Claim: The Odia language is spoken in a place translated as "Thirty-Six Forts."

Odia -LRB- -LSB- əˈdiːə -RSB- -RRB- or Oriya -LRB- -LSB- ɒˈriːə -RSB- -RRB- , both renderings of , is a language spoken by 3.2 % of India 's population . It is an Indo-Aryan language that is spoken mostly in eastern India , with around 40 million native speakers , as of the year 2016 , from the state of Odisha , from adjoining regions of its neighboring states and by the largely migrated Odia population across India .   It is the predominant language of the Indian state of Odisha , where native speakers make up 80 % of the population , and also is spoken in parts of West Bengal , Jharkhand , Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh . Odia is one of the many official languages of India ; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand . The language is also spoken by a sizeable population of at least 10 million people in Chhattisgarh .   Odia is the sixth Indian language to be designated a Classical Language in India on the basis of having a long literary history and not having borrowed extensively from other languages .   The earliest known inscription in Odia dates back to the 10th century AD .