Chapter 8 - Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms

THE subcontinent of India, with its mountains, rivers, plains and plateaus, provided more or less distinct geographical features to several of its territorial units and each of such regions, in turn, played its distinctive role from prehistoric and proto-historic times in shaping the general trends of Indian history. One such notable division was located on the eastern coasts, roughly between the river Ganges and the river Godavari, and passed under the names of Kalinga, Utkal, and Odra Desa since prehistoric times. The modern name Orissa is derived from Odra Desa, though her people remember the names Kalinga and Utkal with a sense of pride. When the historical age dawned in 6 th century B.C., Kalinga was already a renowned kingdom in the Indian political system. The Jaina and Buddhist literature made copious references to the kings and people of that land both in religious and political contexts. When the Buddha attained Parinirvana at Kusinara, the monk Ksema Thera brought from that place the Lord's Tooth Relic to Kalinga and presented it to King Brahmadatta of Kalinga for preservation.¹ By that very time, a scion of a daughter of the King of Kalinga, proceeded to Ceylon from the soil of India in the first wave of Aryan migration to that Island. He was Prince Vijaya." The Jaina sources, at the same time, described about the deep influence which both Parsvanatha and Mahavira exercised on the Kings of Kalinga. The Jaina and Buddhist texts point to at least one historical hypothesis that in 6 th and 5 th centuries B.C., Kalinga was an established and recognised political entity closely associated with the main streams of Indian religio-cultural life. 3 Kalinga entered into the period of recorded history during the age of the imperial Nandas of Magadha. Attempts were being made for the political unification of the Indo-Gangetic plains and their adjoining territories. Most probably it was Mahapadma Nanda, the first and the most powerful ruler of the Nanda Dynasty who tried to bring Kalinga within his political domain. The account of the

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 87 Nanda authority on Kalinga is gathered from the famous Hatigumpha Inscription of Kharavela wherein it is mentioned that the Nanda Raja dug a canal near Tanasuli in Kalinga which Kharavela later extended to flow by his capital city Kalinga Nagari, and that he had taken away the image of the Kalinga Jina which Kharavela brought back from Magadha during his reign. The hegemony of the Nanda Kings of Kalinga does not seem to have been deep-rooted. The sons of Mahapadma who succeeded their father one by one were no great rulers. When Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the Nanda Dynasty and brought the Nanda Empire under his control, Kalinga was not only an independent state, but also a rival power to the newly founded Maurya Empire. The power and greatness of ancient Kalinga is evident from the political relation between Kalinga and Magadha during the Maurya era. When Chandragupta Maurya had almost completed the making of his great empire, the Greek ambassador at his Court, Megasthenes, observed in curiosity the existence of an independent territory on the border of the Maurya Empire which he described as the Gangaridum Calingarum Regia and marked its eastern limit on the back of the Ganges. It was Kalinga. The Greek sources contained references to the powerful army of Kalinga because of which that "country has never been conquered by any foreign King." and further that the Kalinga land possessed an elephant force which caused fear in the mind of other nations.5 That Chandragupta who could defeat the Greek Seleukos and annex the territories of Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Baluchistan in the north-west, and who could conquer lands very far into the south, did not attempt to annex Kalinga so near to his centre of activities, speaks of the political power of that adjacent state. His son and successor Bindusara was also a powerful monarch as his title Amitraghata or Slayer of the Foes suggests. But he, too, did not attempt to conquer Kalinga. It was left for the third Maurya Emperor, Asoka, to attempt at that great invasion. By Asoka's time, Kalinga was the biggest maritime power in the eastern coast with colonies overseas and a thriving foreign trade. Asoka came to the throne in 273 B.C. and celebrated his coronation four years later. In the eighth year of his coronation (261 B.C.) he launched his Kalinga war. It is not known if Kalinga was a Kingdom or an oligarchical republic at the time of Asoka. In the days of Chandragupta, Megasthenes of course refereed to the King of Kalingas while describing his standing army, numbering 60,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and

war elephants. Asoka, however, does not refer to the King of Kalinga, but speaks of his battle with the Kalingas. In his inscriptions, the Emperor could even mention the names of his contemporary Kings far outside the borders of India, in Asia Minor, Egypt and Greece. What might have prevented him from mentioning the name of the contemporary Kalinga King with whom he fought such a relentless war is indeed a mattter of surprise. The Kalinga war had had its valid causes. The spirit of the time called for the unity of the whole country from the Himalayas to the seas under one political umbrella and the Maurya monarchs were working in those directions inspired as they were by the ideal of the Chakravartin. The unconquered Kalinga stood as a challenge to that concept. Secondly, the expanding Maurya Empire had no easy access to the southern peninsula since the Kalinga territory lay between the north and the south. Similarly, the maritime activity of the Magadhan empire was kept within narrow limits as the entire eastern seacoast from the Ganges downwards remained under the control of Kalinga. Finally, three generations of Magadhan militarism were destined to terminate at a culmination in one of the most violent wars of ancient history. Independent Kalinga provided that opportunity. From the classical Greek accounts it is known that Chandragupta Maurya "overran and subdued the whole of India with an army of 600,000." He possessed, besides this infantry, a large cavalry, thousands of war chariots and elephants. When Asoka invaded Kalinga, the Magadhan army was obviously of a much bigger size. On the side of Kalinga, the size of the army was no less formidable since the casualties alone ran into 3 to 4 lakhs. In Asoka's own description : "One hundred and fifty thousand were therefrom captured, one hundred thousand were there slain, and many times as many died." The war obviously was a terrible one, fought desperately by both sides; the invaders having an edge over the defenders because of the resources of an all-India empire at their back. It is not the causes or the course of the war which mattered, but the consequences which became a turning point in human history. The conquered Kalinga conquered her conqueror. The horrors of the war caused such a remorse in Asoka's mind that he renounced war once for all and adopted the gospel of the Buddha in the cause of peace and non-violence, for human brotherhood and welfare of men. "Thereafter", runs Asoka's Edict, "now, the Kalingas being annexed, became intense His Sacred Majesty's observance of Dharma, love of Dharma, and his preaching of the Dharma, There was the

