ପୃଷ୍ଠା:Typical selections from Oriya literature.pdf/୧୬

ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର‌ରୁ
ଏହି ପୃଷ୍ଠାଟି ସଂଶୋଧନ ହୋଇସାରିଛି
x
introduction.


from north to south, and are nowhere more than fifty miles from the sea. The portion of the district lying along the coast of Bay of Bengal, with the background of the Eastern Ghats, differs from the rest of the district in the north, and in the weest, both in physical aspect and ethnic character. The hilly outskirts of the Oriya Feudatory States of Kalahandi, Patna, Baud, Daspalla, and Nayagarh, form in a semi-circle the northern limit of the hilly and wild tract of Ganjam, which is the abode of the Khand people who have always been watchful in maintaining their tribal integrity. We have then to take note of the fact that the highlands of Orissa, to the west of the districts of Puri, Cuttack and Balasore, as are now mainly occupied by a pretty large number of Feudatory States, lay altogether outside the Kalinga Empire. No doubt, this geography becomes pretty clear from the Kalinga Inscriptions of Asoka,* but in view of its importance, the question must be discussed with a few details.

In collecting information on the subject from the Mahabharata and the Puranas, we notice that we do not get a well-defined country bearing the name Utkala, though the name of this country has nowhere been confounded with that of Kalinga. In the Bhisma Parva, for instance (IX, 348), the Utkalas have been mentioned as a rude people and nothing has been stated regarding their owning any country in an organized form. In olden times Vanga was connected with Anga on one side, and with Kalinga on the other; the Angas, the Vangas, and the Kalingas are found constantly linked together in the Mahabharata as people closely allied by race and position. For instance, the reader may refer to such passages in the Mahabharata, as occur in the Drona Parva, Chapter LXX. In the Puranas also the Utkalas have been distinctly mentioned as a rude tribe of very early origin, having no affinity with the races around them (vide Markandeya Purana, Canto LVII Harivamsa, X, 631-32). It is very important to note again that in the Puranas the Utkalas have been once mentioned in the east near about the Bay of Bengal, and next in the west in connection with the wild tribes of Mekhala of the districts of Raipur and Bilaspur in the Central Provinces. † The northern boundary line of modern Orissa, as I have given above, as extending from the Bay of Bengal to the border of the Central Provinces, may be compared with this Pauranic description. As to the depth of this Utkala country we do not get anything very definite in the Puranas. The description in the Puranas that the river Vaitarani flows right through the Kalinga country, points to the fact that Utkala lay outside Kalinga, and the district of Balasore


* Vide Vincent Smith's ' Early History of India," 3rd edition, page 168, the paragraph relating to Kalinga Edicts and a footnote thereto. How the wild tribes dwelling on the borders of the Kalinga Empire have to be treated has been given in the Kalinga inscriptions. These inscriptions were added as supplementary inscriptions to the main inscriptions at Jaugada and Dhauli.

†We may notice that the north-western limit of the land of the Utkala people is not far off from the district of Gaya, for the Feudatory State of Sirguja only intervenes between the district of Gaya and the Feudatory State of Gangpur. This perhaps explains how the Utkalas and the Gayas have been spoken of in some Puranas as closely allied tribes.