Western Odisha or the western part of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, extending from the
Kalahandi district
Kalahandi (locally pronounced ''Kalahani'') is a district of Odisha in India. Archaeological evidence of Stone Age and Iron Age human settlement has been recovered from the region. Asurgarh offered an advanced, well civilised, cultured and ur ...
in the south to the
Sundargarh district
Sundargarh District is a district in the northwestern part of Odisha state in eastern India.
Sundargarh district is bounded by Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh in the west, Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh in the North-West, Simdega district o ...
in the north.
History
Historically It's a region of 'Greater
Kalinga Kalinga may refer to:
Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology
* Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India
** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature
** Kalinga script, an ancient writin ...
' & ruled by various dynastys.
![Ancient Kalinga map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Ancient_Kalinga_map.png)
*
Mahameghavahana dynasty
The Mahameghavahana dynasty (, 2nd or 1st century BC to early 4th century CE) was an ancient ruling dynasty of Kalinga after the decline of the Maurya Empire. In the first century B.C., Mahameghavahana, a king of Chedirastra (or Cetarattha, i. ...
2nd or 1st century BC to early 4th century CE.The primary source is King
Kharavela
Kharavela (also transliterated Khārabēḷa) was a monarch of Kalinga in present-day Odisha, India, who ruled during the second or first century BCE. The primary source for Kharavela is his rock-cut Hathigumpha inscription. The inscription is ...
s rock-cut
Hathigumpha inscription
The Hathigumpha Inscription is a seventeen line inscription in Prakrit language incised in Brahmi script in a cavern called Hathigumpha in Udayagiri hills, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, India. Dated between 2nd-century BCE and 1st-century CE, it ...
.
![Maha-Meghavahana territory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Maha-Meghavahana_territory.png)
*
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gol ...
*
Bhauma-Kara dynasty
The Bhauma dynasty, also known as Kara dynasty, ruled in eastern India between 8th and 10th centuries. Their kingdom, called Toshala (IAST: Toṣala), included parts of present-day Odisha.
By the last quarter of the 8th century, the Bhauma-Karas ...
*
Somavamshi dynasty
The Somavamshi (IAST: Somavaṃśī, "Lunar dynasty") or Keshari (IAST: Keśarī) dynasty ruled parts of present-day Odisha in eastern India between the 9th and the 12th centuries. Their capitals included Yayatinagara (modern Binka) and Abhinav ...
Somavamshi King
Janamajaya-I Mahabhavagupta (Circa 882–922 CE ) consolidated the eastern part of his kingdom comprising the modern undivided Sambalpur and Bolangir districts and established matrimonial relationship with the Bhauma-Kara dynasty ruling over the coastal modern Odisha. After Uddyotakeshari (c. 1040–1065 C.E.), the Somavamshi kingdom declined gradually.
After the decline of Somvamshis the area came under Telugu Chodas for a short period. The last Telugu Choda king of south Kosala was Somesvara III who was defeated by Kalachuri king Jajalladeva-I around 1110 CE.
*Kalachuri Dynasty:
Jajalla-deva, a ruler of the
Kalachuri dynasty
The Kalachuris (IAST: Kalacuri), also known as Kalachuris of Mahishmati, were an Indian dynasty that ruled in west-central India between 6th and 7th centuries. They are also known as the Haihayas or as the Early Kalachuris to distinguish them ...
of Ratanpur (Chhattisgarh), defeated the ruler of Sonpur and annexed it with his kingdom in 1110. It was under the Kalachuri rulers of Ratanpur (Now in Chhattisgarh state) from 1110 to 1238.
*
Eastern Ganga Dynasty
The Eastern Ganga dynasty also known as Purba Gangas, Rudhi Gangas or Prachya Gangas were a large medieval era Indian royal dynasty that reigned from Kalinga from as early as the 5th century to the mid 20th century. Eastern Gangas ruled much of ...
![Eastern Ganga dynasty of Odisha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Eastern_Ganga_dynasty_of_Odisha.jpg)
The last ruler of Kalachuri Dynasty Pratapmalla invade the frontiers of the Ganga territory along with his son Paramardi Dev.
Anangabhima Deva III
Anangabhima Deva III was an Eastern Ganga monarch who ruled an early medieval Odisha centered empire in eastern India from the year 1211 CE to 1238 CE. He was successful in maintaining a large extent of territory that stretched from the river Gan ...
, the
Eastern Ganga ruler, sent a large force under the command of his able Brahman commander, Vishnu. The two forces met face to face at the Seori Narayana village in undivided Sambalpur district on the banks of the river called Bhima near the Vindhya hills and the Kalchuris were defeated for the first time in a major way by the Gangas. The Chateswara Temple Inscription of Anangabhima mentions that Vishnu terrorized the Kalachuri king so much that the latter "perceived Vishnu every where through out his kingdom."
Pratapmalla was taken prisoner and forced to cede the Sambalpur-Sonepur-Bolangir tracts along with parts of what is now Chhattishgarh state to the Ganga kingdom. Later with the advise of his minister Vishnu, Anangabhima established a diplomatic and matrimonial alliance with the Kalachuris by offering the hand of his daughter Chandrika in marriage to the Kalachuri prince, Parmardi Dev. Once the alliance was secured, the Ganga forces multiplied in strength. Parmardi Dev died in the final recorded battle of Narasingha Deva I's invasion of Bengal at Umurdan (Amarda in Mayurbhanj district).
