CULTURAL ATLAS OF ORISSA

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE

GOVERNMENT OF ORISSA

BHUBANESWAR

FOREWORD

Orissa, known to the ancient world as Kalinga, Odra and Utkala, has been a prominent historical and geographical entity from time immemorial. The varied ethno-linguistic character of its human geography provides a composite foundation to its cultural history, which can be traced in numerous places, ranging from the pre-historic cave arts in Chichidakhol to the appliqué work in Pipili and the Pattachitra in Raghurajpur Geography and culture are closely interrelated. The environment determines the needs, the skills and the habits and thereby the culture of a community. A change in the course of a river could change the contours of cultural geography. To recognise human presence in Orissa's geographic space through readings of cartographic symbols from a spatial-temporal perspective is an exciting exercise.

Temples, sculptures, handloom designs, fairs and festivals, mask dances and other performing arts of Orissa exhibit some unique features. The geographical locations of Buddhist monuments and Jaina sculptures and their pre-dominance in certain areas deepen our understanding of the course of history. The concentration of Neolithic sites in western Orissa, the high density of tribal population in Koraput region, where wild paddy was first domesticated, and the multiplicity of built-monuments in the Prachi valley provide an insight into the genesis and growth of civilisation in this part of the world.

Orissa has a rich cultural heritage. A survey reveals that there are about four thousand monuments of different categories in the State. Structural conservation of most of these monuments is necessary for the prevention of their imminent collapse or disappearance.

The timely award of funds by the Tenth and Eleventh Finance Commissions has enabled us to set in motion a process of conservation. Hundreds of these monuments have been conserved and stabilised. The need for preparing a cultural map and an atlas was felt in the post-conservation phase. It would motivate people to maintain their built heritage. In the course of planning, it was felt necessary to incorporate other important aspects of Orissa's cultural heritage in this initiative.

The preparation of this atlas is the first step in this direction. There is still the need and scope for more micro-level thematic maps. We need to study the various aspects of the cultural heritage of Orissa in relation to its immediate environment in terms of hills, rivers, sacred streams and groves, their locations in time and space and the perception of place within local communities.

I hope scholars as well as readers will find this atlas useful.

R. Balakrishnan, IAS

Commissioner cum Secretary

Department of Culture

Government of Orissa

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PREFACE

The preparation of a Cultural Atlas along with a Cultural Map of Orissa is a landmark in the cultural history of the State It intends to create awareness among people about our culture heritage. An Attempt is made here to depict the cultural heritage as well as natural heritage of the State in two-dimensional map formats. The Cultural Atlas comprises forty-four maps and is presented along with a Map in A1 size. Steps have been taken to elaborate all the facets of our rich heritage. 14 theme maps of the State and 30 individual district cultural maps have found place in the Cultural Atlas. The themes of the State maps in the Atlas cover various aspects of Orissa's heritage such as monuments, crafts, handloom, fairs and festivals, forest and wild life, tribal concentration, languages and dialects spoken by the people of the State. Two interesting themes have been included; one map depicts the important prehistoric sites of the State and the other the maritime heritage of the State.

A lot of documentation, research and data collection from various departments and agencies have been made to prepare the Atlas and the Map. Attempts have been made to present correct facts and figures as far as possible in two-dimensional formats. In each thematic map, only a few important facts or centres are given. We also intend to take-up micro-level details in every aspect in future.

Scholars, researchers and institutions have contributed immensely to the preparation of the Atlas and the Map. We express our heartfelt gratitude to Sri Bijoyshree Routray, Hon'ble Minister of State for Forest and Former Minister, Culture, for initiating this project. We are indebted to Dr. Damodar Rout, Hon'ble Minister, Panchayati Raj. Information and Public Relations and Culture, for his constant encouragement and support. But for him the project could not have been completed in time. We are also grateful to Sri R. Balakrishnan IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Culture and Special Relief Commissioner, for his untiring zeal and valuable inspiration. He was instrumental in forming an expert committee for proper guidance. The committee comprised of the following members:

The Department of Culture in general and State Archaeology in particular provided the basic materials needed for preparing and designing the Atlas and its constituent maps.