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 89 are remorse of His Sacred Majesty having conquered the Kalingas. For where an independent country is forcibly reduced, that there slaughter, death, and deportation of people has been considered very painful and deplorable by His Sacred Majesty. ... Therefore, even a hundredth or the thousandth part of all those people who were wounded, slain, or carried of captives, in Kalinga, would now be considered grievous by His Sacred Majesty. ...Indeed, His Sacred Majesty desires towards all living beings freedom from harm, restraint of passions, impartiality and cheerfulness."s It is needless to recount what that greatest of the monarchs did to propagate Dharma and morality to the people in India and outside after his great conversion. Buddhism went out of India not merely as a religion but as a force of civilisation. Without that event called Kalinga War, the history of civilisation would have remained poorer indeed. In Kalinga, as elsewhere after the Kalinga War, Asoka established a benevolent paternal administration. "All men are my children." he declared in his Kalinga Edict. "Just as for my children I desire that they be united with all welfare and happiness of this world and of the next, precisely do I desire it for all men."9 The Maurya empire, however, declined after Asoka and soon after him, Kalinga regained her independence. The dynasty which rose to power not long after the Maurya rule is famous as the Chedi or Cheti or the Aira Dynasty. The monarchs of that family assumed the pompous title of Mahameghavahana or the 'Rider of the Mighty Clouds'. It is an expression as if to claim the powers of Indra, the God of the Heavens. One of the rulers of that dynasty has left an imperishable record of his rule on the rocks of Khandagiri-Udayagiri in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar and not far from the Asokan Inscription at Dhauli. The King was Kharavela and his inscription is famous as the Hatigumpha Inscription. A second inscription of the Mahameghavahana dynasty has been recently discovered in the far south at Guntupally which corroborates the conquests of the Mahameghavahana. Kharavela was the greatest monarch of ancient Kalinga who built a far-flung empire with Kalinganagari as his capital. Though the date of this monarch caused some controversy, historical evidences, as available now, place him in the first century before Christ. He was the third king of his dynasty. A remarkable feature of the Hatigumpha inscription is that it deals in detail about the personal attainments of the King from his childhood till his renunciation of worldly activities. He received education in Lekha, Rupa, Ganana, Vyavahara and Vidhi, which

according to ancient prescriptions were Art of Correspondence, Currency, Accountancy, Legal Systems, and Rules respectively.10 At the age 15, Kharavela assumed the responsibilities of administration as a Crown Prince, and at 24, was coronated as King. One of the earliest achievements of the King was the reconstruction of the capital city of Kalinganagari at the cost of 35 lakhs of coins. Gates, towers, forts and ramparts were repaired and strengthened; embankments were constructed and gardens laid; and the city on the whole was beautified. The purpose of all such endeavour was to please the people, so claimed the King. In subsequent years he continued to please his subjects by various entertainment programmes, by dance, music and songs, by ceremonies and banquets, etc. Further, in one of his welfare works, he renovated and extended the aqueduct which the Nanda King had constructed near Kalinganagari generations ago. Kharavela's benevolence further led him to exempt people from certain taxes at a loss to the royal treasury of huge amounts of money. He represented the true ideals of an ancient Hindu monarch by doing all the best he could for the satisfaction of his subjects. It is as a conqueror that Kharavela showed his genius in that age of political disintegration. His empire was short-lived, but his attempts to unite a larger part of India represented the traditional concepts of ancient Indian monarchy of the Kautilyan thought. Kharavela organised a vast army with infantry, cavalry, elephant forces and chariots. He had a powerful neighbour and rival in King Satakarni of the Satavahana Dynasty in the south-west with whom he fought soon after his accession and won a victory. This success extended the sway of Kalinga King as far as the river Krishna. Thereafter Kharavela fought against the Rathika and the Bhojaka powers and gained impressive victory over them. His campaign through the Maharastra land led to the establishment of Kharavela's hegemony over most parts of the Deccan. After successful military achievements in the south, Kharavela turned his might upon the north. He invaded Rajagriha in the eighth year of his reign and in course of that campaign destroyed the fortress of Gorathagiri. His further northward march coincided with the invasion of the Indo-Greeks in the north under one of their rulers whom the Hatigumpha inscription describes as Yavanaraja Dimita.11 The Yavanas had penetrated as far as Mathura while the Kalinga army was advancing beyond Rajagriha. By way of a patriotic duty Kharavela hastened towards Mathura, liberated that famous city and drove out the invaders from north-western India. On return to Kalinganagari after that successful campaign, the Emperor erected a gigantic palace of victory at a fabulous expense.

