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Synopsis This colourful book, a unique collection of essays by distinguished scholars from the U.S.A., Germany and India is a clear, accurate and penetrating survey of the religious history of Orissa. Tracing the evolution of religions beginning with Jainism up to the Mahimadharma, the work also covers the modern religious movements as late as the present century. It is a thorough exposition of the profound impact of religion on art, architecture, language, literature and socio-economic and political life of the Orissan people. The present work delineates how the religious development in Orissa was intermingled in its history, making a continuous flow where one religion peacefully merged in another, one existed simultaneously with another and one made way for another, resulting in a harmonious blending of ideas and faiths. It also shows that Orissa has been a land of peaceful existence and tolerance where religious sectarianism had no place in the social life of the people. This remarkable collection is indeed a major addition to the cultural history of Orissa and will appeal to all Indologists, philosophers and historians of religion.