Oriya

Oriya

ETHNONYMS: Odia, Odiya; adjective: Odissi, Orissi (Orissan in English)

Orientation

Identification. In Orissa State in India, the Oriya constitute the regional ethnic group, speaking the Oriya language and professing the Hindu religion, to be distinguished from an Oriya-speaking agricultural caste called Odia found in central coastal Orissa. Some Oriya live in the adjoining states. The Oriya language and ethnic group are presumably derived from the great Udra or Odra people known since Buddhist and pre-Buddhist Mahabharata epic times.

Location. The state of Orissa is located between 17°49′ and 22°34′ N and 81°29′ and 87°29′ E, covering 155,707 square kilometers along the northeastern seaboard of India. The large majority of the Oriya live in the coastal districts and along the Mahanadi and Brahmani rivers. Orissa falls in the tropical zone with monsoon rains from June-July to September-October. Western Orissa is afflicted with recurring drought.

Demography. The last national census in 1981 records the population of Orissa as 26,370,271 persons, with a Population density of 169 persons per square kilometer as compared to 216 for India as a whole. Of the total population of Orissa, 84.11 percent speak Oriya. Although rural, Orissa's urban centers with 5,000 or more persons rose from containing 8.4 percent of the population in 1971 (81 towns) to 11.79 percent in 1981 (108 towns). Most of the ninety-three Scheduled Castes, which constitute 15.1 percent of Orissa's population, speak Oriya. Of the 23.1 percent of Orissa's Population categorized as Scheduled Tribes, many speak Oriya as their mother tongue. With 34.23 percent literacy in 1981 compared to 26.18 percent in 1971, Orissa trails behind many Indian states, especially in female literacy.

Linguistic Affiliation. Oriya belongs to the Indo-Aryan Branch of the Indo-European Family of languages. Its closest affinities are with Bengali (Bangla), Assamese (Asamiya), Maithili, Bhojpuri, and Magahi (Magadhi). The Oriya spoken in Cuttack and Puri districts is taken as standard Oriya. The Oriya language has a distinctive script, traceable to sixth-century inscriptions. It has thirteen vowels and thirty-six consonants (linguistically, spoken Oriya has six vowels, two semivowels, and twenty-nine consonants).

History and Cultural Relations

Orissa has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic cultural remains abound. By the fourth century b.c. there was a centralized state in Orissa, though the hill areas often nurtured independent princedoms mostly evolving out of tribal polities. In 261 b.c., Orissa, then known as Kalinga, was conquered by the Emperor Ashoka after a bloody Kalinga war, leading to the conversion of the king into a nonviolent Buddhist who spread Buddhism in Asia. In the early second Century b.c. Emperor Kharavela, a Jain by religion and a great conqueror, had the famous queen's cave-palace, Ranigumpha, cut into the mountain near Bhubaneswar, with exquisite sculptures depicting dancers and musicians. Both eastern and western Orissa had famous Buddhist monasteries, universities, and creative savants. Starting in the first Century a.d., according to Pliny and others, there was extensive maritime trade and cultural relations between Orissa (Kalinga, Kling) and Southeast Asian countries from Myanmar (Burma) to Indonesia. Orissa was ruled under several Hindu dynasties until 1568, when it was annexed by the Muslim kingdom of Bengal. In 1590, Orissa came under the Mogul empire, until the Marathas seized it in 1742. In 1803 it came under British rule. As early as 1817 the agriculturist militia (Paik) of Orissa revolted against the British in one of the first regional anticolonial movements. In 1936 Orissa was declared a province of British India, and the princely states with an Oriya population were merged into Orissa in 1948-1949. The cultures and languages of south India, western India, and northern India—and also those of the tribal peoples—have enriched the cultural mosaic and the vocabulary of the Oriya.

