________________
No. 29.]
FOUR BHANJA COPPER-PLATE GRANTS.
289
the mountainous high lands." These are natural divisions which must have existed, as they do to-day, during the Bhañja rule, and the word "ubhaya" meaning 'both 'found in the records in connection with Khiñjali not only justifies its use, but affords a clue for the identification of the country. Local chroniclers also support the fact that Keonjhar was ruled by the Bhañja Rājas. Hunter's Gazetteerl plainly records :-"Keonjhar State originally formed part of Morbhañj, bat about 200 years ago, the tribes of this part, finding it a great hardship to travel through the perilous forests of Morbhanj to obtain justice from their prince, separated themselves and set up the brother of the Morbhañj Rāja as their independent ruler." That is to say, Keonjhar separated from the parental stock less than 300 years ago and was part of the Mayūrabhañja State where many of the Bhañja inscriptions were incised.
The records show that there were about three capitals of the Bhañja kings, either coexisting or at different periods of their role. D. and E., the oldest records as noted before, give Khijinggā or Khijjinga as the residence of the king. This is identical with the present Khiching to the west of Baripada, the present head-quarters of the Mayūrabhañja State. It still contains numerous ancient remains about which Rai Sahib Nagendra Nath Vasu remarks:-“The superior workmanship of these has indeed been a startling discovery for us. The faces of the goddesses beam with radiant smiles which seem to be & realization on stone of the best dreams of poets and artists. The smiles ......... look as fresh and soft as newly-blown bads .............. and illustrate that motherly grace which is a pure Indian conception and is quite distinct from what we find in the Italian painter's Madonna." A., B. and O. refer to Dhritipura as the old capital which is untraceable. F., G., H., I. and J. were issued from Vanjulvaka and as the villages mentioned in them are all found in the Ganjam district, it is perhaps not unfair to conclude that Vañjulvaka was also situated within that district. The name connotes & gn perabundance of cane plants, for which the Ganjām district is noted. The last record, K., mentions no capital at all.
In spite of the extensive area occupied by the Bhañja family and its branches, it, however, appears that they were not the sovereign lords of the country they ruled. The original ancestor of the family appears to have been an officer of some Gana or Hiuda republic, as his title Ganadanda indicates. The title was apparently a short form of Ganadanda-ndyaka or Gangdanda-pala, the former being equivalent to a Minister and the latter to an officer in charge of the maintenance of the army. There are numerous instances of ministers or army officers becoming kings, whenever they found the administration over them weak, Traditions of a strong member of the democracy usurping the power of government and finally becoming king are not wanting in the Orissa Janapadas as the political communities were called in olden days of which the Athmallik State is an excellent example. It was ruled by eight representa tives of the people by turns, which gave it the name of Athamallika (the tract ruled by eight). It is not very far away from Mayorabhañja. What wonder that Virabhadra and his descendants should have seen their opportunity and become the sole masters of their political community. Judging from the titles of the inscriptional kings of this line, however, it does not appear that they ever attained to paramount sovereignty, and as such they must have become the Māndalikas of the Mahākošala kings, firstly of the Somavamsis of Vinitapura (Binka) and later on, of the Haihayas of Ratanpur, both of whom bore the title of Trikalingādhipati or "Lord of the Trikalingas," which, apparently, included the Orissa Tributary Mabale. The omission, in tbe grants, of references to any sovereiga power, howover, indicates that the Bhañjas enjoyed much extended powers and were at any rate semi-independent chiefs, • Vol. VIII, p. 121 (Second Edition).
Mayürabhanja Arch. Rep., Part I, Prefana, Dane vil * Mr. Jayaswal's Hindu Polity, Part II, pp. 134 and 147.
20
