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Leisure & Travel: Orissa

EducationWorld March 05 | EducationWorld
Leisure & travel: Orissa Where Emperor Ashoka once converted and reigned, contemporary Orissa offers the tourist nature in all its glory with beaches, rivers, waterfalls, hills, forests and tribal life plus a rich tradition of architecture, monuments and sculptural art. Orissa is most well known for being the epicentre of the ancient Kingdom of Kalinga. Emperor Ashoka, king of Magadh, invaded Kalinga in 261 BC and embarked upon a great slaughter in the Kalinga war. But so great was the carnage and human suffering, that the emperor experienced a momentous change of heart and embraced the principle of ahimsa or non-violence embodied in Buddhism, to which he converted after the war. Subsequently the ancient state rose to prominence during the reign of Emperor Kharavela, a great patron of Jainism. Other great rulers were the kings of the Kesari and Eastern Ganga dynasties who were builders of great temples and monuments. With the kingdom committed to peace and industrious prosperity, the Kalinga school of architecture flourished from the 7th to 13th centuries AD. In the popular imagination, the ancient kingdom of Orissa, now a fully-fledged state of the Indian Union, is a backward area of darkness somewhere out there on the eastern seaboard. Yet this state is culturally rich and its history and temple architecture have been carefully preserved. Consequently contemporary Orissa (pop. 36.7 million) offers the tourist nature in all its glory with beaches, rivers, waterfalls, hills, forests, wildlife and tribal life, plus a rich tradition of architecture, monuments and sculptural art. Some of its monuments date back to the 3rd century BC and are extant to this day. As a result the state is dotted with over 4,000 protected monuments and archaeological sites. These include early Jain cave temples; Buddhist monasteries (viharas); domed structures (chaityas); pillars (stupas); ancient and medieval forts, palaces and colonial architecture. Comments: Utpal Kumar Pati, regional manager (Mumbai) of the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation: “Orissa has everything to offer the tourist ‚ beaches, golden sands and wildlife apart from the country’s most beautiful temple architecture. It is a state which should be on the must-visit list of every educated Indian.” According to Pati, plans to build a thoroughly modern international airport at Bhubaneshwar (pop. 530,000), the capital of the state, are in an advanced state of preparation so that two or three flights can operate to and from South-east Asia every day. “The Union Government also plans to establish a special Buddhist circuit linking Colombo, Hyderabad and Bodhgaya which will greatly enhance tourist inflows into neighbouring Orissa,” adds Pati. Bhubaneshwar Known as the ‚”temple city of India”, Bhubaneshwar is the administrative capital of Orissa. Visitors are certain to marvel at the magnificence of the three monuments which dominate the city’s skyline‚ the soaring spire of the Lingaraj temple; the white-domed Peace Pagoda of the Dhauli hills and the Ochre temple of Mahavir Jina in the Khandagiri hills. These ancient temples epitomise the advent and ascendancy of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism in Orissa’s rich history, making
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