Very few states can boast of as much natural and geographic beauty as Orissa can. The home of India's tigers, Orissa has 18 sanctuaries and over one third of the state's area is covered by forests. There are also several rivers flowing through the state, filling it with rare and beautiful flora and fauna.

The name Orissa is derived from Sanskrit word "Odra Vishaya" or "Odra Desa". The ancient province of "Odra desa" or "Or-desa" was limited to the valley of the Mahanadi and to the lower course of the Subarnarekha River. It comprised the whole of the present districts of Cuttack and Sambalpur and a portion of Midnapore. It was bounded on the West by Gondwana, on the North by the wild hill states of Jashpur and Singhbhum, on the East by the sea and on the South by Ganjam.

The Orissa state, which was once a land of Kings and Kingdoms, now boasts of being rich source of natural resources. Its people, temple architecture, classical dance, religions, fairs and festivals, unique handlooms and handicrafts, green woodlands, rock caves, charming blue hills have always attracted historians, tourists and travellers from all over the world. Its rich history, revolutionary freedom movement, fascinatingly sculptured temples and monuments, tribal life characterized by dance, music, rituals, hunting, gaiety and wild ways have become important topics of research for great historians and scholars.

The Territory of Orissa formed a part of the ancient Kalinga of Mahabharata fame. Ashoka, the Mauryan King of Magadh, invaded Kalinga in 261 BC and this event has gone down in history as the Great Kalinga war. Even with lot of resistance from the people of Kalinga and King Priyadarshan, Ashoka won the battle and noted down the descriptions of this Great War in his thirteenth Rock Edict. This bloodshed converted Ashoka’s heart and he took up Buddhism. This became the last war of his life.

Kalinga came into prominence with Kharavela, a great conqueror and patron of Jainism, in the second half of the 1st century B.C. The other great rulers belonged to the Keshari dynasty and the Eastern Ganga dynasty. Flourishing maritime trade with South-East Asian countries i.e. Java, Bornio had brought in a golden era of affluence and opulence and the kingdom spanned from Ganga to Godavari. The Kalinga School of architecture flourished from the 7th to 13th century A.D. The Mukteswar Temple, the Sun Temple at Konark, the Lingaraj Temple and the Jagannath Temple of Puri are known all over the world for their architecture.

There were a number of heroes who were born in Kalinga before and during the British rule like Buxi Jagabandhu, Samudra Gupta and Harsha Siladitya. Budhism reached new heights with Prajna and Hieuen-Tsang, the famous Chinese pilgrim came to the University of Puspagiri and Buddhist complex at Ratnagiri-Lalitgiri-Udayagiri can now be seen speaking about the bygone era. Prophets like Adi Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Sri Chaitanya made Puri the religious center. Jayadev composed his world famous lilting treatise "Gita Govinda". The Bhakti Cult came to Orissa in 16th century and Pancha Sakha i.e. Sri Jagannath Das, Sri Achyutananda Das, Sri Balaram Das, Ananta & Yasobanta were spiritual stalwarts and literary luminaries of the time. Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja , Kabi Surya Baladev Ratha, Radhanath Ray, Fakir Mohan Senapati, Pandit Gopabandhu Dash, Pandit Nilakantha Das, Godabaris Mishra, Kalandi Charan Panigrahi, Sachidananda Routray & many others have contributed substantially to the language & literature of Orissa. Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das, Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati, Sri Ram Chandra Bhnjadeo, Sri Biswanath Das, Sri Nabakrushna Chowdhury, Dr. Harekrishna Mahatab, Sri Bijayananda Patnaik were the creators of modern Orissa.