Chapter 7 - History versus Legends

THE system of recording events in a regular way was not prevalent in Ancient and early Medieval India. In its place, creation of legends or myths out of historical events was the practice. In most cases divinities ranging from the Supreme God down to demigods were skilfully connected with earthly events in order to endow them with a halo of mystic supernaturalism. Stories of this type appealed to popular mind much more than bare statement of facts. Legends or myths in course of time were often modified. The historical facts enclosed in them were grossly distorted or transformed to suit to the schemes of the stories. So it is very difficult for historians to pick out the real facts from mass of imaginary materials. Thus, for the history of the ancient and early medieval periods in India it is a tussle between History and Legends. Historians have to study the legends very carefully and pick out the facts; even then they are often confronted with problems that defy solution. The object of this paper is to deal with some popular myths and legends current in Orissa and to show how actual facts get distorted or transformed in them. There is a legend about the construction of Jagannath temple and installation of the three deities therein. According to this legend, in the Satya Yuga there was a king, Indradyumna, in Malava. He was a great devotee of Vishnu. Once he had a vision of Nilamadhava Vishnu in dream. Next day he sent emissaries in four directions to find out where the image, he dreamt of, was being worshipped. Brahmin Vidyapati was sent to the east. He came to Utkala and entered a Savara village. He took shelter in the house of Savara King Visvavasu. His daughter, Lalita, fell in love with Vidyapati who had to marry her so that he might get the information about Nilamadhava Vishnu through his wife. Savara King Visvavasu used to go to forest every morning to worship Nilamadhava installed in Nilakandara (Blue cave). Vidyapati pressed his wife to request her father to

allow him to see Nilamadhava. Vasu Savara agreed on the condition that Vidyapati will be taken to the place and brought back therefrom blindfold. When Vidyapati heard this proposal he requested his wife to arrange so that he may subsequently know the path. Lalita gave him some sesame seeds to be scattered on the side of the road he followed so that he might know the path when the sesame plants grew up during rains. Accordingly Vidyapati was taken to Nilakandara where he had the luck of witnessing Nilamadhava. But when Vasu Savara offered food to the deity, He did not take it as usual. At this Vasu Savara was much dismayed. At this time he heard some one saying from the air, "we would no longer continue to be worshipped by you, Oh ! Vasu: we will change the present Nilamadhava form and assume Daru form. We shall be worshipped in temple by Raja Indradyumna." Hearing this voice of God, Vasu Savara came back with Vidyapati with a heavy heart. Then Vidyapati bade farewell to his wife and father-in-law and started to convey the news to Raja Indradyumna. On hearing the news Raja Indradyumna at once started with his retinue for Utkal to see Nilamadhava. On reaching Nilakandara he found it vacant. So Raja was much dismayed. But a voice from the air told him to construct a temple on Nilasaila (Blue mountain). Accordingly the Raja started construction of a big temple. When it was completed he went to Brahmaloka to invite Brahma to consecrate the temple. He had to wait for nine yugas till Brahma finished his meditation. The temple became buried in sand in his absence. In the mean time a new dynasty ruled in Utkala. Galamadhava, a king of that dynasty, detected the presence of the temple buried under sand. When he got the sand removed a beautiful temple was revealed. He was considering to install images in the temple when Indradyumna with Lord Brahma appeared before him. There was a tussle between Galamadhava and Indradyumna as to the ownership of the temple-Lord Brahma, after referring to witnesses, decided in favour of Indradyumna. Then Lord Brahma asked the Raja to install the deities, after which he would consecrate the temple. The Raja was at a loss where to find the deities. At night God told him in dream that He would be floating in the sea in form of log. Next morning Raja went to the sea and brought the logs of wood. Then he employed thousands of carpenters to make the deities but they failed, as their instruments did not work against the wood. At last an old carpenter came and said that he would make the images in 21 days on the condition that he would remain completely shut up inside the temple for the period.

