Orissa

South of Bihar, on the Bay of Bengal, industrial India is left behind. Green plain, river valleys, mountains, Forests and beaches constitute the landscape of one of India' s most thoroughly rural states. The whitewashed mud village houses stand amidst bright green paddy fields and there are sandy and un spoilt beaches as well as lakes. The Chilka Lagoon is the largest brackish lake in Asia and has rich bird life.

Orissa offers the gournet a variety of sea food: lobster, prawns and crab, all of which the Oriyans transform into delectable creations. The hill forest of central Orissa are a tribal area and the home of wild animals, including tigers and elephants. Some 62 distinct tribal groups have been identified as living in the state. They make excellent carvings of wood and soapstone, exquisite silver filgree jewellery and children's toys, and also colourful votive paintings on canvas- the famous pattachitra folk paintings. Most of Orrisa's horn work, brass and ironware, silk and handloom products-the Sambalpuri and Cuttack saris, for example-owe their fineness to a rigorously developed folk handicraft centers, but beautiful temple cities where pilgrims come to worship and to celebrate festivals. The chief attractions of Orissa-Bhubaneshwar, Puri and Konark-form a compact, easy- to- visit triangle.

The seventh to 13th centuries were the great age of Orissan temple building, the age of Brahmin resurgence under the Kesari and Ganga Kings. Before that, we hear not of Orissa but of the kingdom of Kalinga where in 262 BC, after a bloody war, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism. From then until the fourth century Buddhism and Jainism held sway, but after the seventh century Hinduism reasserted itself.
 

Along the 480 km coastline of Orissa are pristine beaches at Puri, Chandipur and Gopalpur. The state has low mountain ranges, waterfalls, hot sulphur springs and thick forests. Chilka Lake is a birdwatcher’s delight with migratory birds stopping over for the duration of winter. Bhubaneshwar, Konark and Puri are the three temple towns.


Konark is famed for the magnificent stone chariot that is a temple dedicated to the Sun God. Visitors travel to the shores of the Bay of Bengal to catch the first rays of the morning sun as it falls on the Sun Temple. Though the temple is not in use, it is believed that the first rays fell on the idol of the Sun God as it stood in the garba griha, the sanctum sanctorum. Each year a dance festival is held in temple precincts - it is an exquisite experience to see classical Indian dances performed against the temple, much the same way as must have been in the temple's heyday.


Orissa is equally well endowed with wildlife, some of which can be seen at Nandankanan Zoo which houses the rare white tiger; the Simlipal National Park once the hunting preserve of the Maharajas of Mayurbhanj is today a picturesque tiger reserve traversed by twelve rivers, also home to leopards, elephants, gaur (Indian bison), mouse deer, flying squirrels, mugger crocodiles; the Bhitarkanika National Park with its variety of birdlife including storks, egrets, six species of kingfishers, white ibis and migratory ducks from Siberia; the Gahirmatha coastal region where the giant Olive Ridley Turtles come in their thousands each year all the way from the Pacific to breed; the hot sulphur springs at Atri, Taptapani, Deulajhari and Tarabalo believed to have medicinal properties are popular destinations in the state. Rock caves in the twin hills of Khandagiri and Udaygiri were once functional monasteries for Jain monks make popular destinations for visitors to Orissa.

 

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