Bali Jatra

The placid Chilika lake has been reduced to a mesh of prawn farming nets these days. In its glory days, which spanned many centuries across the pre-and early Christian era, it was an important hub of global maritime trade. Port towns around…

Cuttack: The historic Bali Jatra on the banks of the Mahandi in the Millennium City has been extended by a day. The mega open fair, which was inaugurated on Tuesday (November 12), will now conclude on November 20, said Collector Bhabani…

Kalinga was a maritime superpower. It means ancient Odias were proficient at ship-building and had sound knowledge of the seasonal winds. While contemporary and later-day literary accounts are replete with mention of the trading activities…

Rituals succeed where history fails. Bits of our past survives as collective memory through them. History looks for evidence, they don't. They deal with certainties etched into our communal consciousness centuries ago. History may be…

What did the sadhavas carry in their magnificent boats? Historical evidence suggests the cargo consisted of ivory, textiles, precious stones, rice and betel nuts among other items. Elephants from Odisha were in great demand in Sri Lanka. It…

Kalinga war, which historians place around 261 BC, was Mauryan emperor Ashoka’s only major military offensive. The reason was not his desire to acquire the ravishing commoner Karuvaki as mythology would have it, but a cool-headed strategic…

Ancient Odisha’s dominance of the sea was so overwhelming that that the Bay of Bengal came to be identified solely with Kalinga. Mahayana text Araya Manjusri Mulakalpa, believed to have been compiled in the sixth century AD, refers to Bay…

The boat drifts gently into water and struggles for balance as the feeble current underneath tries to lend it a sense of direction. The cargo on board rests pretty. The burning torch lights the path amid the ripples for the invisible…

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha capital will commemorate Odisha's maritime glory with nine-day Bali Jatra fair on its outskirts from Tuesday evening. It is being held on the Kuakhai riverbank near Mancheswar Jaripatna village. Expecting a huge…

Cuttack: The Commissionerate Police has issued traffic advisory for the Bali Jatra, to be held at Bali Jatra ground here from November 12 to 19. The traffic diversion from 3 pm to 1 pm on these days are as follows: Vehicular traffic…