History versus Legends 79 Raja consented. But on expiry of 2 weeks the Queen became anxious since no sound came out of the temple. She thought that the old carpenter was dead. She pressed the king to open the door. The king yielded and opened the door. He found the three deities in unfinished state. The Raja was sorry but God told him that he wanted to assume that Bauddha form in Kali age. This is, in short, the story of construction of the Jagannath temple and installation of the deities therein. This legend has some connection with another legend relating to Tooth Relic of Kalinga. The legend is contained in the Dalda Vamsa written by Mahathera Dhammaiktti. It was written in the Elu language of Ceylon on the occasion of arrival of the Tooth Relic in Ceylon in the 9 th year of the reign of the King Kittisiri Megha, the son of King Mahasena. The date of composition of the book is 310 A.D. It was translated into Pali under the name Dathavamsa.¹ According to the story, Khema Thera gave the Tooth Relic of Buddha to the Kalinga king, Brahmadatta, after Parinirvana of Buddha. Brahmadatta installed the Relic in his capital, Dantapura, and worshipped it with great devotion. After him his descendants also worshipped the Relic. When Guhasiva was ruling in Kalinga, his overlord Pandu of Pataliputra heard about the miracles performed by the Relic and requested Guhasiva to bring it to Pataliputra. Guha- siva complied with request. Pandu was much impressed with the supernatural power of the Relic and was converted to Buddhism. Pandu coming to know that Khiradhara, the king of Malava was coming to attack him for purpose of taking away the Tooth Relic, sent Guha- siva back to Kalinga with the Relic and prepared to meet the attack. Pandu defeated Khiradhara. Guhasiva arrived at his capital with the Relic in safety. Danta Kumara, a prince of Ujjain came to Dantapura to worship the Relic. He fell in love with Hemamala, the daughter of Guhasiva. They were married. Guhasiva was always anxious for the safety of the Relic. He apprehended an attack from the king of Malava who wanted to take away the Relic. So he decided to send the Relic to his friend Mahasena, the King of Ceylon for safe-keeping. He sent his son-in-law, Danta Kumara and daughter Hemamala to Ceylon with the Relic to be made over to King Mahasena. But the king Guhasiva did not know that Mahasena had expired and his son Kittisiri Megha was ruling. The Tooth Relic reached Ceylon in the 9 th year of the reign of Kittisiri Megha who received the Tooth Relic and duly installed it in a temple. Guhasiva, as apprehended, was attacked by the king of Malava and died fighting in the battle.

There are some similarities between the two legends above. (1) In both, the king belongs to Malava. In case of Indradyumna he came to Utkala to get Nilamadhava, while in the other case, the King Khiradhara sent his sons to get the Tooth Relic. (ii) In case of the former legend Vidyapati of Malava married Savara daughter, while in the second legend a prince of Ujjain married the daughter of Guha- siva, (iii) In the former legend Indradyumna reaching Utkala found that Nilamadhava had vanished. Khiradhara's sons reaching Kalinga found that the Tooth Relic was gone. In view of this, it is very likely that the story relating to the Tooth Relic was transformed into the former legend relating to Sri Jagannath. Of course, it is possible that the story of Tooth Relic might have been derived from the legend relating to Sri Jagannath. Of the two possibilities we accept the latter, because some of the facts in the legend are historical, while in the former legend the personalities are all mythical. In the story of Tooth Relic Guhasiva is the King of Kalinga. We have not come across any such king among the dynasties of the kings of Orissa so far known. But in Puranas Guha is said to be reigning over Kalinga, Mahisika and Mahendra kingdom (Kalinga Mahisika Mahendra Bhauma Guham bhokshanti, or Kalinga Mahisaschaiva Mahendra nilayaschaye, Etan Janapadan sarvan palayisyati vai Guhah). According to Pargiter Guha belonged to one of the dynasties of the 4 th century A.D 2. Guha is said to be overlord of Mahendra Bhaumas, that is, Bhaumas of Mahendra.3 In Orissa the Bhauma dynasty ruled for about 2 centuries with their capital at Guhesvarapataka or Guhadevapataka Thus, it appears that Guhasiva was ruling in Orissa in the 4 th century A.D. and the Bhaumas were under his suzerainty. The Bhauma Capital, Guhesvarapataka was probably established by Guradeva who might be Guhasiva or any of his fore- fathers. Besides this, the other historical fact in the legend is sending of Tooth Relic to Ceylon which was received by Kittisirimegha, the king of Ceylon, son of the King Mahasena who was a friend of Guha- siva. Both the kings are historical figures, not mythical ones as Indradyumna of Jagannath legend is. Thirdly it is also a fact that Tooth Relic was in Ceylon in the 5 th century A.D. when Fa-Hien visited Ceylon. So the story of Tooth Relic is based on some historical facts, while Sri Jagannath legend is purely mythical. Hence it is quite likely that the story of Tooth Relic has been transformed into a myth relating to installation of Lord Jagannath in Daru form in the Puri temple. The basic historical facts in Sri Jagannath legend are: (i) The primitive Savara people, the original inhabitants of Orissa, were

