Early History of Orissa

Author(s): Amarchand Mittal
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

Page 29

AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA of the Bay of Bengal, guarded by the Indian Ocean, at her eastern side, Kalinga enjoyed a commanding geographical position. Guarding the land between the Vindhya and the sea, she was the gateway between the Uttarā patha and the Dakshiņāpatha. Guarding the seas, she was the gateway between India and the Indian Archipelago & Far East. As a result of this strategic position, Kalinga played a vital role in the cultural fusion of the North and the South as well as in the maritime trade and the colonization of Indian Archipelago. Added to this fortunate situation she possessed favourable local circumstances. She had a better climatic advantage to her credit over most parts of India. The sea provided her abundant rains ; innumerable big and small rivers, flowing through its very length and breadth, rendered her a bed of alluvium. Nature's bounty gave her people ample individuality, out of which grew up a culture representing a strange mixture of the Aryans and the Dravidians. Importance of Orissa is also due to its being one of the most sacred regions. REGION
Orissa is a natural division in the true sense of the term, according to the anthropological geography. Orissa belongs to a category of region which Comille Julia'n' would call a complicated, truly strategic and economic unit, formed of complementary lands and territories, plains and mountains, forests and arable lands, opening on the same routes, converging on the same rivers commanding one another and making it necessary to exchange their produce and their means of defence—in short, societies for mụtual protection and moral physical solidarity. There can be no linear boundaries in the common geographical parlance, but the region under review has a personality of its own, if we take into consideration its climate, soil,
1. Pabore, op. oit., p. 311.