The linear stability of a viscoelastic liquid saturated horizontal anisotropic porous layer heated from below and cooled from above is investigated by considering the Oldroyd type liquid. A generalized Darcy model, which takes into account the viscoelastic properties, the mechanical and thermal anisotropy is employed as momentum equation. The critical Rayleigh number, wavenumber, for stationary and oscillatory states and frequency of oscillation are determined analytically. It is shown that oscillatory instabilities can set in before stationary modes are exhibited. The effect of the viscoelastic parameter, the mechanical and thermal anisotropy parameters and specific heat ratio on the linear stability of the system is analyzed and presented graphically.