Oriya – The Language of the Kalingas @ Microsoft
| Oriya is an official language of India and is spoken by over 35 million people all over the world. This article traces the origins and history of Oriya from the days of the Kalingas to its status in the present-day context. |
| Oriya is classified as a member of the Indo-Aryan language super family and is the official language of the state of Orissa. Modern-day Oriya has been discovered to have originated from the Prakrit form known as Magadhi or Pali, a language spoken across kingdoms and cultures across Eastern India over 1,500 years ago. With a very strong resemblance to the modern languages, Bangla (Bengali) and Ahomiya (Assamese), Oriya distinctively seems to be relatively uninfluenced by Persian and Arabic, despite Orissa's long history of administration by the Mughals. |
| Oriya is essentially considered to be a modified form of the Odri Prakrit form. This form of Prakrit is in turn derived from Sanskrit via the transitional Bibhasas. Modern Oriya vocabulary is estimated to be composed of 70% Sanskrit, 2% Hindustani/Persian/Arabic with the remaining 28% of mainly "Adivasi" origin. The history of Oriya has been mapped by historians along three main stages, Old Oriya (spanning between the 10th century AD and 1300 AD), Early Middle Oriya (between 1300 AD and 1500 AD), Middle Oriya (between 1500 AD and 1700 AD), Late Middle Oriya (between 1700 AD and 1850 AD) and Modern Oriya (spanning from 1850 AD till the present day). |
| Oriya literature has had a vivid and varying history through the ages. Until about 1500AD, Oriya literature mainly comprised of poems and prose depicting religion, with the stories and glory of the gods and goddesses featuring as the main theme. The earliest use of prose can be found in the Madala Panji or the Palm-leaf Chronicles of the Jagannatha temple at Puri, which has been dated back to the 12th century. The first great poet in Oriya history is the famous Sarala Das, referred to widely as the Vyasa of Orissa, Sarala Dasa's best-known works were the Chandi Purana and the Vilanka Ramayana, written in praise of the goddess Durga. Rama-bibha, written by Arjuna Dasa, is estimated to be the first epic poem in Oriya literature's history. |
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http://www.bhashaindia.com/Patrons/LanguageTech/Oriya.htm
Other Resource
Encyclopedia resources on Oriya
http://www.mongabay.com/indigenous_ethnicities/languages/languages/Oriya.html
Oriya script
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Posted by: sudhi | June 28, 2006 at 03:09 AM