In the Orissa famine of 1866 more than one-third of the population of Puri is said to have perished.
It is served by the East Coast railway, which was opened throughout from Calcutta to Madras in 1891, with a branch to Puri town.
Puri district is rich in historical remains, from the primitive rock-hewn caves of Buddhism - the earliest relics of Indian architecture - to the medieval sun temple at Kanarak and the shrine of Jagannath.
Julius Caesar's lines on Terence, the "dimidiatus Menander," while they complain of lack of comic power, characterize him as "puri sermonis amator."
He subsequently made over to his principal disciples the task of consolidating his community, and passed the last twelve years of his life at Puri in Orissa, the great centre of the worship of Vishnu as Jagannatha, or "lord of the world," which he remodelled in accordance with his doctrine, causing the mystic songs of Jayadeva to be recited before the images in the morning and evening as part of the daily service; and, in fact, as in the other Vaishnava creeds, seeking to humanize divine adoration by bringing it into accord with the experience of human love.