The history of Orissa spans over 3,500 years and it is atypical from the history of the northern plains in many ways.Many of the common generalizations that are made about Indian history doesn't apply to the Oriya region. The word Oriya is an anglicised version of oṛiā, which itself is a modern name for the Odra or Udra tribes that inhabited the central belt of modern Orissa.Orissa has been the home of the Kalinga, Utkal, Kantara/Mahakantara and Kosal (South) that played a particularly prominent role in the region's history and one of the earliest references to the ancient Kalingas appears in the writings of Vedic chroniclers.In the 6th century, Vedic Sutrakara Baudhayana mentions Kalinga as being beyond the Vedic fold, indicating that Brahminical influences had not yet touched the land.Unlike some other parts of India, tribal customs and traditions played a significant role in shaping political structures and cultural practices right up to the 15th century when brahminical influences triumphed over competing traditions and caste differentiation began to inhibit social mobility and erode what had survived of the ancient republican tradition.
