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POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY 21 exactly the tract to which the modern name Orissa has been applied. A Telugu work refers to Oddadi and its capital Kațaka. In one record, Uttara Tosala forms a part of Odra-vishaya. This would suggest that Odra was the more well-known name of this region. UTKALA
The region inhabited by the Utkala group or tribe is said to have been situated between the lands where the Mekala and the Kalinga tribes settled. It was probably the region lying to the south of the river Kapiśā—the modern Kasai in the Midnapur district. They had, hence, occupied the land extending from Balasore to Lohardaga near Ranchi and Sarguja in the Madhya Pradeśa. Probably the southern boundary of their occupation was the river Vaitarni.“ B. C. Majumdar opines that the country of Utkala consisted of a narrow strip of land extending through the native states of Nilgiri, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar to the western limit of Gangpur.
Utkala is grouped with Mekala in the Mahābhārata. The Rāmāyaṇa also has a reference to this connection 1. Imperial Gazeteer of India, Vol. XIX, p. 249. Orissa means the
country in which the sjeakers of Oriya language form the dominant people. Mediæval inscriptions give various forms of the name, such as Odivisa (I.A,, 1V, 364); Oddavadi (E. I., V, 108) ; Oddiya (E. I., IV, 270) etc. It was the Orya of the Purtuguese writers (DHNI, I, 491). E.I., XXV, 299. In inscriptions we have references to Kathaka, E. I., VII, 17; and Kaldaka), Ibid, p. 145, which refers to Katak
(DHNI, I, 341). 3. E.I., XXIII, pp. 199-202. “Oąra-vishaye-uttara-tosalyām”. 4. Mahtab, H.O., p. 2. 5. Orissa in the Making. p. 15. 6. IV, 41, 9. In a book of the Pali Canon, Okkala or Ukkala i. e.
the Utkalas are mentioned along with the Mekalas (Tribes in Ancient India by B. C. Law, p. 934).
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