*
Gajapati Empire
The Gajapati Empire or the Suryavamsa (IAST: Sūryavaṃśa, "Solar dynasty") dynasty was a medieval dynasty from the Indian subcontinent, it originated in the region of Trikalinga (most of the present-day Odisha and North coastal Andhra) an ...
After Eastern Ganga dynasty , this area ruled by mighty
Gajapati Empire
The Gajapati Empire or the Suryavamsa (IAST: Sūryavaṃśa, "Solar dynasty") dynasty was a medieval dynasty from the Indian subcontinent, it originated in the region of Trikalinga (most of the present-day Odisha and North coastal Andhra) an ...
.Under
Kapilendra Deva
Kapilendra Deva ( Odia: କପିଳେନ୍ଦ୍ର ଦେବ; r. 1434–1467 CE), was the founder of the Suryavamsa Gajapati Empire that ruled parts of eastern and southern India, including present-day Odisha as the center of the empire. He ca ...
, Gajapatis became an empire stretching from the lower Ganga in the north to the Kaveri in the south.
![Gajapati Empire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Gajapati_Empire.jpg)
But,continued aggression of the Bengal sultanate from the north and Vijayanagara and Bahmani empires from the south weakened the Gajapati empire ,Ultimately ,
Ramai Deva
Ramai Deva or Ramai Deo was a Rajput ruler who founded the Chauhan Dynasty rule in the erstwhile Patna state in today’s Bolangir district of Odisha in the year 1360 A.D. At the young age of twenty he staged a coup with the popular support of ...
a Chauhan
Rajput
Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...
from
North India
North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...
founded Chauhan rule in western Orissa.
According to the details placed in all the contemporary literary accounts, Ramai Deva was born to one of the queens of Hutumbur Sing alias Hambir Dev. His pregnant queen named Jayanti Devi fled Garh Sambhar with some of her followers when Vishala Dev was killed by a Muslim king in a battle and is identified with Firuz Shah Tughlaq. Jayanti Devi found refuge in the house of a Brahmin ruler of Kholangarh division of the Patna state known as Chakradhar Panigrahi.Ramai Deva possibly murdered or killed the rulers & became ruler of this region.
Natural resources
Western odisha region is rich with minerals. Iron ore is available in plenty at Tensa and Barsuan in Sundargarh district, Bauxite is available at Gandhamardan in Bargarh district, Coal is available in Himgir in Sundargarh district and Rampur in Jharsuguda district. Dolomite is available at Dubulabera and Kangorama in Sambalpur district and Lephripada in Sundargarh district. Graphite is available at Patnagarh and Titilagarh in Balangir district. Manganese ore is available in Balangir district. Fireclay is available at Belpahar in Jharsuguda district, Gandawara in Sambalpur district and some places of Sundargarh district.
Demographics
Population
(Source:
Population of India
Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...
, 2011)
In addition to the ten districts listed above and shown on the map, the
Western Odisha Development Council
Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) is an administrative set-up established by the government of Orissa on 11 November 1998. This council was particularly established to bring development in the backward western Orissa region. This organizat ...
includes
Anugul
Angul (also known as Anugul) is a town and a municipality and the headquarters of Angul district in the state of Odisha, India. Angul has an average elevation of above sea level.
The total geographical area of the district is 6232 km2. ...
on its website.
[WODC main page](_blank)
/ref>
Art and culture
Western Odisha is culturally influenced by several different cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
s and religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
s. Its history dates back to the Mahabharat
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
and Buddhist period. Folk songs and dances of this area have been revived and recognized during the last quarter century, including ''Danda
In Indic scripts, the daṇḍa (Sanskrit: दण्ड ' "stick") is a punctuation mark. The glyph consists of a single vertical stroke.
Use
The daṇḍa marks the end of a sentence or line, comparable to a full stop (period) as commonly u ...
'' (Danda Yatra and Danda Nata), which is considered to be one of the oldest forms of variety entertainment in India, to the modern "Krushnaguru Bhajan
Bhajan refers to any devotional song with a religious theme or spiritual ideas, specifically among Indian religions, in any language. The term bhajanam (Sanskrit: भजनम्) means ''reverence'' and originates from the root word ''bhaj'' ...
", a type of folk lyrics
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...
and songs. Sambalpuri songs are quite popular throughout Odisha. Some hits include ''Rangabati'', ''Ekda Ekda'', ''Dalkhai'', and ''Panbala Babu''.
Temples
*Nrusinghanath Temple
*Chari Sambhu Temple
*Leaning Temple of Huma
*Maa Samaleswari temple
*Lord Jagarnath Temple
*Manikeshwari Temple
*Yogeswar Temple
*Harishankar Temple
Songs and dances
Rangabati
''Rangabati
"Rangabati" is perhaps the most popular recorded song in Sambalpuri Odia. Krishna Patel, a 2023 Padma Shri awardee, is the female singer while the male singer Jitendra Haripal is a 2017 Padma Shri awardee. The song was first recorded for All Ind ...
'' is a modern composed Sambalpuri song inspired by folk music, written about 1975, which enjoyed international popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. It was sung by Jitendra Haripal
Jitendra Haripal (or Jitendria Haripal), a singer, is most popularly known for his voice in the famous and super hit Rangabati Song in Sambalpuri language of Odisha. He sang this duet song with his female co-singer Krishna Patel. He has sung ove ...
and Krishna Patel. The music was composed by Prabhudutta Pradhan and the lyrics by Mitrabhanu Gauntia. The song was recorded and broadcast by All India Radio
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All a ...
, Sambalpur[, ''The Hindu'', 27 May 2001. ]
References
{{Authority control
Regions of Odisha