49 Fun Facts About Odisha

Which Odisha shrine, called the Black Pagoda by European sailors, is built as a huge stone chariot on carved wheels?

Konark Sun Temple's dark tower was a landmark for ships in the Bay of Bengal, so sailors called it the Black Pagoda; Puri's Jagannath Temple was their White Pagoda.

Which English word for an unstoppable force comes from the deity whose chariot is hauled through Puri each year?

Juggernaut is an old English spelling of Jagannath; early European travellers told lurid, probably apocryphal tales of pilgrims crushed under his giant chariot, and the name stuck to anything unstoppable.

Which Mauryan emperor, sickened by the slaughter of his own Kalinga War, renounced conquest for Buddhism?

Ashoka had his remorse cut into rock: his thirteenth edict admits that 100,000 people were killed and 150,000 deported when he conquered Kalinga.

Which brackish Odisha lagoon, cut off from the Bay of Bengal by a long sandbar, is home to endangered Irrawaddy dolphins?

Chilika Lake was choking on silt and joined Ramsar's danger list in 1993; engineers cut a new mouth to the sea, the fish came back and the lake was taken off the list.

Which classical dance from Odisha's temples, revived by four gurus around 1950, is known for its tribhangi pose?

Odissi is often called the oldest surviving classical dance of India, and the tribhangi and chauka poses it uses appear in Jain Kalpasutra manuscripts discovered in Gujarat.

When Parliament respelled Orissa as Odisha in 2011, what else did the same bills rename?

Its language: Oriya became Odia in the same 2011 bills, which Parliament passed after the state assembly asked for English spellings closer to how the names are said.

Which planned city, laid out by German architect Otto Königsberger, was founded as Odisha's new capital in April 1948?

Bhubaneswar was drawn up by Königsberger as a string of self-contained neighbourhoods close to nature, laid out beside a temple town many centuries older.

Which dam across the Mahanadi near Sambalpur, opened by Nehru in 1957, drowned old temples that still resurface each summer?

Hirakud drowned the temples of the villages its reservoir flooded; the heritage trust INTACH has been recording the ruins that the falling water bares each summer.

Which syrupy sweet won Odisha its own geographical indication tag in 2019, after a long origin feud with West Bengal?

Rasgulla is central to Odisha's claim: in Puri temple legend, Jagannath returns from his chariot festival to find Lakshmi has locked him out, and wins her round with the sweet.

Which sport's senior men's World Cup did Odisha host twice within five years, in 2018 and again in 2023?

Hockey got a home built for it: for the 2023 edition Odisha raised a brand-new stadium, which Guinness certified as the world's largest fully seated hockey arena.

Which Odisha city, the state capital until 1948, was the 1897 birthplace of freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose?

Cuttack is squeezed onto a strip of land between two rivers; floods and the lack of room to grow cost it the capital, though the state's high court stayed behind.

Which hill beside the Daya river, the presumed site of the Kalinga War, holds a peace pagoda built with Japanese help?

Dhauli's rock carries the emperor's edicts with a telling gap: the one confessing the Kalinga bloodshed is left out, replaced by two special edicts telling local officials to govern justly.

Which 1817 uprising against Company rule, led by Jagabandhu, is hailed in Odisha as the first war of independence?

Paika Rebellion fighters rallied behind Lord Jagannath as a symbol of Odia unity, and in 2017 the state formally asked Delhi to rank their rising above the 1857 revolt, a request the Union government turned down in Parliament in 2021.

On what basis was Odisha carved out as a separate province in 1936?

A shared language: the province stitched together Odia-speaking districts from Bihar and Orissa, the Madras Presidency and the Central Provinces, after a campaign that began in 1903.

Which dynasty's ruler Anantavarman began the present Jagannath Temple at Puri in the early 12th century?

Eastern Ganga kings tied their throne to the god: a century later Anangabhima III declared Jagannath the true ruler of the realm and styled himself merely the deity's deputy.

Which lawyer, honoured as Utkal Gourab, founded the Utkal Sammilani in 1903 to campaign for a united Odisha?

Madhusudan Das never saw it happen: he died in 1934, two years before the united Odia-speaking province he had campaigned for came into being.

