Bhubaneswar replaced Cuttack as Odisha's capital in 1948
Odisha's capital and largest city takes its name from a form of "Lord of the Three Worlds." On 13 April 1948 it superseded Cuttack; German architect Otto Königsberger helped shape the modern plan near Sisupalgarh and the Dhauli site of the Kalinga War.
Bhubaneswar sits in eastern India as Odisha's political and urban core. The English spelling anglicizes Odia Bhubaneswara, linked to Tribhubaneswara, a Shaivite divine title. Temples earned older nicknames as a city of temples even before the planned capital rose. Around 1.5 million tourists came in 2011, drawn partly by those temples.
Independence-era leaders moved the capital from Cuttack on 13 April 1948, commissioning a modern layout associated with Otto Königsberger. Nearby Sisupalgarh preserves ancient urban ruins; Dhauli marks the Kalinga War around 262–261 BCE that tradition ties to Ashoka's remorse and Buddhist turn.
Königsberger drew up the design in 1946, making it one of modern India's first planned cities alongside Jamshedpur and Chandigarh; the new capital was split into units, each with a high school, shops, a dispensary and play space, while Unit V holds the Secretariat, Assembly and Raj Bhavan. Cuttack was dropped because it flooded easily and lacked room. The old Temple Town keeps the Lingaraja, Rajarani and Muktesvara temples among cramped lanes, and a near-complete Ashokan rock edict survives 8 kilometres south-west of the city. The Somavamshi or Keshari dynasty built many temples from the seventh century, and British rule began in 1803. Sitting in the Mahanadi delta at about 45 metres elevation, it gets most of its 1,657.8 millimetres of yearly rain from the monsoon, and the World Bank rated it India's best place to do business in 2014.
Source: Bhubaneswar
