Taught by Debendra Nath Rout
Odisha; a confluence of the Aryan, Dravidian and Adivasi cultures which is a cultural treasure trove, with ancient monuments, archaeological sites, indigenous arts, sculpture, dance, and music. It is the 8th largest state in terms of land and the 11th largest in terms of people. The state is home to India's 3rd largest number of Scheduled Tribes. It is a state, which is always in festival mode. Most festivals in the state bring out some part of these cultures and celebrate their religion by way of festivals which span out the entire year. The way of life in this culturally rich state is reflected through its language, Odia.
Odia is an Indo-Aryan language which is spoken in Odisha where native speakers are about 40 million which constitute up 82% of the state population. Odia is one of the many official languages of India; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand. This language is also spoken in some parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Odia is the sixth Indian language to be designated as Indian Classical language, on the basis of having a long literary history and not having borrowed extensively from other languages. The earliest known inscription in Odia dates back to the 10th century CE. The Odia script developed from the Kalinga script, one of the many descendents of the Brahmi script of ancient India. The earliest known inscription in the Odia language, in the Kalinga script, dates from 1051.
