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Orissa People :
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Since prehistoric days the land of Orissa has been inhabited by various
people. The earliest settlers of Orissa were primitive hill tribes. Although prehistoric
communities cannot be identified, it is well known that Orissa had been inhabited by
tribes like Saora or Sabar from the Mahabharata days.
Orissa, which is largely rural, the traditional values are still kept alive. in general
the values have no doubt weakened but they are not lost. Among die innocent Advisees
dwelling in the wooded hinterland and forested hill slopes, India's earliest civilization
is retained in its pristine form. Not only in their secluded hamlets, bet also in the
countless thousands of villages in the country sides one can catch a glimpse of the
dwindling horizon of humanity, through the innocent and benign outlook of tile villagers.
A sensitive person who happens to be a prisoner of the modern society with its stress and
strain will not, while in a typical village, fail to mark the relationship of its common
people with God, nature and their fellow men.
Saora in the hills and the Sahara and Sabar of the plains continue to be an important
tribe distributed almost all over Orissa. Most of the tribal people have been influenced
by Hindus and have adopted Hindu manners, customs and rituals. Bonda Parajas of Koraput
district are the best example of these tribes.
Most of the tribal people and much of the population in Orissa belong to the Australoid
group in racial history, while most of the general population belong to the broad-headed
Alpinoid type. Besides this, a sprinkling of Mediterranean type is found in the general
population.
Orissa had a high percentage of scheduled castes and tribes which together make 9.78
million. The scheduled tribes are concentrated in two belts. The northern belt comprises
the district of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh. The southern belt consist of the
district of Koraput, Ganjam and Phulbani. A large percentage of the tribal population in
these districts have their own oral tribal languages and they do not know Oriya. The most
important of these languages are Mundari, Santali, Saora and Kui / Kuvi.
There are four cultural regions within the present boundaries of Orissa. The north-eastern
areas bordering on Bengal have been influenced in dress, food, habits, languages, social
customs and festivities of Bengali culture and language. The southern parts of Ganjam and
Koraput districts have a sizable Telugu-speaking population and have been influenced in
language, food habits, dress and marriage customs by the Andhra culture and language. The
western districts of Sambalpur, Bolangir and Kalahandi may be said in many ways to be a
cultural and to some extent, linguistic continuum with the region of Chhatisgarh of Madhya
Pradesh just belong the border where many Oriya-speaking castes live even at present. The
fourth region may said to be the distinctive or typical or at least the tone-setting one,
in both cultural institutions, social customs and linguistic and literary sophistication.
This region comprises roughly the coastal districts of Balasore, Cuttack and Puri and
portions of adjoining districts. Some of the tribes like the Kond and Saora have developed
internal social differentiations along occupational specialisations as potters, weavers
and basket makers. Some of these tribes like the Bhuiyan, the Bathudi, the Gond and the
Binjhal (Binjhawar) of northern and western Orissa have been very much Hinduised.
(washer-man), the Kumbhar (potter), the Chasa (farmer), the Tanti (weaver), the Keuta
(flattened-rice-maker or fisherman), the Barhai (carpenter), the Kamar (blacksmith), the
Teli (oilman) and the Chamar (shoemaker), Karana (writer), Guada (cattle keeper),
Khandeita (Swordsman) and the Paana (untouchable weaver). Each caste practically had its
own cultural world and social milieu, with its peculiar festivals and rituals, its own
tutelary deities and sacred centres, its peculiar marriage, funeral and other customs, and
its own level and limitations of social interaction with members of other castes and
religious communities in the village society. These inter-caste relations were usually
limited to social necessities. Some cementing bonds were established through a peculiar
social institution called ritual Kinship and friendship (Mahapatra 1968).This institution
ensured a semblance of social interaction between the families of persons so related.
Language.
Oriya is the regional language of Orissa. It belongs to the Aryan family of languages and
is closely related to Assamese, Bengali and Maithili as a direct descendant of eastern
Magadhi. Under the influence of neighbouring regional languages of the Aryan and Dravidian
families, as also that of the Austric group of languages current among the tribal groups,
Oriya has developed many linguistic variations, such as Baleswari (Balasore), Bhatri
(Koraput), Laria (Sambalpur), Sambalpuri (Sambalpur and other western districts), Ganjami
(Ganjam and Koraput), Chhatisgarhi (Chhatisgarh of Madhya Pradesh and adjoining areas of
Orissa) and Medinipuri (Midnapur district of West Bengal). Besides, hilly regions of north
and south Orissa have their own local versions of Oriya with many linguistic
peculiarities. The first dated, inscription in Oriya goes back to 1051 AD discovered at
Urajang. But recent discoveries of Sanskrit inscriptions with Oriya words thrown in,
reported from Orissa and Andhra Pradesh areas of the ancient Kalinga empire, push back its
lineage to the 6th century AD. During the Surya dynasty(1435-1523), Oriya literacy
activities were remarkable and the great epics and almost all the Puranas and some
Upanishads were translated and often reinterpreted. The Oriya script, descending from
Brahmi script, has been given the round or Dravidian finish, probably during the reign of
the Ganga kings. The shape was admirably adopted to writing on processed palm leaves with
an iron stylus.
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