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 91 In the tenth year of his reign, Kharavela once again invaded Northern India for establishing his political supremacy. But before his work was complete, a powerful political league had been formed against him in the south by the Tamil Kings. It was a confederacy of the Cholas, Pandyas, Satyaputras and Keralaputras, and the rulers of Tamraparni, a union which had existed in some form or other, for three hundred years. These southern monarchs who maintained their independence even in the days of the imperial Mauryas perhaps became apprehensive of Kharavela's ambitious designs and united in a common cause to thwart his aggression. The war that followed in the eleventh year of Kharavela's rule ended in the victory of the latter. While the victor acquired plenty of booties from the defeated league, the Pandya King himself came down to Kalinganagari to pay tribute to the conqueror. Kharavela's conquering career culminated in the twelfth year of his reign when his invading army subdued several of the Kings in Uttarapatha. His main target, however, was Magadha. Brihaspatimitra, the ruling monarch of Magadha submitted to the invader. The supreme Trophy which Kharavela brought back from Magadha was the image of the Kalinga Jina which the Nanda Raja had carried away long ago. In twelve years of his military adventure Kharavela had thus established sway over a vast area of India. From eastern coast to western coast, and from Mathura to the Pandya Kingdom in far south, his political authority was felt by various kings and peoples. His invasions most probably followed the ancient concepts of Digvijaya far across the frontiers of his own empire for the purpose of establishing a political paramountcy over neighbouring territories. Kharavela's abrupt renunciation of mundane activities within a year of his conquest of Magadha. Perhaps his political mission was considered no longer necessary. Or, the bringing back of the Kalinga Jina to Kalinganagari called for from the Emperor a new mission in life. A devout Jaina, he now devoted himself to the promotion of Jainism as its royal patron. And, Kharavela is remembered in history as perhaps the greatest of the Jaina monarchs of ancient times. came The Hatigumpha Inscription describes of his noteworthy acts in the cause of Jainism. On the top of the Kumari Hill where Mahavira Jina was supposed to have preached his gospels to the people of Kalinga, Kharavela began his constructive activities in erecting rock-cut caves and shelters for numberless monks who came from many corners of India. A hall of congregation was built with three million and five lakhs of fine stone slabs collected from distant }

quarries. There gathered countless Sramanas, Yatis, Tapasas, Rishis, and Sanghayanas for sacred purposes of their own.12 The caves of Khandagiri-Udayagiri, in their melancholy ruins, bear till today the testimony to the building activities of Emperor Kharavela. The Emperor towards the end of his career perhaps lived like a monk himself, devoting his time and energy to the promotion of Dharma in company with the Arhatas who frequented the holy Kumari Hill. Though brief, the reign of Kharavela marked a most glorious epoch in ancient annals of Kalinga. The Mahameghavahana Dynasty continued to thrive after him though evidences regarding the succeeding rulers have not yet come to light. It is gathered from the Manchapuri Cave Inscription that there ruled another king of the dynasty named Maharaja Kudepa Shri who also erected caves at that place. 13 The cave ruins of Manchapuri also contains the name of Prince Vadukha who might have been yet another monarch of that great dynasty. In the West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh, in a small village named Guntupally, a Brahmi Inscription of Kharavela was discovered in recent years wherein the Maharaja Kalingadhipati Mahameghavahana has been described also as the overlord of the Mahisakas. 14 This inscription corroborates the power and extent of the Kalinga Empire of the Chedi Dynasty as contained in the Hatigumpha Inscription. How and in what circumstances did that powerful empire finally disappear from history is not known. But in fields of art, architecture, religion and administration, the Mahameghavahana rulers gave to Kalinga a glorious epoch of her ancient history, the legacy of which survived for long. During the age of the Kushan Kings in the early centuries of the Christian era, the political condition of Kalinga remained rather hazy and dim. The political influence of the Satavahana power from the south under its famous ruler Goutamiputra Satakarni and his son Vasisthiputra, and the influence of the Murundas from their northern strongholds, were felt in the Kalinga territories in 2 nd century A.D., and the Kushan rule also had had its impact on the region. Large numbers of Kushan coins as discovered from the districts of Ganjam, Puri, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Cuttack have led some scholars like E. J. Rapson to suggest that Orissa at that time might have come under the rule of the Kushanas or that its rulers were under the supremacy of those foreign potentates. 15 The people of ancient Kalinga, having been a race of mercantile adventures, also could have busied themselves in internal and external trade for which there could have been brisk circulation of the Kushan coins in almost every notable part of Orissa, especially in the coastal belts.