A special discussion was held with Prof. Khageswar Mahapatra and Dr. P. K. Nayak for finalising the theme map on dialects and languages spoken by the people in the State. We are grateful to both of them.

We express our gratitude to all members of the expert committee for their valuable guidance and suggestions for improving the overall presentation of the Cultural Atlas. We express our special thanks to Sri N. M. Mohanty, IAS, Ex-Director, Culture for his able guidance and significant contribution in the initial stage of preparation of the Map and the Atlas. Our special thanks are due to Er. D. P. Pati, who helped us in preparing the base map for the theme "Maritime Heritage of Orissa".

Similarly, we express our thanks to Dr. Mona Sharma, IAS, Director Textile and Sri PK Tripathy. Director, Handicrafts, for providing major inputs for the theme maps on Handloom and Handicrafts of the State.

We have adopted the map published by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, published in their Linguistic Survey of India - Orissa, depicting the theme "Distribution of Population by Major Languages and Scripts." We hereby convey our heartfelt thanks to his kind offices.

We acknowledge our indebtedness to the Department of Forests and Tourism, Govt. of Orissa as well as the Archaeological Survey of India, the Ministry of Forests & Environment, Govt of India, for the date incorporated in the Atlas.

We would be failing in our duty if we do not express our sincere thanks to Dr. K. K Basa, Department of Anthropology, Utkal University and Dr. Sadasiva Pradhan, Department of History, Sambalpur University who provided us with valuable data about the culture during the prehistoric period.

Dr. Jeevan Patnaik, Asst. Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India has helped in providing data on prehistoric sites and deserves our special thanks.

In the preparation of the Cultural Map and Atlas Sri R Balakrishnan, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Culture spearheaded the task force. The following team members, supervised the overall planning, design and implementation of the project:

We are grateful to all of them.

We are also thankful to Mr. Michael Weston, Sri Anup Nayak and Sri K.L. Purohit for their collections of photographs on tribal life and wild life. We extend our thanks to Sri K.K.Rath for his valuable advice on colour combination and Sri Jagabandhu Pati for his assistance in the work. We are also thankful to Sri Akalabya Das, of ORSAC for his technical guidance.

We extend our gratitude to Sri Haripada Satpathy for taking the onerous responsibility of editing.

Last but not the least, we would like to thank Sri Debesh Patra. Sri Debidatta Samal, Srimati Pushpita Pattanayak, Mr. Akil Akhtar, and Sri Anil Pal of M/s Geo Infotech for their efforts in compiling, creating, designing and preparing the layout of the Atlas and photographs in GIS format.

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CONTENTS

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THE MAPS AND MAP READING

A map or an atlas is a representation of the earth's surface in miniature form. On flat surface, maps give good idea about a country, a state or a town. A complete and graphic map along with pictorial illustrations, descriptions and proper interpretations, can make one feel as if one had actually visited the place.

With these ideas in view, it has been attempted here to portray this beautiful Heritage State in the Indian subcontinent with its different cultural aspects. The aim of such an attempt is to create awareness among people of Orissa about their rich cultural legacy and to attract visitors tourists and connoisseurs alike to this ancient land. This Cultural Atlas exposes one to important prehistoric sites. maritime heritage, monuments, important crafts, handloom, fairs and festivals, performing art, language and dialect spoken by the people, concentration of tribal population and important tourist centres.

The Atlas is divided in two sections. In the first section, fourteen themes are depicted on the map of the State. In the second, district cultural maps are given. The themes covering the different cultural traits of the State include, prehistoric sites, maritime heritage, monuments protected by the Archaeological Survey of India and the State Archaeology, important unprotected monuments, Buddhist heritage sites, Jaina heritage sites, important crafts and craft centres, handloom products of Orissa, forest and wild life, fairs, festivals and performing art centres, languages and dialects spoken, tribal concentration in the State and important tourist centres. The district cultural maps include information on all the above themes except prehistoric sites, handloom, tribal concentration, languages and dialects spoken.

Attempts have been made to present cultural traits of Orissa through the Cultural Atlas and provide authentic information on the culture of the State, through research and with the help of documents available.

