Reconfiguring the Sacred: Cult Transformation and Power in Early Odisha

Debankita Das

The earliest textual representation of Tamilakam appears in the Sangam anthology, which describes the region’s five major eco-zones, known as 'tinai'. This is a coherent description of a space/region(s) with its multifaceted identities, based on human, more-than-human, and environmental interactions. The paper draws on this concept and explores two sets of socio-political phenomena based on historical-archaeological evidence from the hill and forested zones of Odisha, with the aim of understanding the historical process of appropriation and legitimation. Using a corpus of copper plate inscriptions from the central and southern districts of Odisha, the paper first focuses on the anthropomorphic transformation of a local cult, Khambhesvari (Pillar-Goddess), to Stambhesvari as the tutelary deity by the Śulkis, a 5th-century polity, and their role in the popularisation of the Goddess across Odisha. Secondly, the emergence of the popular cult Śiva-Gokarnṇṇśvāmin from another sacred stone deity residing at Mahendragiri, on the southernmost hill range of Odisha, under the patronage of the ruling polities of early Kaliṅga, will be discussed. The reshaping of the sacred landscape across the hill range further gained prominence under the 8th-century CE Sailodbhava rulers, who traced their lineage to the Mahendra Mountain. These case studies will critically analyse the complex historical integration/appropriation-marginalisation as a part of the state formation process for an expansive socio-cultural and political landscape. The paper will conclude by addressing the state-society hierarchies that pushed the proto-historic indigenous cultural realm, memory, roots, and lineage to the periphery, reflecting the strategies and an alternate vision of sacrality of the dominant royal powers in the making of sub-regions/'maṇḍala' during these centuries in Odisha.