Odra kingdom

Only a single reference of Odra is found in Mahabharata. The Odras were mentioned along with the Vangas, Angas and Paundras as bringing tribute for Yudhishthira for his Rajasuya sacrifice (3,51). There is a mysterious mention of the name Udrakeralas in Mahabharata. It is not known if the word Udra in the composite word Udra-Keralas has any relations with Odra. The name Oriya originated from Odra. The Bhagbata Purana mentions Odra, among the six sons of Dirghatamas by queen Sudesna with the Pundrakas, Dravidas, Kambojas, Sakas, Yavanas etc. Pliny placed Oretes near mountain Mallus which can be identified with Malayagiri near Pallahara in the present Angul district. Prof B.C Majumdar observs ".. the hilly country lying between Kalinga and Dakshina Kosala was the Odra land." R.D Banerji calls the Odras as the people of Northern Orissa. In the early medieval period, Odra became a distinct territorial division. The earliest reference to Odra in this period is gleaned from the Soro Copper Plates of Somadatta. It mentions the northern Tosali was a part of Odravisaya. By that time, Northern Tosali was a fairly extensive territory comprising Midnapur and undivided Balasore district and a considerable portion of Mayurbhanj and undivided Cuttack districts. Its inclusion in Odra indicates that the latter was a vast region between river Suvarnarekha in the north & Vaitarani in the south.

Odra finds mention in Hiuen Tsang's Si-Yu-Ki where he describes it as Wu-Cha which was 1400 miles in circuit. Other historians opine that Odra comprised undivided Midnapur, Balasore, Cuttack, Ganjam & Puri districts. However, the present day research excludes the possibility of the inclusion of Puri in Odra. It is only because Che-li-ta-Lo, a port mentioned by Hieun Tsang and its location at Puri by Cunningham and others have been challenged by scholars who locate it either in Tirtol (Jagatsinghpur district), Chandabali (Bhadrak district) or Manikapatana (on the bank of Chilika lake in Puri district).

As noticed, Odra, Utkala, Kalinga, Kongoda, Tosali & Kosala were territories having distinct boundaries of their own and the boundary changed from time to time in ancient and early medieval days. Sometimes it is noticed that some of these names were used as interchangeable terms, e.g. Odra was known as Tosali during Bhauma-karas. At the advent of the fifteenth century AD, poet Sarala Dasa made Udisa as Orissa synonymous with Odra Rastra, which became Odisha Rajya during the Gajapatis. Right from the days of Kapilendradeva (1435–1467 AD), this empire land of the Odia-speaking people has been known as Odisha.^[1]

Early ethnographic and historical accounts suggest that the Odra tribal identity survived into the historical period through communities known as the Oda Chasa and Oda Khandayat of Odisha. James Peggs, a Baptist missionary stationed in Cuttack in the nineteenth century, recorded that the designation Or or Odra was applied par excellence to the class of husbandmen known as Or Chasa, and that those of this tribe performing martial duties were designated Or Paik and Or Khandait.^[2]

Dhirendranath Patnaik, writing on the history of Odisha in the context of Odissi dance, identifies the Oda-Chasa explicitly as "Odra cultivator" and the Oda-Paika as "Odra infantry", noting that from the Gajapati period (16th century onwards), Odras who settled in areas surrounding the capital came to be known by these two designations.^[3]

Ashutosh Prasad Patnaik observed that unlike communities of Naga or Aryan origin which fragmented into numerous castes, the Odras are encountered in the historical record as members of a single community subdivided into two occupational designations — Oda Chasa (cultivator) and Oda Khandayat (wielder of sword) — suggesting that the Odras entered the region as an ethnically cohesive group at a time when the caste system was already established.^[4]

• Kingdoms of Ancient India