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 56

POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY
31
bigger than a vishaya. Curiously enough, the same record (Plate 'B') includes Uttara Tosala within Odra vishaya (Odra-vishaya uttara-tosalayām). And so far as traditional geography is concerned, epigraphy, which deals mostly with political geography, is not always the best approach. Every little bit of epigraphic reference to items of geographical character is not too precious an evidence to be reckoned with.'
Tosala was not the name of the entire country as outlined above. Its ancient appropriate application was confined within the limits of the city of that name, the rest of the country being known by other names. Even Uttara Tosala formed only a part of Odra vishaya and indeed Qdra was the more well-known name of this region. KONGODA
Kongoda mandala appears largely in the epigraphs of the Sailodbhavas, and as their records referring to this maņqala have been mostly found at Cuttack, Khurda and Ganjam, it may be presumed, though we have no positive evidence to prove it, that the Kongoda mandala was roughly equivalent to the region bounded by the river Mahānadi on the north and the Risikulya on the south. It may have been even bigger than that, for, from epigraphic sources we learn that it consisted of the following vishayas—Varadakhaņda, Arttaņi, Khidingahāra, Kataka-bhukti? and Krishṇagiri-vishaya.8
1. Dr. S. B. Chaudhary-Indian Culture, Vol. XIV, p. 132.
2. One writer identified Tosali with the modern Khijjinga in Mayurbhaữja whore borders were wasbed by the Vaitarni. (JAHRS, III, 41f.)
3 E. I., XXI, 35. 4. E.I., VI, 138, 1. 26. 5. Ibid, pp. 141.2. 6. JBORS, Vol. V. p. 564. 7. E. I., XI, pp. 283 & 286. 8. E, I., VI, 144 ; also R. C. Majumdar in JAHRS, X, pp. 7-10.