Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 78

66
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[APRIL, 1923
SAMAPA: OR THE ASOKAN KALINGA
By G. RAMADAS, B.A.
IN the Kalinga edicts of Asoka, containing instructions to the officers entrusted with the control of the tribes on the borders, it is stated that these officers were located at a place called Samâpa, and the Provincials' Edict says that a viceroy was placed at Tosali. Thus the two chief towns of Kalinga are mentioned, but their location being undefined, they have not yet been identified, and the limits of Kalinga have become a matter for speculation.
The first of the speculators was W. W. Hunter, who in the Imperial Gazelleer of India, 1886, identified Coringa or Rajahmandry, in the Godavari district, with the old capital of Kalinga, thus taking the southern boundary of Kalinga beyond the Godavari. Vincent A. Smith asserts that Kalinga extended from the Mahânadi to the river Krishna in the south. He includes Amaravati, Andhra or Warangal, and Kalinga proper or Rajahmandry in the three Kalingas. The same view is held by the Superintendent of the Madras Archæological, Department, who, to prove the antiquity of the caves and stupae at Guntapalle, states, " know from the rock-cut inscription at Jangada in the Ganjam district that Asoka conquered this part of the Madras Presidency in B.C. 230.2"
Let us examine all these statements. Hunter's assumption has been disproved by F. E. Pargiter, who says that Kling. does not appear to have reached as far as the Godavari, because this river is never connected with Kalinga in any passage as far I am aware'.3 Hunter was led to his belief by the similarity of Coringa in sound to Kalinga, but a careful study of place-names shows that Coringa is made up of Cor + inga. The first syllable has the same meaning-whatever it may be-as 'cor' in Cor-lam, Cor-la-kota, Cor-la. It cannot be a modification of Kal' in Kalinga Next, Rajahmandry has beeu believed to be the capital of Kalinga, because it was thought to be another form of the Rajapura mentioned as the capital of Kalinga :
C
कलिङ्गविषये राजन् राज्ञचित्राङ्गदस्य च । श्रीमद्राजपुरं नाम नगरं तत्र भारत || 4
But Rajapura cannot be the name of the capital, as the term means only the royal residence. Even supposing it to have been the metropolis itself, it cannot be identified with Rajahmandry, as the latter town is reputed to have been built by Rajaraja, the Eastern Chalukyan king who had the Mahabharata translated into Telugu. And lastly, had three Kalingas existed in the time of Aśoka, why does he speak of having conquered only Kalinga? Had the region inhabited by the Andhras been included in Kalinga, they would not have been separately stated by him to be a people in the king's dominions 2.5 Also, since the Andhras, like the Pitinikas and others, are mentioned by Aśoka as living in the king's dominions, i.e., in the dominions that had been under the sway of the Mauryan Ruler before Kalinga was subdued, it would seem that they had never got into Kalinga before that time.
The Andhra inscriptions, so far known, fix Pittapur as the Northern limit of Andhra influence on the East Coast. The inscription at Kodavalu near Pittapur, the only Andhra inscription yet discovered in this part of the country, tells us that Sami Sri Chanda Sata (Chandra Śrî Sâtâkarni) was the king of the Andhras about a.r. 208. These Andhras, originally inhabitants of the Vindhyas, marched down the Godavari valley and occupied
1 V. A. Smith's Asoka, p. 129, n. 4.
3 JASB., vol. LXVI, part I, No. 2, 1587.
5
Edict XIII.
3 Archaeological Report, 1916-17, p. 31.
▲ Mahabharata, Santi P., Canto 4.
U
No. 29, Puranic list of V. A. Smith.