History versus Legends 81 worshipping deities made of wood in their own way. (ii) Aryans immigrated to Orissa about the 8 th century B.C. and settled down among the Savaras and contracted matrimonial alliance with them. Hence they were termed as degraded Kshatriyas in Manu Smriti (Sanakaistu Kriyalopadimah Kshatriya Jatayah, vrisalatvam gata loka brahmanadarsanena cha.)4 In view of this fact the marriage between Brahmin Vidyapati and Lalita, the daughter of Visvavasu is symbolic of the matrimonial alliances contracted between Aryan settlers and aboriginal Savara inhabitants of Orissa in course of time. Visvavasu stands for Savara class, while marriage of his daughter Lalita with Brahmin Vidyapati represents gradual intermixing between the Savaras and the Aryaan settlers, and consequent production of a new culture due to this intermixture. It may be noted that the names Visvavasu and Lalita, as well as Nilamadhava, their deity, are not aboriginal names. (iii) It is stated in the myth that after Vidyapati witnessed Nilamadhava, God refused to take the offerings of Visvavasu and informed him that He would no longer be Savara deity but would be worshipped in temple by Raja Indradyumna. This signifies the stage of Aryanisation of the worship of the Savara deity by the Aryan settlers. (iv) The next question is why Raja Indradyumna of Malava is selected as the hero of the myth. As quoted above Guhasiva was the king of Mahisa kingdom which was close to Malava on the west. We have stated above that Sri Jagannath myth is based on the myth relating to the Tooth Relic of Buddha in which the king of Malava came to Orissa to take away the Tooth Relic. Name of the king in the myth is Khiradhara who is not identifiable. It is likely that Rudradamana the famous Saka Satrap of Malava (130-150 A.D.) might have been selected to be the hero of the myth in place of any minor king. In order to give him a divine halo Rudradamana was transformed into Indradyumna. (v) We may now consider the shape of the present deities which differs from that of other deities installed in the temples due to their uncouth form. It is accounted for in the myth since the doors of the temples were opened prior to expiry of the scheduled 21 days, the construction of the deities remained unfinished, hence the uncouth form. Lord Jagannath himself desired, according to the myth, to remain in that Bauddha form in Kali age. But the real fact is that Sri Jagganath being originally the deity of the Savaras, the shape of the deities has retained its original form with some modifications. Even today the aboriginal people worship wooden deities of the type of deities in the Jagannath temples. Though the form of worship 6