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 93 On the eve of the Gupta era, Kalinga was seen to be a politically recognised territory with its usual religious fame. The Buddhist sources describe the name of the Kalinga. King as Guhasiva who was a contemporary of the Ceylonese King Mahasena who was ruling that Island Kingdom in the last quarter of the 3 rd century A.D. Till that time, the Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha had been kept in Kalinga through religious and political changes of several centuries, and through many risks and dangers to that Great Object. In one of such dangers when the attackers wanted to capture the Relic, Guhasiva, before resisting the enemies in the field, sent that precious-most symbol of the Buddhist fraternity to the King of Ceylon, in hands of his daughter Hemamala and son-in-law Dantakumara. 16 The King thereafter fought against the invaders and died, while the Tooth Relic reached Ceylon safely. King Mahasena of Ceylon was dead by then, but his son and successor King Shri Meghavarna received the Holy Relic with utmost veneration. The transfer of the Relic took place in the first decade of the 4 th century A.D. and the Ceylonese description of Kalinga in that connection had had its historical value. Perhaps for external invasions to which King Guhasiva of Kalinga was subjected, the political stability of the Kingdom declined speedily and Kalinga at the time of the invasion of the Gupta Emperor Samudragupta presented a picture of several small Kingdoms instead of one united territory. Only in the western and south-western portions of Orissa through which Samudragupta led his victorious expedition towards the South, he fought with several Orissan rulers such as Mahendra of Kosala, Vyaghraraja of Mahakantara, Mantaraja of Kurala, Mahendragiri of Pistapura, Swamidatta of Kottura, Damana of Erandapalla, and Kubera of Devarastra. It is evident that, for reasons unknown, the ancient Kalinga lay fragmented during the time of Samudragupta who also, in his endeavour to consolidate the Indo-Gangetic valley, did not consider it administratively desirable to conquer Kalinga and the south. Towards the later half of the 4 th century A.D. however, a powerful dynasty rose in Orissa to unite a greater portion of the land from the river Mahanadi to the river Godavari. It was the dynasty of the Matharas. While the Gupta monarchs were at the height of their power in the north, the Mathara Kings held their independent sway over a larger part of Orissa which included the territories through which Samudragupta conducted his victorious march. They style themselves as Maharaja, and even some of them called themselves as Kalingadhipati. A large number of Copper Plate Grants of the Mathara Kings have survived till now to speak about their various achievements. Umavarman, Sankaravarman, Saktivarman, Ananta

Saktivarman, Chandravarman and Prabhanjana Varman were the notable Kings of the Mathara Dynasty. Their rule covered a period of one hundred and fifty years, i.e., from the middle of the 4 th century A.D. to the end of the 5 th century A.D. Orissa was given a sound administrative system, more or less in the pattern of the Gupta imperial administration as it prevailed in the north; and Orissa under the Matharas also saw a Brahmanical revival in its religious and cultural aspects, as it was in the north. Sanskrit was patronised by the Matharas and used extensively. The Bhagavata cult, too, came into prominence in the faith of the people, while Buddhism still continued to dominate the religious life of a large section of people. The time of the Mathara rule coincides with the most effective maritime activities of ancient Kalinga in overseas lands. In the southern coastal regions of Kalinga, during the 5 th and 6 th centuries A.D., a small dynasty named the Sailodbhavas ruled over a Kingdom which they called Kangoda or Kanyodha. The name Sailodbhava indicates that the rulers or their territory represented some hill areas to begin with, and scholars have identified, with valid reason, these areas with lands around lake Chilika and Ganjam. The rulers of this dynasty included Sailodbhava, Ranabhita, Sainyabhita, Ayasobhita, Sainyabhita II, Ayasobhita II, Madhava Raja, Dharma Raja Manabhita and their successors. From the great ports of Palur, Ganjam, Kalinga Nagar and Charitra, the people of Kalinga were carrying on their trade and commerce from very ancient times with Burma, Malayasia, Siam, Kambodia, Java, Bali, Borneo, Sumatra, and other places of the Suvarnadwipa, Taking advantage of that century-old relation between Kalinga and the oversea lands, the Sailodbhavas of Kangoda were supposed to have launched upon their colonial adventure in Suvarnadwipa and ultimately succeeded in establishing the great and far-flung Sailendra Empire in that part of further, Asia. The Sailodbhava dynasty disappeared from Kangoda in 7 th century A.D. and the Sailendra Empire of Suvarnadwipa rose into prominence in the 8 th century A.D., In the heyday of that empire, the foreign merchants as well as their countrymen called that empire as 'Kalinga', signifying thereby the Kalinga origin of the Sailendra Empire. This empire endured for nearly two centuries. After the Matharas and the Sailodbhavas, the next significant chapter of the political history of Orissa began during the rules of the Bhauma Kara and the Somavamsi dynasties. The later Bhauma Karas and the early Somavamsis were contemporaries, and at one stage, the former were ruling over the Utkal portion of Orissa, and the latter over the Kosala portion. In course of time the Bhauma Kara

