Centres Out There?: Facets of Subregional Identities in Orissa

by Hermann Kulke, Georg Berkemer

In the 1970s, the first orissa research project (orp), financedbythe german research council and conducted by the southasiainstitute of heidelberg university, revealed vital elementsoforiya identity and culture by its extensive research on the cultofjagannath and the temple city of puri in 1999, the secondorp,various socio-cultural profiles of orissainhistorical and regional perspectives was sanctioned until2005whereas the former project focused on the dominant discoursesofcoastal orissa, the second project was periphery oriented inadouble sense geographically it extended its studies tothehinterland of coastal orissa, and sociologically it gave astrongeremphasis on its peripheral or subaltern folk and tribalgroupswith its complementary studies, the second orp attempts togive acomprehensive view of the polymorphic and polycentric patternofthe great regional tradition of orissa they reveal theinherentvitality and dynamics of indias regional traditionsbyparadigmatic studies on the genesis, historicaldevelopment,competition and integration of various local andsub-regionaltraditions of orissa major themes of the presentvolume arenarrative and ritual traditions of the former feudatorystates andtheir emergence as centres out there as well as studieson variousfacets of sub-regional identities and their impact onthe urbanculture of coastal orissa they shed light on issues whicharegenerally not in the centre of academic research, like thecentralagency of women in folk performances and the socialformation oftribal societies

434 pages, Hardcover

Published April 14, 2011