After the comparative serenity of the surrounding countryside, Cuttak acts like a real shock. This former capital of Orissa and its most populous city is a crowded, noisy place, squeezed into a narrow island between a confusion of tributaries and sandy banks on the Mahanandi River. Being a major river crossing on a busy land trade route, stretching from north to south, and a link between the channels that connect the inner zones of Orissa with the sea, the island has become an important strategic point.