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 95 The rule yielded place to the rule of the Somavamsis and the whole landmass of Orissa came under the rule of one powerful dynasty. time of these two dynasties, running over a period of nearly four centuries, namely, from 8 th to 11 th century, saw a formative period in the life and culture of the Orissan people. Geographical demarcations and territorial centres, religious traits and linguistic developments, all tended to bring about a clear and distinct picture of a compact socio-political unit. In the evolution of Orissa, the Bhauma Kara-Somavamsi period is indeed a remarkable epoch. The most famous rulers of the Bhauma Kara Dynasty were Subhakara Deva, Santikara Deva, Subhakara Deva-II, Santikara Deva-II, and finally, Dandi Mahadevi, a powerful woman ruler. It was King Subhakara Deva I who wrote a religious text in his own hand and sent it with a letter to his contemporary Chinese Emperor Tet Song in the last decade of 8 th century.17 The missionary who carrried that letter was Prajna, a vastly learned man who had studied for years at Nalanda, and also in a university of the King of Orissa. Prajna stayed on in China where he devoted his time to translate a number of Indian scriptures to Chinese language. Orissa possessed in that period a renowned university named Puspagiri which the Chinese Pilgrim Hieuen Tsing described in his travel accounts during the age of Harsha. The ruins of Ratnagiri, Lalitagiri and Udayagiri in the district of Cuttack, with traces of one of the greatest Buddhist centres of India, lead many scholars to believe that the University of Puspagiri lies buried in this Buddhist complex of unlimited deposits. The Bhauma Kara rule gave to Orissa a sound and well-organised administration. Some of the terminology as seen in their Copper Plates indicate quite advanced type of governmental systems. Though Sanskrit was the dominating language of that age, future Oriya words were gradually emerging in the texts of the Plates. Towards the close of the Bhauma Kara Rule, Buddhism was seen heading towards its last declining phase and Saivism was beginning to rise as a popular force of Orissan religion. It is said that the individuality of the Oriya people as a distinct group in the Indian cosmos saw its foundation laid during the Bhauma Kara era. The Somavamsi Dynasty became more effective in raising Orissa to its definite individuality. From the last years of the 9 th century this dynasty came forward to play its spectacular political and cultural role and continued to represent its vitality till the later part of 11 th century. Janmejaya Mahabhavagupta I, Yayati Mahasivagupta I, Bhimaratha Mahabhavagupta II, Dharmaratha Mahasivagupta II,

Nahusa Mahabhavagupta III, Yayati II. Uddyota Kesari Mahabhavagupta IV and Janmejaya II were some of the illustrious monarchs of the Somavamsi Dynasty. The dynasty ruled for more than two centuries. With the title 'Keshari' used by some kings of this dynasty, the traditions of Orissa remain eloquent about the achievements of these rulers by describing them as Kesharis. Yayati I, famous as Yayati Keshari, is said to have performed an Aswamedha sacrifice at Jajpur, and to have brought ten thousand Brahmins from Kanauj settlement in that holy place. Historically, it is this monarch who united the two identifiable parts of the then Orissa, namely, Utkal and Kosala and consolidated the two areas in one homogeneous territory, laying thereby the foundation of a solid powerful state. He is remembered in traditions as a great builder of numerous temples and other monuments. Some of his architectural activities came to be conducted in Bhubaneswar which, situated as it was between Asoka's ancient Toshali and Kharavela's Kalinganagari, rose into a new prominence as a city of the temples. King Yayati II of the Somavamsi Dynasty was yet another powerful monarch who strengthened Orissa within its geographical limits. He proclaimed himself as the Lord of Kalinga, Kangoda, Utkal and Kosala, showing thereby his hold over all the four traditional divisions of Orissa when the whole of Orissa did not pass under that more famous name Kalinga. Not satisfied with his rule over Orissa proper, this King fought battles against the Kings of Karnata, Lata, Gurjara, Kanchi, Gouda and Radha. When he was succeeded by his son Uddyota Keshari, the Somavamsi Kingdom of Orissa was in its finest form, but, within the next generation, the decline of the dynasty speedily set in. It is during this period that the temple building activities in Orissa with Bhubaneswar as chief centre reached a high watermark. The Great Temple of Lingaraj and many of the innumerable temples around it, were brought into being in the high tide of Saivite faith which flooded Orissa at that time. The enormous size of the monuments as well as the superb artistic decoration on their surface are the brightest testimony to the high degree of architectural as well as sculptural attainment to which the Orissan builders and artists of that period had reached. During the days of the later Somavamsis, when that dynasty began to decline, a new royal house began to rise into prominence in the southern regions of Orissa. A powerful conqueror of this dynasty, Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva at last came forward to establish a dynasty in Orissa famous as the Ganga Dynasty and build an extensive empire known as the Ganga Empire.

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 97 The Gangas were a very ancient people. The Greek Ambassador Megasthenes described them as Gangaridae who inhabited the regions between the Gangas in the north, the river Damodar in the south, Magadha in the west, and sea in the east. When Pliny observed in 72 A.D., this Ganga race had migrated to the south and had settled itself in central Kalinga on the banks of the river Vansadhara. Towards the 5 th century A.D. one branch of this race was seen dominating over southern Mysore, and passing under the name of Western Gangas. The branch which continued to live in Orissa while rising to its fame is described as the Eastern Gangas. Towards the closing years of the 5 th century A.D., they were seen ruling over the Tri-Kalinga region of Kalinga. There they lived for six hundred years through many political storms till at length, in 11 th century, their power began to be felt in other parts of Kalinga. When the Somavamsi Dynasty declined and their kingdom disintegrated, the Gangas came forward to avail of that opportunity and to create for themselves a big empire. It was Ananta Varman Chodaganga Deva of this dynasty who united the whole of Kalinga within its traditional boundary between the Ganges and Godavari, and built a powerful empire which lasted under his successors for more than three centuries as the strongest Hindu state of India against continuous Muslim onslaughts from different corners. Ananta Varman was the son of Devendra Varman Rajaraja Deva and his queen Raja Sundari who was a princess of the powerful Chola dynasty of the South. As the son of a Ganga father and a Chola mother, he proudly called himself as Cholaganga or Chodaganga and remains famous in that name in the adoration of posterity. He ascended the Ganga throne at his ancestral capital of Kalinga Nagar, 18 which is identified with modern Mukhalingam, in the year 1078 A.D. From there he began his conquering career, and when the whole of Orissa and also its adjoining territories had been overrun and united into a powerful state he transferred his capital to the city of Cuttack, very late in his reign, in the year 1135 A.D. During the next 12 years of his rule with Cuttack as the centre of his political activities, he gave the final touches to his empire building while strengthening and fortifying his capital city in an effective way. It was for long 72 years that this monarch was privileged to rule. It enabled him not merely to conquer new territories but also to consolidate the conquests by an efficient administration, and by other nobler activities in accordance with the spirit of his age, and the needs of the society. The most spectacular and memorable of such activities was his construction of the Great Temple of Lord Jagannath at the holy city of Puri. There was an earlier shrine for