has been Aryanised the shape of the deities continues in its original form. (vi) Lastly as regards installation of the three wooden deities in the temple it is not unlikely that Guhasiva who was a devoted Buddhist would have installed three wooden symbols representing the Buddhist Trinity in the shrine where the Tooth Relic was installed. Thus the above two legends contain in them historical facts though in distorted form. There is another legend relating to conquest of Kanchi by Gajapati. Purusottam Deva (1467-1497) It is very popular since Lord Balabhadra and Lord Jagannath are depicted as Heroes in the legend. Kanchi Vijaya is a historical fact but the legend has transformed it into a romantic event. According to the legend, Purusottam Deva heard of the beauty of Padmini, the daughter of the Raja of Kanchi and wished to marry her. He sent an emissary to the Raja of Kanchi for the purpose. The Raja of Kanchi agreed to the proposal. He came to Puri to witness car festival. There he saw Purusottamadeva sweeping the cars of the deities with gold broomstick. This created a bad impression in the mind of the Raja of Kanchi, because Gajapati Raja was doing the work of a sweeper. So when he returned to his kingdom he sent word to Purusottama Deva that he would not give his daughter in marriage with him as he was doing the work of sweeper. Purusottama Deva naturally got enraged at this insult and decided to take revenge. He invoked Lord Jagannath to help his servant and was assured of this help. So the Gajapati king set out for Kanchi with a large army. But he was preceded by Lord Balabhadra and Lord Jagannath dressed as commanders mounted on white and black horses. Salva Narasirha was under the protection of his deity Ganapati. He was also prepared to meet the invader. A long and bitter battle was fought by the two armies in which the presiding deities of the two kings took active part. Sri Ganapati fought to the best of His power for His devotee but was overpowered by Lord Balabhadra and Lord Jagannath So the king of Kanchi was defeated. Purusottam Deva brought his daughter Padmini and some images with him. He wanted Padmini to be married to a sweeper as a revenge of the insult given to him by her father. He entrusted her to the care of his Chief Minister. Padmini remained in the house of the Chief Minister. Purusottam Deva had forgotten about her. When the car festival came next, Purusottam swept the cars with gold broomstick. His Chief Minister presented Padmini to him for marriage as he was doing sweeper's work. The King was at last prevailed upon to marry her.

History versus Legends 83 The tradition is, of course, based on historical fact. The king of Kanchi was a Salva Narasimha. Purusottam Deva twice defeated him. On the first occasion he sacked Kanchi and on the second expedition he recovered Udayagiri from Narasimha. The first expedition of Purusottam Deva probably took place between 1467 and 1471 A.D. but no definite date is available. vati. In the tradition Kanchi princess is named Padmini or Padma- But the mother of Prataparudra was Rupamvika. She was probably the daughter of King Narasimha of Kanchi, as his wife's name was Tippamvika and his mother's name was Mallamvika. In Saraswati Vilasam Rupamvika is mentioned as the mother of Prataparudra. So Rupamvika is, most probably, the daughter of King Narasimha.5 The same tradition is current in Assam with the exception that Bikram Sena, the son of Purusottama sought the hands of Sudharma, the daughter of Naranit of Malo for his son Indrabhanu. On being refused Bikram Sena promised to get Sudharma by force. The above personalities are, however, not historical figures. Here is an instance of extreme distortion of facts. 6 Beams' comments in this connection are worth noticing. He says, "The similarity of legend to that of appearance of the great twin brothers Castor and Pollux, so vividly related by Maculay's Lays of the Ancient Rome must strike every classical reader." So there was also similar legend in Rome in the ancient times. Deva According to Katak Raja Vamsavali (India office Mss. Aufrecht) quoted by Shri G. Ram Das in Appendix to his article "Orissa in South India", it is stated that Gajapati Purusottam defeated the king of Kanchi and brought his daughter with him. At first he did not want to marry her, but on being pressed by many, he married her. One night while king was going to queen's apartment the door-keeper said, "you came just now, why do you come again?" The king was surprised to hear this and was in great doubt. That night he learnt (in dream) that Lord Dhavalesvara had been to the queen's apartment and that she will give birth to a son who would be a Maharaja. On hearing this the king was pleased and arranged for careful attendance of the queen. A son was born who was named Prataparuda. 9 This is another version of the tradition in which Lord Dhavale- svara is said to be the father of Prataparudra. Shri G. Ram Das has yet another theory. According to him the story of Kanchi Vijaya was really the story of Pandya Vijaya by Purusottam Deva while he was a prince. The two horse riders in the Kanchi-Kaveri tradition