Settlements

In 1981, 88.21 percent of the people of Orissa lived in Villages. In 1971, 51,417 villages of Orissa ranged in population from less than 500 persons (71.9 percent), 500-900 persons (18.8 percent), 1,000-1,999 persons (7.5 percent), to more than 2,000 persons (1.78 percent). The Oriya villages fall into two major types: linear and clustered. The linear settlement pattern is found mostly in Puri and Ganjam districts, with houses almost in a continuous chain on both sides of the intervening village path and with kitchen gardens at the back of the houses. Cultivated fields surround the settlement. In the cluster pattern each house has a compound with fruit trees and a kitchen garden. The Scheduled Castes live in linear or cluster hamlets slightly away from the main settlement, with their own water tanks or, today, their own wells. In the flooded coastal areas one finds some dispersed houses, each surrounded by fields for cultivation. In traditional Orissa, two styles of houses (ghara ) were common. The agriculturists and higher castes had houses of a rectangular ground plan with rooms along all the sides (khanja-ghara ), leaving an open space (agana ) in the center. Mud walls with a gabled roof of thatch made of paddy stalks or jungle grass (more durable) were common. The more affluent had double-ceiling houses (atu ghara ) with the inner ceiling of mud plaster supported by wooden or bamboo planks. This construction made it fire-proof and insulated against the summer heat and winter chill. The entrance room was usually a cowshed, as cattle were the wealth of the people. Men met villagers and guests on the wide front veranda. Poorer people had houses with mud walls and straw-thatched gable roofs, without enclosed courtyards or double ceilings. The smoke from the kitchen escaped under the gabled roof. The Oriya had, in common with Eastern India, a wooden husking lever (dhenki ) in the courtyard for dehusking paddy rice or making rice flour. Nowadays houses with large windows and doors, roofs of concrete (tiled or with corrugated iron or asbestos sheets), walls of brick and mortar, and cement floors are becoming common even in Remote villages. In the traditional house, the northeastern corner of the kitchen formed the sacred site of the ancestral spirits (ishana ) for family worship.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Subsistence cultivation of paddy is ubiquitous as rice is the staple food. Double-cropping, sometimes even triple-cropping in irrigated fields, and single-cropping in drought-affected or rain-fed areas are all common. Large-scale farming with heavy agricultural machinery is still uncommon. Plowing with two bullocks or two buffalo is usual, with a wooden plow. Only recently have iron plows been coming into use. Cash crops like sugarcane, jute, betel leaves on raised mounds, coconuts and areca nuts (betel nuts) are grown in coastal Orissa, and pulses and oil seeds in drought-prone areas. Recently coffee, cocoa, cardamom, pineapples, and bananas have also been raised on a commercial scale. Fish are caught in traps and nets from Village tanks, streams, rivers, coastal swamps, and also in the flooded paddy fields. Fishing boats with outboard motors and trawlers are nowadays used at sea. The domestic animals include cows, goats, cats, chickens, ducks, and water buffalo among the lowest castes, as well as pigs and dogs among the urban middle class.

Industrial Arts. Most large villages had castes of artisans who served the agricultural economy in former times. Carpenters, wheelwrights, and blacksmiths were absolutely necessary. Some villages had potters with pottery wheels and weavers with cottage looms (cotton was formerly grown and yarn spun). Today, industrial products are displacing the Village products except for the wooden plow and cart wheels. Some cottage industries, especially the handloomed textiles (including the weaving of ikat, cotton textiles that are tied and dyed), are producing for export. Brass and bell-metal utensils and statues and silver and gold filigree ornaments have a wide clientele.

Trade. In villages, peddling and weekly markets were the usual commercial channels. Since World War II ration shops have sold scarce essential commodities.

Division of Labor. Men plow, sow, and carry goods with a pole balanced on the shoulder, whereas women carry things on their head, weed, and transplant the fields. Harvesting is done by both sexes. While men fish and hunt, women perform household chores and tend babies. Traditionally, among higher-caste and higher-class families, women did not work outside home. Nowadays men and some women are engaged in salaried service, but only lower-caste and lower-class women undertake wage labor.

Land Tenure. Before Independence land under agriculture had increased substantially. However, because of the high rate of population growth and subdivision of landholdings, the number of marginal farmers and the landless increased sharply thereafter. Following Independence some land above the statutory ceiling or from the common property resources was distributed among the landless, weaker sections of society. Large-scale industrial and irrigation-cum-power projects displaced people and added to the ranks of the landless. All of this has resulted in various categories of tenancy and contractual lease of land for subsistence cultivation.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Traditionally and currently, three patterns of family organization have obtained: (1) the multihousehold compounds where the separate families of the sons of the common father are housed as an extended family; (2) joint families with all the brothers living together, with a common kitchen, with or without the parents living (more common in villages than towns); (3) several families belonging to a patrilineage among whom kin obligations continue, residing in neighboring villages. Descent is patrilineal.

Kinship Terminology. The social emphasis on seniority in age and differentiation by sex and generation are observed. Kinship terminology follows the Hawaiian system. Fictive or ritual kin terms are used widely and are expressed in respect and affection and also in meeting appropriate kin obligations.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Although polygyny was practiced earlier, most marriages today are monogamous. Most marriages even now are also arranged by parents, though some are based on the mutual choice of the marriage partners. Only in western Orissa and southern Orissa is cousin marriage practiced. Marriage partners must not belong to the same gotra (mythical patrilineal descent group). Bride-price among the lower and middle castes has been replaced by a more costly dowry for the bridegroom among all classes and castes. After Marriage, residence is patrilocal, with the bride assuming the gotra of the husband. Nowadays residence tends to be Neolocal near the place of work. The Hindu marriage was ideally for this life and beyond, but since 1956 divorce has been permitted under legal procedures.

Domestic Unit. Living in a family is considered normal and proper. Most families today in both villages and towns are nuclear, though some are joint families. Members working and living outside usually visit the residual family and shrines occasionally. Often land is cultivated jointly by sharing the farm expenses. Recently there has been a tendency to reduce the size of the rural household through family planning.

Inheritance. Traditionally only sons inherited land and other immovable properties. The eldest son was given an additional share (jyesthansha ). Since 1956 the widow and daughters have been legal cosharers in all property.

Socialization. Parents, grandparents, and siblings care for infants and children and provide informal—and, recently, formal—education before school. Education of girls is still not common beyond primary school. Physical punishment to discipline a child is common, though infants are usually spared and cuddled. Respect for seniors in all situations and the value of education are emphasized, especially among the higher classes.

Sociopolitical Organization

Orissa is a state in the Republic of India, which has an elected president. The governor is the head of Orissa State, and the chief minister is the elected head of the government of Orissa.

Social Organization. Traditional Oriya society is Hierarchically organized primarily on the basis of caste (and subcaste) and occupations and secondarily on the basis of social class. The highest castes, Brahman, are priests and teachers of the Great Tradition. Below them in descending order of status are: the Kshatriya, warriors and rulers; the Vaisya, or traders; and the Sudra, or skilled and unskilled workers and service holders. The occupations involving manual and menial work are low in status, and polluting occupations like skinning dead animals or making shoes are associated with the lowest castes, the Untouchables. Ascriptive status in the caste system is sometimes checked now by acquired status in the class system. In rural Orissa patron-client relationships are common and social mobility is difficult.

Political Organization. Orissa is divided into thirteen Districts (zilla ), and each district is divided into subdivisions (tahsils ) for administrative purposes, into police stations (thana ) for law-and-order purposes, and into community development blocs (blok ) for development purposes. There are village-cluster committees (panchayat ) with elected Members and a head (sarpanch ) for the lowest level of self-administration and development. The community development bloc has a panchayat samiti or council of panchayats headed by the chairman, with all the sarpanch as members. Each caste or populous subcaste in a group of adjacent Villages also had a jati panchayat for enforcing values and institutional discipline. The traditional gram panchayat, consisting of the leaders of several important castes in a village, was for maintaining harmony and the ritual cycle.

Social Control and Conflict. Warfare between adjacent princedoms and villages came to a stop under British rule. The police stations (thana) maintain law and order in the rural areas.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Hinduism of various sects is a central and unifying force in Oriya society. The overwhelmingly important Vaishnava sect have their supreme deity, Jagannatha, who lords it over the religious firmament of Orissa. Lord Jagannatha's main temple is at Puri on the sea, where the famous annual festival with huge wooden chariots dragged for the regional divine triad—Jagannatha, Balabhadra, and Subhadra (goddess sister) — draws about half a million devotees. The famous Lingaraja temple of Lord Shiva at Bhubaneswar, the famous Viraja goddess temple at Jajpur, both in coastal Orissa, and Mahimagadi, the cult temple of the century-old Mahima sect of worshipers of Shunya Parama Brahma (the absolute soul void) at Joranda in central Orissa, are highly sacred for the Oriya people.