Jagannath from very ancient times, but the Temple which Chodaganga began to erect was destined to make Jagannath Puri one of the most renowned centres of religion in all India. Saivism by that time was losing its hold on popular mind because of its extreme and rigid dogmatic practices. Buddhism and Jainism were beyond the range of recall. The Hindu world, as if, required a new vigorous cult to concentrate on. The masses of people, at the first phase of that medieval age, needed a simpler and more appealing faith, resting on an emotional devotion to God rather than on difficult and unintelligible doctrines. In the wake of this Zeitgeist, a religious wind was blowing in favour of Vaishnavism all over India. That was the time of the great saint Ramanuja who visited Kalinga when Chodaganga was ruling. The Kalinga Emperor, in the closing years of a great career, turned to religious activities, and vigorously championed the cause of Vaishnavism by taking up the construction of the Temple of Jagannath. Since that time, Jagannath has come to be worshipped as the Supreme Deity of Hindu India, and His shrine as the holiest abode of Hinduism. The Temple of Jagannath, as the supreme abode of Vaishnavism, has invited millions of Hindus from all parts of India for all these centuries. Chodaganga's immortal work was meant not for Orissa but for India, not for his time, but for all times. His worthy successors completed and developed the Temple complex and made Puri a city of religious splendour and of fabulous ceremonies. From Ananta Varman Chodaganga Deva to Bhanu Deva IV with whom ended the Ganga Dynasty, there ruled about 15 Kings, including Ananga Bhima Deva II, Ananga Bhima III, and Narasimha Deva I who were exceptionally brilliant like the founder of the empire. The Hindu Kingdom of Orissa in those days had to come face to face with Muslim powers of the adjacent lands and a prolonged conflict between the rival forces became inevitable. The Ganga monarchs rose equal to the task and kept the territorial bounds of their domain vigorously defended and well-protected. Continuous Muslim pressure from the north and the east was successfully resisted, and the river Ganges was kept as Orissa's frontier against the Muslim Bengal. Narasimha Deva I who ruled the Ganga Empire from 1238 to 1264 decided upon an aggressive policy towards his contemporary Bengal Sultans, and Minhaj-us-Shiraj describes in Tabqat-i-Nasiri how that King defeated the Muslim army at Katsin in 1243, and invaded Lukhnor and Lukhnauti. Sultan Tughan Khan fled away in fear and appealed to Delhi for help. In 1244, Narasimha invaded Bengal a second time, plundered the capital Lukhnauti, defeated Tughan Khan, and captured the city of Lukhnor.19 The outcome

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 99 of this invasion was the annexation of several Muslim districts of Bengal to the territory of Kalinga. During the time of the Gangas, the Orissan architecture reached its zenith. Narasimha Deva has earned for himself not only the fame as a conqueror, but also an undying fame as the builder of the Sun Temple of Konark. This Temple was constructed on the bank of the river Chandrabhaga where that river met the sea. As a remarkable piece of architecture, the greatest Hindu edifice in India, Konark is emblematic of the resources which medieval Orissa commanded, the power which her rulers enjoyed, and the artistic, architectural, sculptural and engineering skill which the Orissan people possessed. It is believed that the Sun Temple took twelve years of time and forty crores of money for its construction. The main Temple was 230 feet. high, the biggest in whole India. Even the crownless Mukhasala which stands till today in its ruins is as high as the Great Temple of Lingaraj at Bhubaneswar. In sculptural display and artistic exuberance it has no rival. It was during the Ganga age that the Oriya literature took its concrete and enriched shape. Oriya script, grammar, idioms, phraseologies, poetic dictions and prose styles began to take their clear character as many inscriptions and manuscripts came to be composed. Within a well-defined territory, with a definite language and literature, with economic and political stability, and with indigenous distinctive traits in spheres of culture, art and religion, modern Orissa was steadily taking shape during the prosperous Ganga era of three centuries. The rule of the imperial Gangas came to an abrupt end when in a bloodless revolution, a new dynasty named Suryavamsi Dynasty came to the throne. According to the famous Temple Chronicles or the Madala Panji, the last Ganga King being childless, adopted a cowherd boy as his son who inherited the throne and became the first Surya King of Orissa. 20 According to some other sources, the last Ganga King was unworthy and weak, and therefore, the wise ministers and nobles elevated to the throne a brave and extraordinary person who founded a new dynasty of his own.21 The Surya Dynasty gave to Orissa three famous rulers, Kapilendra Deva, Purusottam Deva and Prataprudra Deva. Kapilendra ascended the throne in 1436 A.D. From political point of view, by second quarter of fifteenth century the Orissan Kingdom was surrounded on all sides by formidable powers, such as, the Bengal Sultanat, Bahamani Kingdom, and Vijaya Nagara Empire. In order to safeguard his territory as well as to defend it more effectively, i

