An Art Integrated Project (Under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme)

Kalinga War: During the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, the Mauryan Empire extend­ing from Hindukush in the North-west to Mysore in the south faced a challenge from an independent kingdom of Kalinga. But Chandragupta was busy in consolidating his empire, thus could not get time to deal with Kalinga. His son Bindusar also remained busy in suppressing the internal troubles originated by the nobles and chiefs. Kalinga in the meantime established her colonies in Burma, Philippines, and Indian Archipelago and became a strong overseas power. Besides, the elephants, corps of Kalinga was regarded as the best of their type as has been mentioned by Kautilya. Thus Kalinga proved to be a potential enemy power to Magadha. Both Chandragupta and his son Bindusar failed to incorporate Kalinga in their vast Magadhan empire. Ashoka after his coronation decided to invade Kalinga and started organising his military resources as a preparation of war.

 Extent Of The Odisha in the history In some history research, it was found that the extent of the kalinga ( Odisha ) was till the philippines and java. 

Kalinga under the Chedi Dynasty Kharavela:  The history of Kalinga following the decline of Mauryan supremacy is obscure and yet to be known exactly when Kalinga regained her indepen­dence. The Hatigumpha inscription in Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar records, the achievement of a mighty ruler of Kalinga named Kharavela. Who belonged to the Mahameghahahan family of the Chedi class. The Chedis were originally ruling is Madhaydesha or Magadha and it has been suggested that a branch of this royal family of the hoary antiquity came to Kalinga and established it power over Kalinga. There is no information readily available to say as to when did they migrate to Kalinga but from the Hatigumpha inscription it becomes apparent that Kharavela was the third member of the Chedi family of Kalinga. The date of the reign of Kharavela is highly controversial one. Some scholars put this date in the 2nd Century B.C. and some others in the 1st Century B.C. Other group of scholars drags him down to the 1st...

  Gupta Rule in Orissa: The mighty Gupta ruler Samudragupta conquered south Kosala (the upper Mahanadi valley) during his southern campaigns. Along with south Kosala he also conquered the territories of Svamidatta of Kottura, Damana of Erandapalle and Devarastra. All these territories have been identified with the places of Ganjam district and the adjoining Telugu-speaking tract. Samudragupta directed his army in this campaign through a difficult forests clad routes of Mahakosala and Mahakantara which has been identified with the present Kalahandi, Koraput districts of Orissa and Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh. It is difficult to say why Samudragupta followed this difficult path instead of marching through the plain and easy coastal route of Balasore, Cuttack and Puri districts. Samudragupta finally reached the coastal strip of Orissa and subjugated the Orissa kings alongwith some southern monarchs with their leader Visnugopa of Kanchi. Allahabad Prasad is very clear in describi...

 Hiuen-Tsang’s Accounts of Orissa: The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-Tsang (Yuan Chiang or  Xuanzang ) visited Orissa in 639 A.D. He proceeded from Karna-Suvarna, the capital of Gauda in the south­west direction and covering a distance of 140 miles reached WU-Cha or Odra. His accounts clearly say that Orissa or Kalinga was then divided into three separate kingdoms such as Wu-cha (Odra), Kong-yu-To (Kongoda) and Ki-ling-ka (Kalinga). From his accounts it is also clear that Andhra and Kosala were two distinct neighbouring kingdoms. It is further known from his accounts that Midnapore was then a part of Orissa. The coastal regions of Orissa consisting the modern districts of Midnapore (Bengal) Balasore, Cuttack and a part of Puri district remained under the suzerainty of Harsavardhan. Harsavardhan appointed a military Governor from Datta family to administer this country. About the people of Odra country the pilgrim says that they were tall .and yellowish-black in complexion. The present...

  Causes of Decline of Orissa: Rise and fall of ruling dynasties are the logic of history. The fall of the mighty empire of Orissa was not an escape to it. The Hindu kingdom maintained its independence up to 1568 when northern parts of India includ­ing Bengal and Bihar went to the grip of Turkish invaders. Prof. R.D. Banerjee attributes that the long stay of the Vaishnava saint Sri Chaitanya in Orissa is the main cause of the decline of Medieval Orissa. The saint destroyed the structural pattern of the society of Orissa introducing a train of false faith in men. Sri Chatanya alone should not be blamed for this decline because of the fact that Oriyas of the sixteenth century did not accept the teachings of Sri Chaitanya blindly. From the inscription it is clear that the king and the people of Orissa had already accepted the Sahajiya (Easy) form of Vaisnavism of the Gitagovinda prior to the coming of Sri Chaitanya to Orissa. It is thus not proper to say that the teachings of Sri Chai...