UR'IYA LANGUAGE AND LITERA TURE (Slot. Odra, Utkali). The language and literature of Orissa (q.v.), in Bengal, spoken by about 9,000,000 persons. Like the other mod ern Aryan languages of India, it is analytic in structure. It seems to be descended from the Utkali or Odra dialect of 1'r5krit (q.v.). In general is related to Bengali (see BENGALI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE), al though it resembles Hindi. (See HINDUSTANI LANGUAGE AND LITER.?TURE.) The vocabulary is largely composed of Sanskrit loan-words, of which Uriya possesses more than any other of its kindred languages. There are no im portant dialectic divisions. The standard dialeet is that of Cuttack. The script, which is derived from the Devanagari (q.v.), is graceful, and noteworthy among the North Indian alphabets in that it is characterized by curves instead of angles. Uriya literature cannot be traced before the six teenth century. It begins with Upendro Bhanj, the author of more than thirty poems, most of them religious or erotic, although he also wrote two dictionaries. Contemporary with him was
Dinkrishno Das, who composed the most famous Uriya poem, the Resukanqa (edited at Cuttack, 1897). Most of the literature, however, consists of translations or paraphrases of Sanskrit works, such as the Riimuyana (q.v.), the Illuzgal7alqita (q.v.), and some of the Purauas (q.v.), while in later times the tendency has been to trans late or adapt Bengali and English books. Consult: Beames, Comporeti-ve Grammar of the Modern dryad Languages of India (3 vols., London, ; ()IA, Modern Languages of the East Indies 1878) ; Sutton, Intro ductory Grammar of the Oriya La-nonage (Calcutta, 1831) ; Anon., The First Lesson in Oriya. (Cuttack, 1844) ; Visvanath Misra, Easy Guide to Uriya Translation (ib., 1899) ; Jagan nath Rao, Utkal Abhidluin: .1 Dictionary of the Uriya Language (ih., 189]) Chakravarti,'"Notes on the Language and Literature of Orissa," in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bengal Brunch, vols. lxvi.-1Nvii. (Calcutta, 1900).