less connected with the upcountry, and in 
their migration must have passed through Magadha and must have more 
or less adopted the Magadhi as their spoken dialect. 
In addition to original residence, the religious and political influ¬ 
ences helped the hold of the MagadhI. Buddhism and Jainism pre¬ 
vailed over Orissa for a long time and were often state religions of the 
land. The sacred writings of the Buddhism are mostly in Pali, and 
those of the Jainism in Ardha Magadhi, both of which are supposed 
to be varieties of the great Magadhi dialect. 4 * * Kings of Magadha such 
as A 9 dka and the Palas, and the kings of Allahabad such as the Guptas 
and (Jiladitya often conquered Orissa. Through their officers and court 
followers the Magadhi and its varieties might have exercised considerable 
influence. So then philologically as well as historically the Oriya 
language might fairly be considered as an off-shoot of the Magadhi, 
and as a sister to the Bengali and the Eastern Hindi. 
As in the other modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars the exact date 
of the beginnings of the Ofiya language is not known. But by the 
2 Hunter’s St. Acc., Bhagalpur, Vol. XIV, p. 64 ; Hunter’s St. Acc., Hazari- 
bagh, Yol. XVI, p. 76. 
3 Hunter’s St. Acc., District Balasore, Yol. XVIII, p. 273. 
[ 4 The Author apparently refers to the supposed Magadhi original of the Bud¬ 
dhist scriptures. Their later Pali form, of course, does not share any- particulars 
with Magadhi. Ed.] 
