Origins
Most of modern Orissa was inhabited by native tribes since the Neolithic period. These tribes were later pushed towards the interior by the Aryans who occupied the fertile coastal belt. This was one of the last waves of Aryan migration and marks the south eastern limits of their expansion. While there is no unanimity regarding the date of this advance, the Oriyas were a well known community by the time of the Mahabharata and Ramayan.
Occupying this frontier of the Aryan world, the Oriyas adopted and assimilated many tribal practices into their religion and culture over a long period of time. The languages spoken by these communities all belong to the same Eastern Indo Aryan group with varying levels of Hindi influence.
Read more about this topic: Oriya People
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
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smiling carves dreams, bright cells
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—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)