Stupas in Orissa (Study)
by Meenakshi Chauley | 2013 | 109,845 words
This study examines the Stupas and Votive Stupas in Odisha or Orissa (Eastern India).—In this thesis an attempt has been made to trace the historicity of Buddhism in Odisha on the basis of the architectural development of the Stupa architecture. Archaeological evidence obtained from excavated sites dates such structures as early as third-second cen...
From the Middle of the fourth Century
[Full title: Political and Religious History of Orissa (7): From the Middle of the fourth Century to the Middle of the fifth Century CE ]
During the early part of fourth century CE Mathara kings were ruling Kalinga, they patronized Hinduism. Towards the close of the fifth century CE to the beginning of the sixth century CE, the Gangas ruled Kalinga, who were Saivites (De 1947:136).
The Thera School of Deccan is known to have undertaken missionary activities in Tosali and Palura in Kalinga, along with several other places of India before the third century CE. Palura has been identified by S. Levy with Dantapura, the city of the tooth, on the ground that ‘Pallur’ which constitutes the first part of the name “Pall” means, “a tooth” and “ur” the other part of it means “a city”. Palura has been described as the ancient trading centre of Kalinga, located at the mouth of the river Rishikulya, very close to the port of Gangam by Ptolemy. Ptolemy selected it as one of the bases for the preparation of his map (Sahu 1955:182) This period saw development of large number of magnificent monasteries of the Mahayana sect at places like Tosali, Tamralipti, Jayarampur, Che-li-ta-lo, Pu-si-po-ki-li, Ratnagiri, Ganiapali and others. These monasteries contributed a lot to the growth and development of Mahayana Buddhism in Orissa (Mishra 1999:132).