Orissa, an ancient kingdom of India, the authentic history of which goes back for probably more than one thousand years, extended from Bengal on the N. to the Godavari on the S. The present province is the extreme south-west portion of Bengal; on the E. it has the Bay of Bengal, and on the W. the Central Provinces. Orissa was long a Buddhist stronghold; in 474 a new dynasty made it Brahmanical, and introduced the worship of Siva; in 1132 this was replaced by Vishnuism and another dynasty. It ceased to be an independent state in 1568, being conquered and made an outlying province of the empire of the Great Mogul. Its next masters were the Malhattas, who seized it in 1742; but they were forced to surrender it to the English in 1803. At the present time Orissa is divided between the British commissionership of Orissa and the tributary states, and is accounted part of Bengal Presidency. The commissionership has an area of 9853 sq. m. and a pop. of (1891) 3,789,799; the tributary states, a hilly country with dense jungle, lying between the low coast districts and the interior plateau, has an area of 14,387 sq. m. and a population of 1,696,710. All this region was visited by severe famine in 1868-69. The principal river is the Mahanadi, and the chief towns Cuttack, Balasor, and Puri (Juggernaut, q.v.). The entire district is sacred ground to the Hindus; evidences of the worship of Siva and Vishnu meet the eye at every turn. Great festivals are held in honour of this latter god and of his image called Juggernaut (q.v.). The most interesting of the aboriginal races are the Kandhs (Kondhs, Khonds), who number 280,000, besides close upon 150,000 in the Central Provinces. Amongst these people agriculture and war are the only employments, the menial offices of village life being performed by a subject, almost slave race. They pay profound reverence to the earth-god, and used to sacrifice human beings to secure his favour, until the practice was suppressed by the British (1837-50). The tribal government is strictly patriarchal. The tribesmen were summoned to arms by messengers bearing an arrow, who sped from glen to glen, like the bearers of the fiery cross in Scotland. Duelling was formerly in vogue. The irrigation of a large portion of Orissa is provided for by an extensive and costly system of canals, taken over by the government in 1868.
See 'An Account of the Religion of the Khonds in Orissa,' in Trans. Asiatic Soc. (1851); Campbell's Personal Narrative of Service amongst the Wild Tribes of Khondistan (1864); Calcutta Review, Nos. IX., XI., XV., and XX.; and Orissa, by W. W. Hunter (1872).