Religious Beliefs. The people of Orissa profess Hinduism overwhelmingly (96.4 percent), with Christianity (1.73 percent), Islam (1.49 percent), Sikhism (0.04 percent) and Buddhism (0.04 percent) trailing far behind. Obviously many Tribal groups have declared Hinduism as their religion. Apart from supreme beings, gods, and goddesses of classical Hindu religion, the Oriya propitiate a number of disease spirits, Village deities, and revered ancestral spirits.

Religious Practitioners. In the villages each Brahman priest has a number of client families of Kshatriya, Vaisya, and some Sudra castes. There are also magicians (gunia ) practicing witchcraft and sorcery. Kalisi or shamans are consulted to discover the causes of crises and the remedies.

Ceremonies. A large number of rituals and festivals mostly following the lunar calendar are observed. The most important rituals are: the New Year festival (Bishuba Sankranti) in mid-April; the fertility of earth festival (Raja Parab); festival of plowing cattle (Gahma Punein); the ritual of eating the new rice (Nabanna) ; the festival worshiping the goddess of victory, known otherwise as Dassara (Durga Puja); the festival of the unmarried girls (Kumar Purnima); the solar-calendar harvest festival (Makar Sankranti); the fast for Lord Shiva (Shiva Ratri); the festival of colors and the agricultural New Year (Dola Purnima or Dola Jatra); and, finally, the festival worshiping Lord Krishna at the end of February. In November-December (lunar month of Margashira) every Thursday the Gurubara Osha ritual for the rice goddess Lakshmi is held in every Oriya home.

Arts. The ancient name of Orissa, Utkala, literally means "the highest excellence in the arts." The Oriya are famous for folk paintings, painting on canvas (patta-chitra ), statuary and sculptures, the Orissan style of temple architecture, and tourist and pilgrim mementos made of horn, papier-mâché, and appliqué work. Classical Odissi dance, the virile Chhow dance, colorful folk dances with indigenous musical instruments (percussion, string, and wind) and also Western instruments, dance dramas, shadow plays (Ravana-Chhaya) with puppets, folk opera (jatra ), mimetic dances, and musical recitation of God's names are all very popular. Orissi music, largely following classical (raga ) tunes, and folk music, are rich and varied.

Medicine. Illness is attributed to "hot" or "cold" food, evil spirits, disease spirits, and witches; and mental diseases to sorcery or spirit possession. Leprosy and gangrenous wounds are thought to be punishment for the commission of "great" sins, and, for general physical and mental conditions, planets and stars in the zodiac are held to be responsible. Cures are sought through herbal folk medicines, propitiation of supernatural beings and spirits, exorcism, counteraction by a gunia (sorcery and witchcraft specialist), and the services of homeopathic, allopathic, or Ayurvedic specialists.

Death and Afterlife. Death is considered a transitional state in a cycle of rebirths till the soul (atma ) merges in the absolute soul (paramatma ). The god of justice, Yama, assigns the soul either to Heaven (swarga ) or to Hell (narka ). The Funeral rites and consequent pollution attached to the family and lineage of the deceased last for ten days among higher castes. The dead normally are cremated.

Bibliography

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Das, K. B., and L. K. Mahapatra (1979). Folklore of Orissa. New Delhi: National Book Trust India. 2nd ed. 1990.

Das, M. N., ed. (1977). Sidelights on History and Culture of Orissa. Cuttack: Vidyapuri.

Eschmann, A., H. Kulke, and C. C. Tripathi (1978). The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa. New Delhi: Manohar Publications.

Fisher, E., S. Mahapatra, and D. Pathy (1980). Orissa Kunst und Kultur in Nordost Indien. Zurich: Museum Rietberg.

Ganguly, Mano Mohan (1912). Brissa and Her Remains —Ancient and Mediaeval (District Puri), Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co.

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Marglin, Frédérique Apffel (1985). Wives of the God-King: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

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L. K. MAHAPATRA