Orissa, India(1), consists of 156 thousand square kilometers found northwest of the top of the Bay of Bengal. There are four geophysical zones. First is a coastal plain, wide in the north, narrow when Orissa meets the northeast extension of Andhra Pradesh. In the south is a lagoon, Chilika Lake, disconnected from the sea by monsoon-induced silting(2); it is the state's largest natural body of water.
The second feature is comprised of the northern hills, divided into two sections by the upper Brahmani River. The more northerly group is the Garhjat Hills, which reach to nearly 1,200 meters--low mountain heights. Between the Brahmani and the Mahanadi are the Bamra Hills.
South of the Mahanadi River is the third zone: the Eastern Ghats, which rise to 1,500 meters near Andhra Pradesh. The Indravati River starts in these mountains and flows west into Chhattisgarh.
The final area is the eastern part of the Chhattisgarh Plain, centered on the upper Mahanadi River system. The river proper descends out of Chhattisgarh state, and is dammed to form Hirakud Lake.
More than 38 million people live here (2005). More than eight in ten of them speak Oriya; no other single language accounts for as many as one in 20(3). More than 19 in 20 are Hindus(4).
There is one metropolitan area of over a million: Bhubaneswar.
Indo-Aryans moved into an area inhabited by Munda and Dravidian groups, during the 1st millenium B.C.E. as a ruling elite(5), later as a majority. There are still small numbers of speakers of languages in these groups in Orissa. Initially Oriya was not distinct from Bengali, another Indo-Aryan language, but became distinct, influenced by Telegu, Marathi and British rulers(6).
The religion of the elites, as subsequently recorded in scriptures, focused on a pantheon that included Indra, Varuna and Soma. Over time, it embraced more beliefs and abstracted some original ones, and evolved into Hinduism. During this transformation, Buddhism, Jainism and Ajivikaism also arose. Initially Jains were predominant, later succeeded by a mix of Buddhists and Hindus. Later on Buddhism faded, leaving forms of Hinduism--Vaisnavism, Saivism, Sakta and Surya to greet the conquest by the Islamic Moguls.
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(1) Bharat is an alternate name, in transliteration.
(2) Some atlases show it as connected.
(3) www.censusindia.net/cendat/datattable26.html (accessed May 8, 2007).
(4) Joseph E. Schwartzberg, A Historical Atlas of South Asia (The University of Chicago Press, 1978), Plates X.A.2. Data is from 1961.
(5) Schwartzberg, ibid., Text for Plate III B.
(6) The Sambalpuri dialect of Oriya is particularly influenced by the Munda languages.