Today: Bhubaneswar
Tomorrow: Puri
I think I prefer my maps blank.
There’s something about Orissa. It feels a world apart from the India I know; sure, Hindi is spoken and the local language, Oriya, shares many similarities with the only South Asian language I have an OK grasp of, Bengali. But it still feels a world apart, almost untouched; perhaps even remote, like the rural provinces of Bangladesh. The weight of the ancients: Here is where their powerful predecessors, the Kalinga empire, controlled the seas and trade routes, spreading their influence far and wide to what we know today as Bali, Java, Sumatra, Angkor, Siam; where some historians claim are the roots of the word “keling” in Malaysia and Singapore (used colloquially to refer to people of South Asian origin). Here is where Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan empire waged a bloody battle over Kalinga, turned remorseful and inscribed Buddhist edicts at Dhauli Giri, 261 BC; then came the Jains, Hindus, Muslims, and today’s lingering spectre of Jagannatha worship (Hare Krishna).
As with any other new place, I’d refrain from making knee-jerk assumptions about a state I’m new to, so an overview of Orissa will have to wait… in other news I am getting used to being alone in strange places.
possibly related
Bom Shankar /
Effort /
Dhaka Days /
I Am So Damn Chinese /
Middle-of-Bloody-Nowhere, Sirajgonj /
Welcome to Orissa
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Today: Bhubaneswar
Tomorrow: Puri
I think I prefer my maps blank.
There’s something about Orissa. It feels a world apart from the India I know; sure, Hindi is spoken and the local language, Oriya, shares many similarities with the only South Asian language I have an OK grasp of, Bengali. But it still feels a world apart, almost untouched; perhaps even remote, like the rural provinces of Bangladesh. The weight of the ancients: Here is where their powerful predecessors, the Kalinga empire, controlled the seas and trade routes, spreading their influence far and wide to what we know today as Bali, Java, Sumatra, Angkor, Siam; where some historians claim are the roots of the word “keling” in Malaysia and Singapore (used colloquially to refer to people of South Asian origin). Here is where Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan empire waged a bloody battle over Kalinga, turned remorseful and inscribed Buddhist edicts at Dhauli Giri, 261 BC; then came the Jains, Hindus, Muslims, and today’s lingering spectre of Jagannatha worship (Hare Krishna).
As with any other new place, I’d refrain from making knee-jerk assumptions about a state I’m new to, so an overview of Orissa will have to wait… in other news I am getting used to being alone in strange places.
possibly related
Bom Shankar / Effort / Dhaka Days / I Am So Damn Chinese / Middle-of-Bloody-Nowhere, Sirajgonj /