________________
No. 20]
HINDOL PLATE OF KULASTAMBHA
111
West Bengal. It is interesting to note that the Suklis of Midnapur trace their origin to a place called Kēdālaka which may be the same as Kõdālāka, capital of the Sulki kings of Orissa. The records of the Sulki kings have been mostly found at Dhenkanal and in its neighbourhood and there is little doubt that the dominions of the Sulkis lay in the Dhenkanal-Talcher area of Orissa. That their dominions did not include a wide region is not only suggested by the fact that they were feudatories of the Bhauma-Karas of Jājpur, but also by the existence of several other contemporary ruling families such as the Nandas, Bhañjas, Dhavalas and Tungas. The Tungas ruling from Mahāparvata in the Cuttack District (S. I. sheet map No. 73/H/11) were the southern neighbours of the Sulkis. H. P. Sastri and R. D. Banerji', however, suggested that the Sulkis of Orissa extended their power over South-Western Bengal. In our opinion, this theory is absolutely unwarranted. It is based on the wrong assumption that Järägrāma in the Järä khanda, granted by king Ranastambha in favour of a Brāhmana named Pachuka (not Pauchuka as read by H. P. Sastri), was no other than the present village of Järā in the Hooghly District of West Bengal. Sastri says that "the land granted belonged to the village of Järä in the district of Jārā in the Rādha mandala ". As a matter of fact, however, Rādha-mandala is not mentioned in the record in question in connection with Jārā-khande Jārā-grāmë in line 15; it occurs in line 18 in the passage Rādhā-mandale Tallargalas-bhatta-grāma-vinirgata". This simply says that the donee's family originally belonged to the village of Tēllamgala situated in the Radha mandala which had thus absolutely nothing to do with the gift village of Jārā. There is no doubt that Jārāgrāma of Ranastambha's inscription was situated in the Dhenkanal region of Orissa. The donee of Ranastambha's grant was apparently a Radhiya Brāhmaṇa settled in Orissa. It is, however, interesting to note that the donee is said to have belonged to the Kāśyapa götra having the Kāsyapa, Avāchhyāyana (a mistake for Avatsāra) and Naidhruva pravaras and to have been a student of the Kāņva branch of a charana of the Yajurvēda (i.e., Sukla-Yajurvēda). The present day Radhiya Brahmanas of Bengal almost all claim to belong to the Sāmavēda. This seems to point to the incomplete and unreliable nature of late traditions in regard to the reconstruction of the social history of the early period.
As regards Stambhēsvari, the family deity of the Sulkis of Orissa, we have elsewhere? suggested that the representation of the goddess was probably made out on a stambha indicating a Siva-linga. Such a Linga with the representation of the Sakti is no doubt found among the sculptural remains of Eastern India. It should, however, be pointed out that, whatever may
1 B. C. Mazumdar, Orissa in the Making, pp. 103-06 ; H. P. Sastri, J BORS., Vol. IV, p. 169. Sukli weavers are found in Orissa and Singbhum. Some of them are said to be Jains. In that case, Sukli may indicato Sukl-ambara having little to do with the Sulki kings. The matter, however, requires investigation.
* J BORS., Vol. IV, p. 169. • History of Orissa, Vol. I, pp. 195-6. • Op. cit., p. 168.
Sastri's transcript hay Tilla ingala. There is a case of the să péksha-samasa, so common in epigraphic literature, (cf. Select Inscriptions, Vol. I, pp. 175-77, 179, 278, 407, etc., and notes) in this passage. Cf. also Srivastyan Muklāvati-grama-vinirgataya (IHQ, Vol. XX, p. 247), Radhayan Vallikandara-vinirgataya (above, Vol. XI, p. 94, where Rådhåphain is a wrong reading), etc., in the records of Mahasivagupta I Janamējaya. Seo JOR., Vol. XVIII, pp. 45-48.
Cf. Select Inscriptions, Vol. 1, pp. 498-500. N. N. Vasu (Vanger Jaliya Itihasa, Brahmana-kända, Part I, 2nd ed., p. 303) succeeded in tracing only a few Rigvôdiya and Yajurvēdiya families among the present day Radblys Brahmanas. The number of such families must have been considerable in the early period. Later they mostly merged themselves in the Kauthuma-sikhlya Samavēdins.
* The Sakta Pithas (JRASB., Letters, Vol. XIV, 1948), p. 104.
Ristory of Bengal, Dacca University, Vol. I, p. 452, Plate VI, 19; A. R., A. 8. I., 1924-25, p. 160, Plato XLC: N. K. Bhattarali, Iconography of the Buddhist and Brahmanical Sculptures in the Darca Museum, pp. 122-24, Plate LXIV.
