Early History of Orissa

SR No.: 006922
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Amarchand Mittal
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 506
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

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AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
The Pali texts mention Kalingārañña, which might denote the jungles far inland on the Amarakaņțaka range in which the Narbada rises and which is situated in the western portion of Kalinga. Pargitar suggests that the tribes inhabiting these jungles must have been under the suzerainty of the kings of Kalinga.
There is another reference in the Buddhist literature which gives us a glimpse as to the division of Kalinga into two kingdoms, while in regard to its general features, it appears to support the description of the country found in the Mahābhārata also. According to the Ceylon Chronicle Mahāvainsa, the mother of prince Vijaya, the great conqueror of Ceylon, was a princess of Bengal. But her mother was a daughter of the king of Kalinga. She was banished by her father on account of her lascivious waywardness. She, hence, left the country in the company of a caravan of merchants bounded for Magadha. While they were yet on the way passing through the country of Lādha (Rādha or western Bengal), they were set upon by a furious Simha. The party scattered in fear and the princess fled, as did the rest, for life. Incidently she took the path by which the Simha was coming so that he found the princess. He was so much charmed of her beauty that he carried her away and begot on her a son and a daughter. Sihabāhu (Simhabahu) was the name of their son and was called so because of the peculiar feature that he had the arms of a lion. Simhabāhu, later on, became the father of prince Vijaya. In his later days, the Siinha grew very much troublesome to the frontiers of the kingdom of Bengal and so Siṁhabāhu, at the instigation of his maternal grandfather, killed him (viz., the Simha). In the meanwhile, Simhabāhu's uncle married his mother and became the ruler of Bengal. In order, probably, to divert the attention of