Orissa

Capital : Bhubaneswar
Principal Languages : Oriya

Important Cities - Towns and Religious - Tourist Place :

Balasore, Baripada, Beharmpur, Bhawani-patna, Bhubaneswar (temple city known for Lingaraja Temple), Bolangir, Chattarpur, Chilka Lake (Kalijai Temple is located inside the lake), Cuttack Lake Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Konark (Black Pagoda-Sun Temple built by Narasingha Dev of Ganga Dynasty), Koraput, Nandankanam (Zoological park), Phulbani, Puri (lord Jagannath Temple and beautiful seabeach; also known for the Car Festival), Rourkela, Sambalpur, Sundargarh.

Places of tourist importance :

Dhauli Buddhist temple, Udayagiri-Khandagiri ancient caves, Ratnagiri-Lalitgiri and Udayagiri, Buddhist images and ancient caves, Saptasajya scenic view of hill beds. Similipal National Park and Tiger Project, Hirakud Dam, Duduma Waterfall, Ushakothi Wildlife Sanctuary, Gopalpur Sea Beach, Harishankar, Nrusinghanath, Taratarini, Taptapani, Bhitarkanika and Bhimakunda Kapilash are famous places. Hirakud Dam across the turbulent Mahanadi river is the biggest single dam constructed in the country.

Location :

Location in eastern India, Orissa is bounded north by Jharkhand, Northeast West Bengal, east by the Bay of Bengal, south by Andhra Pradesh and west by Chhattisgarh.

History :

Orissa, the land of Oriyas, was known as Kalinga in ancient ages. Ashoka conquered it in 261 BC with the horrible bloodshed which converted him into a pacifist and a Buddhist monk. On his death, Kalinga recovered its freedom and rose to great heights under Kharavla. It came to be ruled by the Hindu dynasty until its conquest by the Mughals in 1592. Alivardi Khan, Nawab of Bengal ceded it to the Marathas in 1751 from whom the East India Company snatched it in 1803. In 1803, a board of two commissioners was appointed to administer the province, but in 1805 it was designated the district of Cuttack and was placed in charge of a collector, judge and magistrate In 1829, it was split up into three regulation districts of Cuttack, Balasore and Puri, and the non-regulation tributary states which were administered by their own chiefs under the aegis of the British Government. Augul, one of these tributary states, was annexed in 1847 and with the Khonbdmals, ceded in 1835 by the tributary chief of the Boudh state, constituted a separate no0n-regulation tributary states which were administered by their own annexed in 11847 and with the Khondmals, ceded in 1835 by the tributary chief of the Boudh state, constituted a separate non-regulation districts formed an outlying tract of the Bengal Presidency till 1912 when they were transferred to Bihar, constituting one of its divisions under a commissioner. Orissa division. The rules of 25 Orison states surrendered all jurisdiction and authority to the government Jurisdiction and authority to the Government of India on January 1, 1948, on which date the provincial Government took over the administration. The administration of two states, viz., Saraikella and Kharswan, was transferred to the Government with the Dominion Government, Mayurbhanj state was finally merged with the province in January 1,1949. By the States Merger (Governor's provinces) Order, 1949, the states were completely merged with the State of Orissa on August 19,1949.

Economy :

The main occupation of sixty four percent of the people of Orissa is agriculture. The important crops are rice, pulses, oilseeds, jute, mesta, sugarcane, coconut and turmeric. Forests cover about 43 percent of the area of the state. Iron ore, manganese ore, limestone, dolomite chromite, non-coking coal, bauxite, graphite, china clay, nickel ore, fire clay and mineral sands are among the important minerals of Orissa. The major mineral-based industries of the State are the Rourkela steel plant, a pig iron plant at Barbil and a ferrochrome plant at Jaipur Road, two ferro-manganese plants, a ferro-silicon plant and an aluminum smelter plant.

States and Union Territories of India