Kapilendra took up an aggressive posture against all his neighbouring powers. This monarch is usually compared with the great Kharavela of ancient times for the military expeditions he undertook and the martial vigour he showed. His army was a rare, and perhaps the last example of Orissa's military traditions. His gigantic elephant force was the most invincible in India, and it is by that force that he terrified his foes. The Bahmani Sultan Alauddin Ahmad Shah calculated the number of those war elephants as two hundred thousands.22 Though the number appears to be unbelievable, it indicates that the Orissan ruler had a unique type of military machine with the elephant phalanx as its main support to overawe the enemy forces of cavalry and infantry. Kapilendra's aggressive career and military achievements give ample proofs about the strength of his army. His military title of Gajapati or lord of the elephant force is an evidence of his reliance on that military machine. The Suryavamsi Kings were all known as the Gajapati Kings. Kapilendra's conquests were indeed remarkable. He occupied a large portion of the Telingana coast, and brought the Godavari delta under his possession. In subsequent invasions he crossed the river Krishna and conquered Kondavidu. On the north-eastern frontier, he crossed into the territories of the Bengal Sultan and captured a portion of that land after a victory over Sultan Nasiruddin.23 His sway in that area extended to the western side of the river Hughli. Kapilendra's war against the Bahmani Sultan also ended in victory for him. It is gathered from the Muslim sources that the Orissan King "from the greed of gain and for the defence of paganism" invaded the Bahmani territory and taking the army of the Sultan by surprise routed the forces of Islam.24 This defeat was inflicted on Sultan Humayun Shah Bahmani. After his death, when his minor son Nizam Shah ascended the throne, Kapilendra once again invaded his country and reached very near to his capital. Finally, the Gajapati King won a major victory over the Vijaya Nagar Kings, and overran a large portion of the Tamil coastal belt. The province of Chandragiri was also invaded and Kanchi was conquered.25 Kapilendra's empire came to extend from the river Ganges in the north to the river Kaveri in the south. His conquests and achievements led Kapilendra Deva to assume the pompous title of 'Gajapati, Gaudeswara Navakoti-Karnata- Kalabargeswara.' This great monarch was not merely a conqueror but also a patron of culture. A scholar in Sanskrit, he wrote a Sanskrit drama named 'Parasurama Vijaya'. Sudramuni Sarala Das wrote his famous' Maha Bharata' during this time, a work which is a classic by itself. The King encouraged Vaishnavism and the

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 101 spread of Bhakti cult, and added many rites of a devotional nature to the worship of Jagannath. Gajapati Kapilendra died on the bank of the river Krishna in 1466, while supervising the administration of his southern annexations. He was succeeded by his son Purushottam Deva. According to Orissan traditions, the late King had as many as 18 sons who contested for the throne with Purushottam. At last, when defeated in that fratricidal war, they submitted to the victorious brother, who in his magnanimity forgave them all and gave each one of them a piece of territory to rule independently. It is believed that these 18 brothers ultimately became the founders of the 18 small princely states of the future Orissa. If this account be correct, here was the beginning of the self-destructive process of Orissa's medieval state power. The second Surya monarch was a fine specimen of the culture of that age. He wrote an impressive prose work in Sanskrit named Nama Malika, wherein the substance of sixty-seven Puranas and other works was produced. His Abhinava Gita-Govinda is a beautiful work in poetry. Among many of his other works, Mukti Chintamani, Durgotsava, and Vishnu-Bhakti Kalpadruma are noteworthy. He also compiled a Sanskrit dictionary entitled Trikanda Kosha. Few among his contemporary Indian Kings possessed this kind of learning and scholarship as this King. But the time of this learned King was critical from political angles of view. The death of Kapilendra removed fear from the mind of the Bahmani and the Vijaya Nagar rulers, who attacked the Orissan Kingdom at the earliest opportunity. Yet, in any case, through earlier reverses but later successes, the King preserved his territory till his death in 1497, though the symptoms of military weakness were already seen during the course of his desperate struggle against his powerful enemies such as Saluva Narasimha and Bahmani Sultan Muhammad III, and the great Bahmani Statesman Mahmud Gawan. Gajapati Purusottam Deva was succeeded by his son Prataparudra Deva. This third Surya monarch was the last in the long line of Orissa's great rulers of ancient and medieval times from the days of Mahameghavahana Kharavela. He ruled from 1497 to 1540, for forty-four years. Cultured and learned, this monarch failed to realise the nature of the dangers which threatened his kingdom from all frontiers. The imperial traditions were already on a declining path, and the enemy powers were on their ascendancy. At that critical moment in the destiny of Orissa, Prataparudra neglected the defence of his vast domain, and turned his attention to less mundane affairs without realising the consequences to follow. The greatest emperor

