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

Page 140

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF KALINGA 115 his nephew from him and his newly-seized kingdom, the uncle permitted him to clear the forest and to set up a kingdom of his own, which Simhabāhu, of course, did.
Thus, the kingdom of northern Kalinga is said to have come into existence. Its capital was Sihapura or Simhapura, named after its founder. This country was, probably, the forest region of Kalinga, immediately adjoining the territory of Bengal, in the lower reaches of the Gangā. It is very likely that the older kingdom, lying further south, did continue to exist, since we find the kingdom of Kalinga described in early Tamil literature as composed of two parts with their respective capitals at Kapilapura and Siinhapura.*
Certain scholars interpreted the above story as involving the banishment of the Bengal princess to Lāța or Gujarat (original : Lādha). Prof. R. D. Banerji, however, believes that Lādha, under reference, is the eastern Prakrit form of Rādha and represents a division of the Vajjabhūmi on the bank of the Son river, rather between the Son and the Gangā, what might be called in the modern terminology West Bengal.3
According to the Challa Kalinga Jātaka, 4 at one time, Aruņa, the king of Assaka, accepted the challenge of king Kalinga of Dantapura to war and defeated him. Later on, he married Kalinga's daughter and the relations between the two countries remained amicable. In the Hāthigumphä inscription of Khāravela, it is stated that
1. It is quite probable that the village of Singur in the Hoogly district of the south-west Bengal is identical with Sinhapura. 2. Already referred to above. Soo supra, Mani Mekhalai Section,
p. 107. 3. Cf. Raychaudhari, PHAI, 1950, pp. 330-31, fn ; also B. C. Law, Geographical Essays, I, 1937, pp. 49f.
4. Jataka, IIT, pp. 3.5. 5. E. I., Vol. XX, pp. 71f.