In this episode, we review Sibashis Mahapatra's "Tales of the Past: The Odisha Saga," a collection of nine essays covering roughly 800 years of Odisha's political and military history, from the early Kalingan kings through the Maratha-Dhenkanal conflicts of the 18th century.
Odisha's medieval history rarely gets more than a footnote treatment: a temple here, an Ashokan war there. In this episode, we dig into Sibashis Mahapatra's "Tales of the Past: The Odisha Saga," a nine-essay collection that resurrects forgotten kings, lost battles, and the odd loyal Brahmin general along the way. We talk about why the book skips a straight timeline in favor of standalone stories, what makes the Hamvira Deva chapter hit harder than the rest, and whether a slim essay collection can actually do justice to centuries of Kalingan and Gajapati history. Plus, a few of these chapters had lives of their own before the book, and we get into where they first ran and why that matters.
Order links of the book 'Political letters of Shāh Walīullāh Dehlavī' below:
Amazon India:
Paperback
Kindle
Amazon USA:
Kindle
Flipkart:
Paperback
NotionPress:
Paperback
Please feel free to our social media ID's for latest updates. Links below:
https://www.facebook.com/historylogy/
https://twitter.com/historylogy
https://www.instagram.com/historylogy/
https://www.youtube.com/@historylogypodcast
Affiliate Earnings Disclaimer:
This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
Coming up: A review of the book 'Tales of the Past: The Odisha Saga: A collection of essays and captivating tales on Odisha's forgotten past' written by Sibashis Mahapatra.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
Sibashis Mahapatra is an engineer by profession, a dedicated history enthusiast and someone who loves travelling to heritage sites all over the globe. His writings have been published in many reputed dailies including Deccan Chronicle, The Pioneer and Orissapost. He has been awarded as an Emerging Writer (History & heritage) by a media association. Beyond his literary pursuits, Sibashis is a football aficionado, an active social worker, and has a keen interest in technology and environmental conservation.
Let me read a brief description of the book:
QUOTE
This book is a collection of essays and stories of lesser known historical events and heroes of Medieval Odisha. Within these pages, the epic chronicles of Hamvira Deva, Devendravarman Rajaraja-I, Raja Trilochana Deva, Langula Narasingha Deva and Gajapati Ramachandra Deva-I unfurl, celebrating their enduring heroics.
UNQUOTE
Most of us grow up knowing Odisha's history through two data points: Ashoka's Kalinga war and the Jagannath temple. Sibashis Mahapatra's Tales of the Past: The Odisha Saga is a short, earnest attempt to fill in everything between those two dots.
Rather than a linear chronological history, the book works as nine standalone essays, each treating a ruler, battle, or overlooked figure as a story in its own right rather than a footnote. That structure is really its strongest move. It opens by asking why Devendravarman Rajaraja gets remembered as one of the great Kalingan kings, then widens into the Chola-Kalinga wars, the vividly titled Battle of Katasin ("the charge of the retreating bull"), and the tale of Hamvira Deva, billed as Odisha's forgotten warrior prince. That last one seems built to be the emotional center of the book: a capable figure who still loses the larger game, which is a more honest kind of history than the usual list of triumphs.
The later chapters shift scale again, moving through Gajapati Ramachandra Deva I's turbulent 16th century reign, the Maratha-Dhenkanal conflict, and a chapter pairing two temples with two Brahmin warriors, before closing on an imagined conversation between two soldiers in the medieval Deccan. That closing choice matters. It signals the book isn't trying to wall Odisha off as a self-contained subject, but to place it in conversation with the Cholas, the Marathas, and the wider Deccan world it actually fought and traded with.
What comes through across the contents is a writer more interested in narrative texture and forgotten people than in cramming in dynastic dates. The chapter titles read like a storyteller's headings, not a historian's, and that's clearly deliberate.
Final Verdict:
At under 100 pages, the collection is lean and fast-paced, making ‘Tales of the Past: The Odisha Saga’ an ideal entry point for casual history enthusiasts, students, or anyone looking to discover the unsung stories of eastern India.
While readers looking for an exhaustive, multi-volume history might find themselves wanting more depth on specific dynasties, Mahapatra’s included bibliography serves as a clear roadmap for further reading. This is a passionate, well-researched tribute to a land whose history deserves to be far more widely celebrated. It doesn't claim to tell us everything about Odisha's past. It reminds us of how much of that past we have yet to discover.
I give this book 4/5.
The book is currently available in Paperback and Kindle formats and is yet to be made available in Audible format. Also, the book is available only in Kindle format on Amazon USA at the time of recording this podcast episode. I have given the respective buy links in the show notes. Please check them out for the latest prices.
Last but not the least, thank you for spending your valuable time listening to this book review. Really grateful. Please don't forget to subscribe to the Historylogy podcast on your favourite podcasting app and also feel free to leave a review. Also, please check historylogy.com for all previous episodes. Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you. Take care and bye!