Which Odisha chief minister, a pilot who flew Indonesian leaders past the Dutch, funded UNESCO's Kalinga Prize?

Biju Patnaik flew Sjahrir and other leaders out of Jakarta in a Dakota in July 1947 on fuel from abandoned Japanese dumps, and his donation created the science-popularisation prize in 1952.

Who, hailed as the father of modern Odia literature, wrote Chha Maana Atha Guntha, about a landlord fleecing poor villagers?

Fakir Mohan Senapati ran it as a magazine serial from 1897; the title, 'six acres and a third', is the small plot his scheming landlord uses the new colonial courts to seize.

Which 12th-century poet's Gita Govinda, a lyric on Krishna and Radha, is sung every night in the Jagannath Temple?

Jayadeva's poem is so bound into the temple's closing rite that the robes the gods wear for the night have lines from the Gita Govinda woven into the silk.

Which giant wooden chariot, built anew every year, carries Jagannath himself at Puri's Rath Yatra?

Nandighosha lasts a single festival: once the gods are home, the chariots are dismantled and their timber is burned as fuel in the temple kitchens.

To which shrine, said to be the deities' aunt's home, are Puri's chariots hauled each Rath Yatra?

Gundicha Temple stands empty most of the year; the trip comes after a bath of 108 pitchers is said to leave the gods with a fever, and they are kept out of sight until it breaks.

Which Rath Yatra ritual has the Gajapati king of Puri, the deity's foremost servitor, ceremonially sweep the chariots?

Chhera Pahanra has the king sweep the chariot floors with a golden broom, a show that before Jagannath even a monarch is only a servant.

Which tree supplies the wood for Puri's Jagannath idols, carved afresh in the rare Nabakalebara rite?

Neem wood does not last like stone or metal, so the idols are periodically carved anew and the old ones buried in a garden inside the temple grounds.

What wheel of eight-metal alloy tops the Jagannath Temple in Puri, flying a different flag every day?

Nila Chakra means blue discus, and the flag tied above it, changed every day, is revered as the equal of the idols in the sanctum below.

Which Odisha festival of womanhood, when girls play on swings, marks the menstruation of Mother Earth?

Raja Parba gives the earth the rest owed to a menstruating woman: while it lasts nobody ploughs or digs the soil, and women and girls are excused from housework.

Which western Odisha harvest festival, held the day after Ganesh Chaturthi, celebrates the season's new rice?

Nuakhai's new rice goes to the deity first and only then to the family, many of whom travel home for it, before the young greet their elders in the Nuakhai Juhar.

Which Bargarh festival drama, billed as the world's largest open-air theatre, turns the town into Kansa's kingdom of Mathura?

Dhanu Yatra gives the actor playing Kansa real sway for eleven days: he tours Bargarh on an elephant and can fine any citizen or official he summons.

Which Kartik Purnima fair on the Mahanadi bank recalls the overseas trading voyages of ancient Odia mariners?

Bali Jatra means 'voyage to Bali', and on the festival morning Odias float tiny boats of paper, banana bark and cork on rivers and ponds in memory of the Sadhaba sailors.

What name is given to food cooked in earthen pots over firewood in the Jagannath Temple and sold at Ananda Bazaar?

Mahaprasad earns the name only after a second offering: food served to Jagannath is carried to the goddess Bimala, and then shared by every caste alike.

Which peak in Koraput district, rising about 1,672 metres, is the highest point in Odisha?

Deomali tops Odisha but not its own range: across the state line in Andhra Pradesh, Arma Konda stands a few metres higher.

Which Mayurbhanj tiger reserve is famed for pseudo-melanistic tigers, whose coats appear mostly black from inbreeding?

Simlipal was down to four tigers in 2014, and in so small and cut-off a population the rare black-coat mutation became common among their descendants.

Which Kendrapara national park of mangrove creeks and tidal deltas is a refuge for saltwater crocodiles?

Bhitarkanika had fewer than a hundred crocodiles left in the mid-1970s, until a project that hatched wild-laid eggs and released the young rebuilt them to well over a thousand.

Which sea turtle nests in vast numbers at Gahirmatha in Odisha, one of the world's largest mass-nesting beaches?