of Vijaya Nagar, Krishna Deva Ray, after he came to the throne, launched determined efforts to reconquer the southern territories of the Surya Empire. He did succeed in a series of battles, and became the master of the extensive landmass lying between rivers Kaveri and Godavari which Kapilendra had conquered. Repeated invasions also followed from the Muslim Sultans of Bengal. Unfortunately for the Gajapati, his contemporary in Bengal was the powerful and ambitious Alauddin Hussain Shah, who recovered a large portion of territories which Kapilendra had taken away from earlier Sultans. Similarly, Sultan Quali Qutb Shah of Golkonda occupied the Telingana region of Orissa which was still under the Gajapati after Krishna Deva Ray's conquests in those quarters. Thus Prataparudra lost most of his ancestral dominions in the Peninsular India and in Bengal during the first quarter century of his rule. The reduced Orissa had by then approximated its present day size. Kalinga was no more an empire. Even the name Kalinga which signified much of her ancient and medieval glory vanished. For nearly twenty years more did Prataparudra rule thereafter. But he did not try to recover his lost territories. With the loss of the empire, Orissa had lost her sources of prosperity. Decline of Orissa was coming in rapidly with the loss of military prestige and economic vitality. Much of Prataparudra's political and military inactivity is ascribed to the influence of Shri Chaitanya, the greatest Vaishnavite saint that time, on him. For long 18 years of his saintly life, Chaitanya lived in Orissa, in the holy city of Lord Jagannath, Puri. His great devotional movement was seen flooding Orissa as a most popular cult. Prataparudra came under the spell of Chaitanya and was led to march with pacificism and non-violence of the neo-Vaishnavite faith. Evidences show how the saint profoundly influenced the personal and official conduct of the King, and became, unfortunately, one of the causes of the political and military decline of medieval Orissa. In the renunciation of the King lay the causes of a sudden decline of Orissa as a political power. Prataparudra died in 1540. It seems as if the spirit of independence had already disappeared by that time. The few years that separated the death of the last Surya King and the Muslim conquest of Orissa were the years of internecine strife, bloodshed, intrigues, conspiracies, and civil war. The Gajapati King's many sons were put to death by his treacherous minister Govinda Vidyadhara who symbolised in him the vices of an age of decay and degeneration. When the Surya Dynasty was thus extinguished Govinda Vidyadhara ascended the throne himself as the Gajapati King. During his brief rule, Orissa

Ancient and Medieval Empires and Kingdoms 103 disintegrated speedily with independent small principalities coming into existence in the inaccessible hill tracts of Orissa. His worthless successors were removed from the scene and a brave general named Mukunda Harichandan ascended the throne to try desperately to save a dying kingdom. For 9 years he ruled Orissa while external invasions and internal dissension became the sad tale of the time. At last, in the year 1568, Mukunda Deva was killed in an internal battle which atonce paved path for the Muslim conquest of Orissa. The decline and fall of Orissa's medieval kingdom had many causes no doubt. But researches are being conducted to ascertain if a military race from the days of Asoka's Kalinga war till the time of Gajapati Kapilendra Deva could have declined so abruptly and lost its inner vitality only because of external factors, or, were there climatic and physical factors which brought about a disastrous change in the life and character of a vigorous people causing them their decline as in the case of many other races and peoples. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Vide Mahaparinibbana Sutta and Dathavamsa. 2. Vide Mahavamsa. 3. Vide Karakandu Chariu, Kumbhakara Jataka, Uttaradhyayana Sutta, and Harivaddiya Vritti. 4. Hatigumpha Inscription, Lines 6 and 12. 5. Vide Megasthenes by Mc Crindle. 6. This army was not the whole army of Kalinra, but only that part of the army which 'protected' the King. 7. Plutarch, Life of Alexander, Ch. Ixii. 8. Rock Edict XIII. 9. Kalinga Rock Edict. 10. Vide Kautilya's Arthasastra, I, II, and III. 11. The word Dimita or Dimata has been now almost completely obliterated on the body of the Hatigumpha Inscription, though read by earlier scholars. K. P. Jayaswal and several others identified Dimita with the Indo-Greek ruler Demetrius. 12. Hatigumpha Inscription, Lines 14-15, and 15-16. 13. Vide Manchapuri Cave Inscription. 14. The Guntapally Brahmi Inscription of Kharavela, Vide No. 3, Epigraphical Series Hyderabad, 1968. 15. Vide E. J. Rapson, Indian Coins, 13. 16. Vide the Ceylonese Chronicle, Dathadhatuvamsa. 17. Vide Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XV, 1919-20, 363-64. 18. Not the Kalinganagari of Kharavela. 19. Vide Minhaj-us- Shiraj, Tabqat-i-Nasiri. 20. Vide Madala Panji. 21. Jivadeva's Bhakti Bhagavat written during the time of the third Surya ruler, Prataparudra Deva. 22. Vide Burhan-i-Ma' asir. 23. Vide Kapilendra's Jagannath Temple Inscription dated 1450. 24. Vide Burhan-i-Ma' asir, Indian Antiquary, XXVIII, 244. 25. Vide the Gopinathpur Temple Inscription.