Odia alphabet

The Odia script (Odia Utkaḷa lipi or Utkaḷākṣara), also known as Oriya script, is used to write the Odia language. It is also used for other Indic languages such as Sanskrit.

History

The Odia script is developed from the Kalinga alphabet, one of the many descendants of the Brahmi script of ancient India. The earliest known inscription in the Odia language, in the Kalinga script, dates from 1051. The script has undergone through several phases. They are broadly:

The script in the Edicts of Ashoka at Dhauli and Jaugada and the Minor Inscriptions of Kharavela in the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves give the first glimpse of possible origin of the Odia language. From a linguistic perspective, the Hati Gumpha inscriptions are similar to modern Odia and essentially different from the language of the Ashokan edicts. The question has also been raised as to whether Pali was the prevalent language in Odisha during this period. The Hati Gumpha inscriptions, which are in Pali, are perhaps the only evidence of stone inscriptions in Pali. This may be the reason why the famous German linguist Professor Oldenburg mentioned that Pali was the original language of Odisha.