Odia University is a public state language university at Satyabadi in Puri district, Odisha, created under the Odia University Act, 2017. The university was established to advance higher study, research, preservation and dissemination of the Odia language, literature, culture and related heritage fields. Its statutory creation reflects Odisha’s distinctive linguistic history and the recognition of Odia as a Classical Language of India. Although the university was legally established in 2017, its first academic session began on 5 September 2023, marking the transition from institution-building to regular teaching. The university operates as a unitary, non-affiliating institution and is developing postgraduate and research activity rather than managing a conventional network of affiliated colleges. Its academic vision extends beyond literary study alone. University objectives include Odia language and linguistics, literary criticism, comparative literature, translation, ancient scripts and records, tribal and regional languages, epigraphy, archaeology, museology, history, culture and interdisciplinary knowledge creation through Odia. A School of Regional, Tribal Language and Heritage Studies provides a dedicated structure for work on tribal languages, folklore, Jagannath culture, local traditions, temple architecture, customs and festivals. The Satyabadi location is symbolically important because the campus stands close to the historic Satyabadi Bana Vidyalaya associated with the Panchasakha educational and cultural movement. The university’s new campus building was inaugurated on 24 January 2024, and the institution received UGC recognition under Section 2(f) on 5 June 2024. These milestones strengthened its formal higher-education status after the launch of academic operations. Odia University is therefore both a specialised language institution and a heritage-research university. Its long-term role is to create advanced scholarship in Odia, document linguistic and cultural traditions, support translation and manuscript studies, and connect modern academic methods with the state’s literary, historical and indigenous knowledge traditions. Its specialised mandate makes cultural documentation and language development central academic functions rather than peripheral activities.