KALINGA LANKA

Situated on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, ancient Kalinga once comprised the coastal regions of modern Odisha and the adjacent coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh and Bengal as well. Owing to its location between the two great East Indian deltaic regions of the Ganges and the Krishna and Godavari rivers, Kalinga itself had two distinct historical core areas in the delta regions of the Mahanadi in the Central Odisha and, further to the Southwest, of the Rishikulya and Vamsadhara rivers in Southern Odisha and Northwestern Andhra Pradesh. The earliest historically known centre of Kalinga was at Toshali and Kalinganagara (Sisupalgarh) near Bhubaneswar, the respective capitals of Ashoka and Kharavela in the third and first centuries B.C.   It was most likely this central Odishan core area under Kharavela’s successors to which the Roman geographer Pliny referred in the first century A.D. Pliny writes: “The royal city of Calingae is Parthalis (Toshali). Over their kingdom 60,000 ...

Odisha has always become mystical and mysterious about its offering to global travellers. The state has been the custodian of more than 2000 years of cultural & historical legacy which people are yet to explore. The marvellous discovery of the Buddhist establishments of Ratnagiri, Udayagiri & Lalitgiri by Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI), abandoned around 1000 years during the fall of Buddhism in India, is reframing the colourful glory of the grandeur of Kalingan architecture. By visiting Odisha, one can pay homage to the ancient land of Kalinga which put all its resources and the entire maritime trade route to propagate Buddhism across the world. Though Lord Buddha spent his life in Nepal, Bihar and U.P., but without contribution of Odisha, the influence of Buddhism would have limited to Northern India. Buddhism became a world religion only after Kalinga-Asoka war and because of the vast maritime trade route of Kalinga. And all these happened only after 200 years of t...