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No. 24.)
NADAGAM PLATES OF VAJRAHASTA.
187
In the Indian Antiquary (Vol. XVIII. p. 161 ff.) Dr. Fleet has published three grants of Anantavarman, which are dated in the Saka years 1003, 1040 and 1057, and contain genealogical lists of the Gângas. Those given in the first and the third agree with each other and with the one given in the present grant. Anantavarman's grant of Saka-Samvat 1040 professes to trace the genealogy of the Gângas from the very beginning of things. Setting aside for the present the names of all rulers that preceded Kamârņava I., who is said to have taken the Kalingas (i.e. the country of Kalinga) from Baláditya, the then ruler,- if we compare the list with that given in the present grant, we see that both correspond with each other from the 7th name in the second list, Ganârnava (Gunamahârnava in the first list), but with several discrepancies which render the authenticity of the second list suspicious. As no genealogical table is appended to Dr. Fleet's paper on the grant of Saka-Samvat 1040, I take the liberty to give it here (facing page 186) for the purpose of a close comparison with the first list.
Table I. shows that Gunamaharnava- Gupârnava II. of Table II.- had a son named Vajrahasta, who reigned for 44 years; but Table II. omits his name, evidently through an oversight of the officer who drafted the inscription. For, the fifth king in the second list is called "the second Vajrahasta," and the thirteenth king" the fourth Vajrahasta." Table II. gives the names of two kings, Jitâökusa and Kaligalankusa (his brother's son), who are said to have preceded Gundama I. and to have reigned for 15 and 12 years, respectively, but these names are omitted in Table I. It is also to be noted that the length of the reign of Gundama I. and that of his brother) Kâmârnava IV. are stated in Table II. to be 7 and 25 years, while Table I. has the figures 3 and 35 instead. Finally, the second list makes Vajrahasta V. the son of Madhu-Kâmârnava VI., while the present grant states that Vajrahasta "was born from Kámárnava, the eldest son of Vajrahasta."! Under these circumstances I am not inclined to depend on the memory of the scribes of Anantavarman's reign for the accuracy of facts relating to a period removed by centuries.
The identification of most of the places mentioned in this grant is rendered difficult by the carelessness of the engraver, which affects proper names very seriously. There is a village called Baqam in the Narasannapêţa tâluka, near the village where the inscription was discovered. In the Chicacole tâluka is a village named Boppadam at a distance of about 15 miles from Bådâm. I cannot say at present whether V&dam and Vappudam of the grant (1. 48 f.) can be identified with these.
I desire to take advantage of this opportunity to express my views regarding the identification of Kalinganagara, a town mentioned in all the copper-plate inscriptions of the Eastern Gângas as their residence, and fresumably as the capital of their kingdom. This place has been for many years identified with the modern Kalinga patam, a seaport in the Gañjam district. But there is evidence that goes to contradict this identification, which is not based on any recorded facts, but seems to have been suggested only by the similarity between the two names. There are no antiquities, or even traces of them, in Kalingapatam of a nature which could suggest the fact of its ever having beep the capital of the Kalinga kingdom. That there may have been some, and that the sea may have swallowed them up, are both gratuitous assumptions. Let us therefore discard an unfounded belief which has so long taken possession of us, place ourselves in a state of ignorance regarding the identification of the town, and then examine the following facts.
In the ParlAkimedi Zamîndári of the Gañjam district, at a distance of about 20 miles from Parlâkimedi, its chief town, there is a place of pilgrimage named Mukhalingam on the left
In Apantavarman', grants of Saka-Samvat 1003 and 1067 it is doubtful wbiol of the two Kamargava in meant to be the father of Vajrahasta.
• The antiquities of this place were for the first time, examined by me about two year ago; see the Madnes Journal of Literature and Science for 1869.94, p. 68 f.
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