To explore Orissa`s rich indigenous culture the tourists will have to gather more information about its history. Museums are one of the finest places to dig into a state`s past.
The Orissa State Museum in Bhubaneswar is situated at Lewis Road. It has a collection of tribal artefacts, illuminated manuscripts and various archeological finds. In the galleries pieces of religious sculpture, including pre 12th century Buddhist statues, coins and donative inscriptions on stone and copper plates salvaged from the city`s temples are put on display. The upstairs rooms feature ethnographic material from indigenous Orissan societies. As well as heavy jewellery, musical instruments, weapons, tools and traditional costumes. Also there are reproductions of chitra muriya, the folk murals seen on walls and floors village houses around Puri. The museum`s real highlight, however, has to be its collection of antique painting and illuminated palm-leaf manuscripts.
Hidden away on the northwestern edge of town, close to Baramunda bus stand on NH-5, is the Tribal Research Institute`s anthropological Museum of Man with exhibits on the distinctive cultures and art of the 62 different tribal groups spread throughout Orissa. Filling the gardens outside are somewhat idealized replicas of adivasi (tribal) dwellings, decorated with more authentic looking murals. The library behind the main institute building holds all the books compiled on the adivasi groups of Orissa.
Asia`s largest cactus collection is housed on the opposite side of the highway to the Museum of Man, in the Acharya Vihar building. No less than 1050 species of cacti are displayed at this state-funded initiative.
Udaigiri caves are located at a distance of 7 kilometers from Bhubaneswar. They occupy a fairly compact area around the south slope of the hill. The caves on the opposite hill, Khandagiri, can be reached either by the long flight of steps leading from the road, just up from the main entrance to the Udaigiri caves. Both house relics of Tirthankars on their walls as well as Hindu deities, which had become part of the Jain pantheon. From the 19th century Jain Temples at the top of the hill there are clear views across the sprawl of Bhubaneswar to the white dome of Dhauli.
The Sun Crafts Museum, Puri on the crossroads of VIP Road and Station Road showcases the more commercial side of the Lord Jagannath phenomenon. Run by a devotee, it houses an extensive collection of images of the deity and his siblings, in various forms. There is also a workshop where little wooden replicas are carved and painted before being dispatched to ISKCON centres around the world.
Further down the road towards the railway station in Bhubaneswar, close to the Shinto shrine, the Sudarshan workshop is one of the few traditional stone-carvers` yards left in Puri. For once, the sculptors and their apprentices seem more interested in pursuing their art than selling it to tourists but gladly point potential customers in the direction of the factory shop next door. Most of the pieces here are large religious icons carved out of khondalite - the multi-coloured stone used in the Sun Temple at Konark.
