Introduction

Present day Orissa mostly consists of the territorial units once under ancient Tosali, Kalinga, Utkala, Kosala, Odra and Kangoda. The archaeological investigations and findings reveal that from the very beginning of the historical period, Orissa has been associated with all the major contemporary religions in India, both the orthodox and heterodox. Along with other religions Buddhism also had a very long, prosperous and continuing history in this region till thirteenthfourteenth century CE. Though there are no evidences to tell that Lord Buddha visited Orissa during His lifetime but there are literary evidences referring to people of ancient Orissa having knowledge and acquaintances with the Lord and his teachings.

Archaeological evidences coming from Lalitgiri (Chauley 1985-86: 62), Sisupalgarh (Ota 2007: 67) suggest Buddhism had already made its presence in Kalinga in the last quarter of the first millennium BCE. This is again corroborated from the early Pali literatures like Vinaya Pitka, Anguttara Nikaya, Majihima Nikaya, Buddha Vamsa, Dathadhatu Vamsa and Lalit Vistara, which speak about His relationship with Kalinga. The recent archaeological investigations and excavations reveal the subsequent development, continuation and interaction with contemporary Brahmanism and Jainism with its various sub-sects till thirteenth-fourteenth century CE. The Buddhist activities in Orissa continued for a longer period than seen in some of the important centres in the subcontinent. The general cause for the downfall of Buddhism in Orissa could be similar in nature to those seen in other parts of the country, but its continuance for a longer period and sudden decline could have been influence by a regional religious, economic, social and administrative perspective.

The study of Buddhism in Orissa, with its various facets has not received the due attention it deserves. Though hundreds of Buddhist sites have been explored and reported, of which a few have been excavated and reports on even fewer available; there has been no attempt to integrate the details of the findings to understand the essence of regional characteristic, their development with relation to the regional religious atmospheres and with diverse socio-economic and political conditions. The number of Buddhist Viharas and sites having Buddhist affiliations, if properly documented may outnumber the monuments and sites of other religions. This can be gleaned from the vast number of Buddhists sites spread throughout the length and breadth of the state. There are more than 300 Buddhist sites reported from the state (Prusty 1997, Donaldson 2000 and Chauley 2005), of these only twenty one sites are excavated i.e. 4 major (Ratnagiri, Udayagiri, Lalitagiri and Langudi) and 17 minor (Ganiapalli, Kurum, Abhana, Kapilaprasada, Aragarh, Brahmavana, Sakuntalapur, Ranipur Jharial, Khiching, Kayama, Deuli (Kumari hill), Tarapur (Duburi hill), Vajragiri, Kantigadia, Neulpur, Radhanagar, and Viratgarh) and the rest 303 are explored sites. Of these, reports are published only on 1) Ratnagiri (Mitra 1981)in two volumes and 2) Udayagiri-II, in the form of two separate volumes for the field season’s (1997-2000) (Bandyopadhyay 2007)^[1] and (2001-2003) (Trivedi: 2012).