A tie spanning thousands of years

Chennai:

The cultural ties between Orissa and Tamil Nadu date back to thousand years when Cholas invaded Kalinga and left behind a lasting legacy in the eastern state. Interestingly, there were two invasions of Kalinga, and the one by Kulotunga I in 1093-94 gains prominence.

Kulottunga's conquest of Kalinga is celeberated in a historic Tamil poem called Kalingattu-Parani by his court poet Jayamkondar. One of the finest poems in Tamil language, it is still preserved in full till date. It is a novel format too, being met with for the first time in Tamil literature. It is a historical poem with Kulottunga as the hero and gives his childhood, commanders, conquests in graphic poetry.

The work celebrates the exploits of Kulottunga from his childhood and the greatness of his general Karunakara Tondaiman, who headed the victorious Chola army on its Kalinga expedition..

The Cholas left behind a lasting legacy in both the states of Tamil Nadu and Odisha, by their marriage with the Ganga dynasty, and the resultant Chodaganga Dynasty in the Odisha region, which flourished under their rule.

Their patronization of art, architecture and literature extended as far as the islands of Cambodia and Indonesia.

Orissa has maintained her political vigour with successive powerful ruling dynasties and achieved a distinction of her own, within the wider intricacies of Indian civilization.

Tidbits:

The word Oriya is an anglicised version of Odia which itself is a modern name for the Odra or Udra tribes that inhabited the central belt of modern Orissa.

Orissa has also been the home of the Kalinga and Utkal tribes that played a particularly prominent role in the region's history, and one of the earliest references to the ancient Kalingas appears in the writings of Vedic chroniclers.