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No. 26]
THREE INSCRIPTIONS FROM VALGUDAR
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monastery wherein were also located the other chaityas on the slope of the Salihundäm hill, and the mahachaitya and the apsidal chuitya on top of the hill. The Chinese Pilgrim Yuan Chwang who came to India in the first half of the 7th century A. D. and passed through Kalinga, has the following interesting observations to make -
"The country produced dark wild elephants prized by the neighbouring countries. The climate was hot. The people were rude and headstrong in disposition, observant of good faith and fairness, fast and clear in speech ; in their talk and manners they differed somewhat from "Mid India ". There were few Buddhists, the majority of the people being of other religions. There were above ten Buddhist monasteries, and 500 Brethren "Students of the Mahāyānist Sthavira School system". There were more than 100 Deva-temples, and the professed adherents of the various sects were very numerous, the majority being Nirgranthas. ****
Near the south wall of the city (i.e., the capital apparently) was an Asoka tope beside which were & sitting place and exercise-ground of the Four Past Buddhas. On a ridge of a mountain in the north of the country was a stone tope, above 100 feet high, where a Pratyeka Buddha had passed away at the beginning of the present kalpa when men's lives extended over countless years."
Fergusson was right in placing the capital city of Kalinga near modern Kalingapatam on the 8ea-shore or that it was not very far from Kalingapatam. This identification has been accepted by R. D. Banerji' and other recent writers. For us this is very interesting as Salihundäm on the Vamsadhärā river, is only 3 miles away from the sea-port of Kalinga patam (Fig. 1). The Buddhist monastery called in the inscription" Kattahärāma" is on a hill, while the apsidal chaitya which still maintains its lime-plaster (as old as the 2nd century A. C.) and the mahāchaitya behind it which yielded 3 crystal reliquaries, are both located on the topmost part of the hill, "above 100 feet high " as Yuan Chwang describes, and are easily visible from the sea-shore. The river Vamsadhārā lashes its water against the side of the Salihundäm hill. On the northern slope of the hill, just 100 yards below the mahāchaitya, were also exposed (plate II-a) another apsidal chaitya with a votive stupa in the centre, and a stūpa of the usual kind (wheel-hub-and-spokes arrangement). Despoiled as they were for bricks from a long time nothing of importance was recovered from them during my recent survey (1944-47).
No. 26-THREE INSCRIPTIONS FROM VALGUDAR
(1 Plate)
DINES CHANDRA SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND An epigraphic survey of a large number of villages in Bihar was conducted by Sir Alexander Cunningham about three quarters of a century ago and its results are recorded in his celebrated Archaeological Survey Reports. Many of the inscriptions noticed by Cunningham were found on
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, ed. T. Watters, Vol. II, p. 198.
.R. D. Banerji, History of Orissa, Vol. I, page 245—"Kalinga-nagara" has been identified by some with Makhalingam and Nagara-Kafakam and by others with Kalinga patnam.
B. V. Krishna Rao, Early Dynasties of Andhradeba, pp, 612-3.
"There is controversy and difference of opinion about the identification of Kalinganagara. Dr. Fleet identifies Kalinganagara with Kalingapatnam, and this view is shared by Mr. Bhattacharya. Prof. G. V. Ramamurti, on the contrary, identifier Kalinganagara with Mukhalingam cum Nagarakataka, two adjacent ancient villages lying on the northern bank of the Vamgadhara. And with this identification I entirely agree. Some of the inscriptions of the temple of Madhukėávara at Mukhalingam speak of the shrine as situated in Kalinganagars itself. The city would seem to have been founded in the enrly part of the sixth century and perhaps by Hastivarman."
7 DGA
