Oriya or Odia is spoken by 80% of the people in India’s Odissa state, where it enjoys the legal status of Classical Language along with five other major Indian languages.
Odia is a member of the Dravidian language group, spoken mostly on the southern and south-eastern parts of India, whereas the majority languages in northern and north-eastern India are part of the Indo-European language group.
Apparently the rounded shape of Odia script is due to the original writing method – a stylus was apparently used to draw signs on a palm tree. As the structure of the palm trees did not easily allow for straight horizontal strokes, strokes were curved.
