Bhubaneswar, March 31: For 14-year-old Rojalin, the word Bhaumakara sounds as unfamiliar as Pursottam Dev.

While the state is celebrating the 79th Utkal Divas, it is appalling that students here hardly know anything about their state's history.

Despite a rich Buddhist history and maritime tradition and political significance in the past, Odisha gets mention in bits and pieces in national school certificate syllabi. In the state's board of secondary education course, too, except for a few details about the state's recent history such as events leading to its formation and a bit about Surya and Ganga dynasties, a lot has been ignored. Some topics are covered in literature in the form of essays, poems or short stories.

"There are chapters in six and seven standards about Surya and Ganga rulers, especially Chodaganga Dev under whom the construction of Jagannath temple in Puri started and Narasimha Dev who got the famous Konark temple built," said Prasanna Kishore Prusty, principal of a local Odia school.

The Kalinga war that is one of the defining events in Odishan history finds its mention in ICSE and CBSE school books, but that is pretty much about Odisha's past that is taught in these schools. Sarbadaman Singh, a history teacher at DAV Chandrasekharpur, said in the NCERT syllabus, there was passing mention of tribal life in Odisha but nothing more.

Students feel they know more of French revolution and British endeavours of sea than the Paika movement or maritime culture of Odisha.

"Recently, I heard about Odisha being a major centre for maritime trade in ancient times when the state hosted a international event. But I'd never come across such information in my school books," said Nikhil, a Class VIII student.

Chandana Mohapatra, of Class X students, looked up Encyclopaedia Britannica's online version to know more about her state after coming across a social media post hailing Odisha ahead of Utkal Divas. "I was surprised to read that Odisha was a powerful state about 2,500 years ago and also a maritime power in the 1st century. I did not even know the story behind the formation of Odisha until I read it," said the teenager.

Well-known historians believe that children in their formative stage should be informed about local history to help them build an identity. "Regional history is very vital. There are interesting facts and great potential and relevance in Odisha's pre colonial and colonial history to be taught to students," said Biswamoy Pati who teaches history in Delhi University.

"It is unfortunate that national school certificate courses exclude regional history despite so many fascinating features. Odisha was a major site for cotton textiles and salt in colonial times. The state has so many tribal communities and it is sad that nothing is mentioned about their history or that of western Odisha. It is time that these are included in interesting ways without overburdening the students," he said.