Indian Antiquary Vol 05

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 77

FEBRUARY, 1876.]
COPPER-PLATE GRANT FROM KAPÅLESVARA.
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the Någå sacrifice, or extermination of the Någa modern Purúnas and Káryas. The word Košalá or serpent race. Apart from the mythical story is still known in parts of Orissa; tracts of country of its foundation, it is believed that Kataka in Pari and in Angul are still known by this Chaudwar was the first city of Orissa in point name. A species of pot-herb, peculiar to Orissa of age. Jajper, Sarangadh, Kataka-Bidánasi (the is called Kosala Sak; and perhaps any country modern Kataka) and Bhuvanesvara, were all built between two rivers---such as the Doib of the in much more recent times. Besides the city Ganges and Saraja, which was generully called of Chaudwar, there was a very strong fortress Kosala-or any country in the shape of a kosa, hard by, called Ka pâleśvara, or 'lord of the sheath of a fruit, may have borne this name. fortune.' Some years ago, Government made Now the country where this plate and others have over a portion of this fort at the instance of the been found falls exactly within the description now defunct East India Irrigation Company, of such a country: for first we have the country who used the greater portion of the cut-stone of between the Baitarni and Kharasua, then that its ramparts to build the Birupå Anikať and between the latter and the Brahmani, third other works. Vandalism could go no further : that between the Brahmaņi and Birupa, fourth but much may yet be found to repay the labour between the Birupå and the Mahanadi, fifth of exhumation.
between the Mahanadi and the Kituri, and so Though the seat of the kingdom was removed on. It is well known also that the great Guptas elsewhere, Chaudwår still retained some of its had their seat of empire first in the Doab, and grandeur in subsequent ages, for we find a perhaps a branch of the family establishing large tank was dag within the fort in the reign themselves in Trikalinga named parts of it after of Chorgangå, the founder of the Ganga their own parent country. vauśA family, who reigned between 1132 and Then the question resolves itself into another 1152 A.D. The tank is still called by his name. shape. If the Guptas indeed held sway in Orissa, An entry has been recently found in the Maala how is it that there is no mention of their names Panji to the effect that money was sent from Puri in the royal vansuvalis kept by the astrologers for army expenses; this was after the revetment of Orissa, or in the well-known palm-loaf records of modern Kataka was built in 1006 A.D. called Madla Panji. By a reference to another
But how came a copper-plate grant of the plate, in the Kataka Collectorate records, we find great Guptas to be in the old metropolis of that a king named Yayati ruled in Orissa Orissa? The country where the grant is made when Siva Gupta, the son of Bhava Gupta, is called Kosala; one of the names of ancient was the king of Trikalinga: hence it follows Oudh is Kobalâ, which is also called Uttara or that the Orissa Rajas were foudatories of the Northern Kosala; the Dakshina or Southern Guptas, and all lands granted by the former Kobalá is identified by some authorities with the | were made in the name of the paramount power. country round Kanhpur; but neither of these We have indeed a Yayati, or Yayati Kesari Košalas can be the Kośala of the grant, as the (i.e. Yayati the Lion), in the vahsivalis; actormer is always written with a long á at the end, cording to Stirling, he reigned from 473 to 520 whereas the final letter in the grant is a short A.D. Again, Siva Gupta, according to the one. Again, one of the titles of the royal donor is Chaudwar plate, was the father of Bhava Trikalinga dhipati, or lord of the three Gupta: so that it appears from the two plates Kalingas,' and this king gives it out on the that both the father and son of Bhav a Gupta plate that the grant was made from the great and had the same name. glorious city of Kataka. The most ancient name It is noteworthy that these Guptas of of the country bordering on the western shore of Trikalinga had among their titles the honorific the Bay of Bengal, stretching from the Suvarna- one of Bhattâraka, like the Guptas of Saurashtra rekha river to Madras, appears to be Kalinga : or Valabhi. the upper region was called Utkalinga, and the Is then the year 34, given in the plates, that other two were the middle and the southern of the Valabhi era, or is it of the local era of the Kalingas; the word Utkal is perhaps a shortened Guptas of Trikalinga? Again, we have two form of Utkalinga, and occurs in comparatively 'dates of different eras,-the one is called the
S It is distinctly stated that it was in the 31st year of the reign.-ED.