Olive ridley females come ashore in synchronised mass nestings called arribadas, a habit they share only with the closely related Kemp's ridley.

At which Balasore beach, also home to DRDO's Integrated Test Range, does the sea retreat for kilometres at low tide?

Chandipur's sea pulls back for kilometres at each low tide, so visitors can walk out on the exposed seabed, where horseshoe crabs are found.

Which chromite-mining valley in Jajpur district made a 2007 list of the world's ten most polluted places?

Sukinda's open-cast mines leach hexavalent chromium, the Erin Brockovich toxin, into local water, though Indian geoscientists called the ranking exaggerated.

Where in Odisha were white tiger cubs famously born to two ordinary orange parents?

Nandankanan saw the surprise litter in 1980 from a normal-coloured pair, and the zoo went on to become a noted breeder of white tigers with a safari for them.

Which two-tiered waterfall in Mayurbhanj's tiger reserve, dropping about 399 metres, ranks among the tallest in India?

Barehipani runs strongest when almost nobody can watch: the tiger reserve around it shuts to visitors each monsoon for safety and reopens only once the rains are over.

Which 11th-century Shiva shrine with a 180-foot tower is the largest in Odisha's capital, the ancient Ekamra Kshetra?

Lingaraj Temple is closed to non-Hindus, who look in from a platform beside the wall, first put up for a visit by the viceroy Lord Curzon.

Which Odisha painting on cloth, a speciality of the craft village Raghurajpur, was made as souvenirs for Puri pilgrims?

Pattachitra began as a stand-in for the gods: when Puri's idols are hidden away after their ritual bath, painted images are worshipped in their place.

Which metal is drawn into fine wire for Tarakasi, the filigree craft behind the nickname of Odisha's former capital?

Silver is pulled through smaller and smaller holes until it is thread-fine, and at Durga Puja the city's goddess idols wear whole crowns of the filigree.

Which technique, tie-dyeing warp and weft threads before they are woven, gives Sambalpuri sarees their patterns?

Ikat weavers bind parts of the yarn so they resist the dye, and the hard job of lining those threads up on the loom gives the patterns their soft, feathered edges.

Which Odisha dessert, named for its burnt or baked cheese, is cooked for hours from cottage cheese, sugar and semolina?

Chhena poda began as a rescue job, when a Nayagarh sweet-maker baked his leftover cottage cheese with sugar to stop it spoiling overnight.

Which Odia dish of cooked rice soaked or lightly fermented in water is celebrated with a dedicated day every 20 March?

Pakhala is summer lunch across Odisha, leftover rice soured overnight in water and eaten to keep the body cool once the heat sets in.

Which martial dance, whose three styles include Mayurbhanj in Odisha, joined UNESCO's heritage list in 2010?

Chhau is famous for its masks, yet Odisha's own Mayurbhanj style is the one danced bare-faced, while the Purulia and Seraikella styles keep theirs on.

Which insects and their eggs go into Odisha's kai chutney, the tribal dish given a GI tag in 2024?

Red weaver ants are taken from their nests in Mayurbhanj's forests, eggs and all, then ground with salt, ginger, garlic and chillies into a paste tribal families sell for a living.

Which Puri-born artist, given the Padma Shri in 2014, is famous worldwide for sculptures built from beach sand?

Sudarsan Pattnaik's students marked his Padma Shri by sculpting their teacher in sand on Puri beach, where his 2017 sandcastle set a Guinness height record.

Why are Odia letters so rounded, with the flat top line of related scripts curled into an umbrella shape?

Writing on palm leaves, which tend to tear under too many straight strokes, pushed Odia scribes to bend the flat top line of older scripts into a curve.

Which Odisha city grew up around a steel plant built in the 1950s with West German firms Krupp and Demag?

Rourkela's steelworks rose on land cleared of Adivasi villages, and many of the uprooted families say the promised jobs and compensation never came.

Which Odisha sprinter, raised in a weaver's family in Jajpur, became India's first athlete to openly come out in 2019?

Dutee Chand was barred in 2014 over naturally high testosterone, refused surgery, and won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that suspended the rule.