are two Kakati Chiefs Narasimha Naranayaka and his brother Kesava Bhupati who took leading part in subjugation of the Pandya kingdom. Padmini in the tradition is supposed to be the sister of two Kakati Chiefs, by Shri G. Ram Das. Padmini gave birth to a son who was named Kakati Rudra Vankataraya. When Salva Narasimcha attacked Udayagiri those two Kakati Chiefs fought bravely and placed Salva Narasimha as prisoner in the hands of Purusottam Deva. In this connection Shri Das writes, - "Traditions like dream have the peculiarity of presenting real facts with several emotions, imaginary mutilations or exaggeration, detachment of sequence of time and several other things which became mere stories to amuse children." Thus we have many versions of the famous Kanchi-Kavery expedition of Gajapati Purusottam Deva based on the historical facts of Purusottam Deva's couquest of Kanchi and his marriage with the daughter of the king of Kanchi whose name has been changed from Rupamvika to Padmini or Padmavati, or according to the theory of Shri Das, she was really Padmini but not the daughter of the Kanchi Raja, but sister of Kakati Chiefs mentioned above. We shall end this paper with our discussion of another strong tradition current in Orissa. It is about Kalapahara, the General of Sulaiman Kararani, the Sultan of Bengal. The expedition against Gajapati Mukunda Deva of Orissa in 1568 A.D. was led by Kalapahara. After the conquest of Orissa he is said to have systematically mutilated the images in the temples of Orissa just to take revenge on the Brahmins of Puri who had insulted him. According to the tradition Kalapahara was originally a Brahman of Bengal named Kalachand Ray in service of the Sultan of Bengal. The daughter of the Sultan fell in love with him and married him, though he had two Hindu wives. Kalachand wanted to remain a Hindu for the sake of his two Hindu wives. So he came to Puri to request the Brahmins to perform necessary religious ceremony for his being taken back into Hindu religion. The Brahmins of Puri bluntly refused his request and insulted him. So he promised to take revenge on them. It is for this reason that he broke temples and mutilated the images. Traditions about Kalapahar's Vandalism are current in different parts of Orissa. It is said that Ramachandi of Konarka cheated him. When he visited Sambalpur in the reign of Mudhukara Sai, the two presiding deities of Sambalpur appeared in his camps as milk-maids and sold poisoned curd to the soldiers. As a result, epidemic broke out in the camp of Kalapahar and many soldiers died. Kalapahar

History versus Legends 85 came away from Sambalpur in fear and failed to do away Vandalism there. Shri P. Mukherjee who carried researches on the historicity of this tradition is of the opinion that Kalapahar was a full-blooded Afghan, not a Hindusthani convert on the evidence of Tabaqt-i- Akbari and Mutkabhut Twarikh.10 It is a fact that Kalapahara was notorious for his works of Vandalism in Orissa but he was not solely responsible. Other Muslim invaders before and after him had done such acts of Vandalism in Orissa, but the legend does not mention them. For example, Feroz- Shah who invaded Orissa in 1360 did a lot of damage to the temple of Jagannath. He came by Khiching in Mayurbhanj. The Vandalism in those temples may be ascribed to him. Thus we see that history is distorted, and transformed into romantic tales of imaginary episodes and fabulous personalities in legends and myths. As we have stated in the beginning, gods and demigods are often introduced into the stories to heighten their effect in the popular minds. It is not an easy task for historians to rescue the historical facts lying grossly distorted or ingeniously transformed into some unearthly event in the legends. REFERENCES 1. Malasekhara. Pali Literature in Ceylon. Law-Dathavamsa, Introduction. 2. Pargiter, Dynasties of Kali Age, p. 51 ff. 3. Misra, Orissa under Bhauma Kings, p. 80. 4. Manu Smriti, XV, p. 44. 5. Mukherjee, Gajapati Kings of Orissa, pp. 60-61. 6. Ibid, p. 62. 7. Ibid, F.N. 125. 8. O.H.R.J. pp. 219-20. 9. Ibid, p. 220-21. 10. O.H.R.J. Vol. 1, p. 14 ff.