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PREFACE
This book is an humble attempt at reconstructing the early history of Orissa. It deals with the history of Orissathe country lying between river Suvarnarekhā in the north and river Godāvarī in the south, hilly tracts of the land between modern Orissa and Madhya Pradeśa in the west, and the Bay of Bengal in the east. The period covered ranges from the earliest tiines to the reign of king Khāra vela in the closing years of the first century B. C.
The early history of Orissa, as is the case with various other regions, is very obscure and it is not quite easy to reconstruct it on the basis of various legends and fables come across in ancient literature. I have, however, attempted to bring out elements of historical truth out of the maze of legends and have tried to trace the various stages in the gradual march of history in its various fields. The work starts with the prehistoric period of Orissan history weaving out a connected account of primitive life and culture. So far as the historical period is concerned, earlier authors had dealt with the major events and features of Orissan history and their works are valuable in their own way. Since then, however, a mass of new material have become available. This book hence takes the stock of later discoveries too in the fields of history and archaeology, and attempts at giving an up-to-date account of the early history of the region in a comprehensive manner.
The sources are both literary as well as archaeological. I have been extremely careful in collecting and piecing together materials from both these. The Rigveda is silent about Orissa and it is only in the later Vedic literature
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