Community, Caste and Region: Perspectives from Early Orissa

Regions such as Orissa, like other cultural regions, were constituted by the conjunction of a multiplicity of historical forces over time. The gradual coming together of localities and sub-regions at different stages of cultural attainment, the consequent overlaps and intersections, and the wider network of transregional cultural transactions with the contemporary societies went into the shaping of the region today known as Orissa. The idea of a cultural region in itself, if not for itself, goes back to the late early medieval or medieval centuries. It may be useful to remember that the present-day boundaries of the state did not necessarily coincide with its spatial contours during the formative period. Similarly, sub-regions such as Kalinga and Dakshina Kosala, which helped immeasurably in the making of the historical region, are not entirely a part of it at present. Parts of their territories have been merged with the modern neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh.