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Capital
: Bhubaneshwar
Area : 155,707 sq km Language: Oriya, Bengali,
Hindi, English
No. of Districts: 13
Cities :Puri, Cuttack
Airports: Bhubaneshwar
Best Season :Rains are heavy during July-October.
The Summer months are extremely hot. The best time to visit October
and March.
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The state of
Orissa lies along the eastern seaboard of India, south of Bengal. Its
main attraction are the temple towns of puri and Bhubaneshwar and the
great Sun Temple at Konark. These three sites make a convenient and
compact triangle , and Bhubaneshwar is on the main Calcutta to Madras
railway route . It is predominantly rural , with fertile green coastal
plains rising to the hills of the Eastern Ghats. Orissa is tapping the
hydroelectric potential of its manby rivers , and fledgling industries
have been started . The state is mineral rich and a big exporter of
iron ore with a large factory at Rourkela. However the state is still
largely a region of green fields.
History : Orissa's hazy past focuses with the reign of Kalinga.
In 260 BC he was defeated by Ashoka,the great India emperor,but the
bloody battle left such a bitter taste with Ashoka that the converted
to Buddhism and spread that gentle religion far and wide.Buddhism soon
declined in Orissa,however , and jainism held sway until Buddhism resserted
itself in the 2nd century AD. By the 7th century AD Hinduism had , in
turn , supplanted Buddhism and Orissa's golden age was in full swing.
Under the Kesari and Ganga kings the Orissan culture flourished and
countless temple from the classical period still stand today.The Orissans
managed to defy the Muslim rulers in Delhi until the region finally
fell to the Mughals during the 16th century.Many of Bhubaneshwar's temples
were destroyed at the time.
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