Where Emperor Ashoka once converted and reigned

Contemporary Odisha offers visitors nature in all its glory with beaches, rivers, waterfalls, hills, forests and tribal life plus a rich tradition of architecture, monuments and sculptural art

Odisha (formerly Orissa) is most well known for being the epicentre of the ancient Kingdom of Kalinga. Emperor Ashoka, king of Magadh, in-vaded Kalinga in 261 BCE 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 practitioner of Jainism. Other great rulers were the kings of the Kesari and Eastern Ganga dynasties who built 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 Odisha, now a fully-fledged state of the Indian Union, is a backward area on the eastern seaboard. Yet this state is culturally rich and its history and temple architecture have been carefully preserved. Consequently, contemporary Odisha (pop. 47 million) offers visitors nature in all its glory with beaches, rivers, waterfalls, hills, forests, wild and tribal life, plus a rich tradition of architecture, monuments and sculptural art. Some of its monuments date back to the 3rd century BCE and are extant to this day.

As a result the state offers more than 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.

BHUBANESWAR