Oriya

Odias (Oriyas) are the Odia-speaking people of Odisha, called Orissa until 2011, on India's east coast, an Indo-Aryan people of about 37.5 million first-language speakers (2011 census), with Odia-speaking communities in neighbouring West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Odia has its own rounded script and was declared a classical language of India in 2014. Odisha is the ancient Kalinga, whose conquest by the emperor Ashoka about 261 BC turned him to Buddhism, and the Odias' maritime traders once sailed to Bali, Java and Sri Lanka. Odisha became the first Indian province formed by language on 1 April 1936, celebrated as Utkal Divas or Odisha Day. Odia society is organised by caste (Brahmins, Karanas, Khandayats, Gopalas, artisan, fishing and Scheduled Castes); the state's large Adivasi population (about 23%) mostly speaks Santali, Ho, Kui, Saora and other tribal languages and forms separate peoples. Odia workers settled in Burma under British rule, and their descendants in Myanmar and Bangladesh form a separate community. Since the 1990s Odias have migrated in large numbers to Gujarat's textile and diamond industries, to Kerala and to the Gulf.

Odia life centres on the Jagannath temple at Puri, whose Rath Yatra chariot festival draws millions each summer, and on the temple architecture of Konark and Bhubaneswar. Odissi is one of India's classical dances, and Pattachitra cloth painting, palm-leaf engraving, silver filigree and Sambalpuri ikat weaving are Odia crafts. Rice is the staple: pakhala (fermented rice in water) is eaten in the hot months, with dalma (lentils and vegetables), fish and chhena sweets such as rasagola and chhena poda. Festivals include Raja, three June days honouring Mother Earth and womanhood when girls rest, swing and eat pitha cakes, Kartika Purnima's Boita Bandana, when people float toy boats to remember the sea traders, Durga Puja, Nuakhai (the new rice harvest in western Odisha) and Makar Sankranti. Marriages are arranged within caste, and the extended family remains strong.

Most Odias are Hindus whose devotion centres on Jagannath, a form of Vishnu-Krishna worshipped with his siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra in carved wooden images that are renewed every 12 to 19 years; the cult draws together Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta and tribal roots, and the temple's mahaprasad is shared across castes. Village goddesses (thakurani) and local deities receive offerings, and astrology, vows and pilgrimages to Puri remain important. The 19th-century Mahima Dharma rejects images and caste. Christians are about 3% of Odisha, mostly among tribal and Dalit communities; in 2008 attacks on Christians in Kandhamal district killed dozens and drove tens of thousands from their homes. Odisha passed India's first anti-conversion law in 1967.

William Carey's Serampore mission published the Odia New Testament in 1811 and the whole Bible in 1815, and revised Odia Bibles, the JESUS film and audio recordings are available. Baptist missions from England worked in Cuttack from 1822. Churches in Odisha are mostly tribal and Dalit; caste Hindu Odias remain among the least reached peoples, with almost no known believers, and the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act (1967) and memories of the 2008 Kandhamal violence make conversion socially costly.