From the Census of India Map and GPS survey M/s Geo Infotech have evolved the basic map of the State. Preparation of this atlas involves two factors - first, that of representing the curved surface of the earth on a geographical coordinate system and second, that of representing the various surface features and other information which different kinds of maps intend to convey. It has been planned to show different surface features through various legends or suitable references Map reading, therefore, means the interpretation of various symbols used in composition of various themes. Attempts have been made to make the maps meaningful by using various legends indicating different features along with photographs, which illustrate the themes.

The scale used for the State theme maps is 1:22,50,000. For the district map the scale is between 1:6,00,000 to 1:2,50,000. The first State theme map is on important prehistoric sites of the State super imposed on a physical map of Orissa. The prehistoric cultures from Lower Paleolithic to Megalithic periods are illustrated through legends and place names. The next map represents the maritime heritage of Orissa and the different geographical units of ancient Orissa. The names of different seaports during different periods are also indicated. Illustrations depicting ancient maritime activities and earlier seafaring vessels created by an artist are included. In the next map, the monuments of the national importance are indicated with the help of legends, place names and names of the monuments. Similarly, the protected monuments of State Archaeology find place in the next map with appropriate legends and references. The map showing the important unprotected monuments follows this. Two separate theme maps follow this: one on Buddhist heritage sites and the other on Jaina heritage sites in the State. There are more than seventy crafts identified in the State. The next map covers some of the important crafts and craft centres. The beautiful handloom product of the State with their clusters and centres as well as the product specifications of each cluster is given in the next map. Orissa has a rich tradition of performing arts. The fairs and festivals of the State attract tourists. This theme is given in the next map with a calendar of festivals and festival centres along with performing arts and art centres. This is followed by a map based on the theme of forest and wild life in the State. The majority of people of Orissa speak Oriya. However, there are other languages and dialects spoken by people in the State. This constitutes the theme of the next map. In this map, the percentage of population speaking a language is based on 1991 Census. Orissa has a large concentration of tribal people and there are 62 tribes found in the State.

A theme map on the concentration of tribal population in various blocks of the State depicting their distribution follows. Last but not the list, a theme map on important tourist centres in the State is given.

The Cultural Maps of the 30 districts in alphabetical order follow. These maps have legends, place name and references to indicate different themes in each district. An exhaustive index is given at the end. Here the place names in alphabetical order as well as the coordinates of each place name are indicated.

At the end, it would be proper to indicate that this attempt is not fully exhaustive. It covers important features and various aspects of cultural heritage of the State through the two-dimensional GIS format maps. Only a micro level depiction of all the cultural traits of this Heritage State can cover all places of importance and all facets of each trait in totality.

Dr. B.K.Rath

Superintendent, State Archaeology & Project Coordinator

Project Orissa Cell

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IMPORTANT PREHISTORIC SITES

MARITIME HERITAGE

MONUNMENTS PROTECTED BY ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA (A.S.I)

MONUMENTS PROTECTED BY STATE ARCHAEOLOGY (S.A)

IMPORTANT UNPROTECTED MONUMENTS

BUDDHIST HERITAGE SITES

JAINA HERITAGE SITES

IMPORTANT CRAFTS AND CRAFT CENTRES

IMPORTANT HANDLOOM CENTRES

IMPORTANT RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS AND PERFORMING ART CENTRES

FOREST AND WILDLIFE

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION BY MAJOR LANGUAGES (1991)

TRIBAL CONCENTRATION

IMPORTANT TOURIST CENTRES

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – ANGUL

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – BALANGIR

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – BALASORE

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – BARGARH

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – BHADRAK

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – BOUDH

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – CUTTACK

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – DEOGARH

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – DHENKANAL

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – GAJAPATI

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – GANJAM

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – JAGATSINGHPUR

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – JAJPUR

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – JHARSUGUDA

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – KALAHANDI

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – KANDHAMAL

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – KENDRAPARA

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – KEONJHAR

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – KHURDA

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – KORAPUT

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – MALKANGIRI

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – MAYURBHANJ

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – NAWARANGPUR

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – NAYAGARH

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – NUAPADA

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – PURI

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – RAYAGADA

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – SAMBALPUR

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – SONEPUR

DISTRICT CULTURAL MAP – SUNDARGARH