Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 76

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
APRIL, 1
which ended with the capture of Ganjam in 1571 and Chicacole in 1641.62 Thus the Oriya speaking districts of Ganjam, Vizagapatam and the three Khimidis came to be includ. ed in the Qutb Shabi kingdom of Golkonda and passed on to the Mughal saba of Golkonda or Khujista-bunyad Haidarabad in 1687. The ill-fated Nizim of the Deccan granted them to the great French General Bussy. In 1765 the hapless Shah Alam II was persuaded by Clive to include the transfer of the Northern Sarkars from the French to the British East India Company, though they were actually in the possession of the latter from 1761. On account of this freak of fortune these Oriya-speaking districts still form a part of the British Presidency of Madras.
Pratáparudra survived the death of his royal son-in-law by nearly ten years. No other incident of his reign is known to us. But before taking leave of his reign we should examine certain references to it in the histories of other provinces. The Rayavachakamu mentions another Musalman general employed by Prataparudra in his campaigns against Krishna. devaraya. This chief is mentioned as Chitâ prâ or Chitaph Khan by Prof. S. K. Aiyangar of the Madras University, who has sought to prove him a Hindu in spite of Haig's recognition of the man as a Musalman.63 Chitaph Khân seems to be the Telugu equivalent of Shitab Khan. He is apparently mentioned as a free-lance, as he restored Varangal to the Hindus.64 There remains only one other incident of this reign. Naraga Nayaka is said to have defeated the king of Orissa in certain Vijayanagara inscriptions. We have seen before that Purushottama could not have come into contact with Saļuva Narasimha or Narasa Nayaka before the reconquest of Kondavidu by him. After 1488-89 it was possible for Narasa to have met either Purushottama or Prat&parudra in the southern part of Telingana. The Unmanjeri plates of Achyûtaraya of the Saka year 1462= 1540 A.D.68 and the British Museum plates of Sadasiveraya of the Saka year 1478=1550 A.D.67 mention the war between Narasa and the Gajapati king in such a manner as to indicate that the victory obtained was practically of no importance. It is absolutely certain that up to the last day of his life Narasa was very busy in consolidating his own position, as Immadi Narasimha was alive. The statement of Nunez makes it probable that by the time of his death in 1502 Narasa had recovered the northern Tamil and the southern Telugu districts as far as Udayagiri in the Nellore district, because his dying injunction to his son was to recover Udayagiri at all costs. It is, therefore, also probable that after Purushottama's death, and before the capture of Udayagiri in 1513, Pratâparudra had lost the territories lying to the south of Udayagiri.
The date of the death of Pratáparudra is not certain. We only know that the usurper, Govinda Vidyadhara, was on the throne in 1543, and that was his fourth anka. The Süryavaṁst dynasty had, therefore, come to an end before 1541. The Madala Pañji states that two sons of Prataparudra, named Kalud and Kakh&pua, had succeeded their father and ruled for a few months. But it is very dangerous to rely on the Madald Pañji without independent corroboration. Inscription No. 5 on the right side of the Jagamohana of the temple of Jagannatha at Puri proves that Govinda Vidyadhara was on the throne in 1541-42. With him began the decline of the political power of Orissa and the very existence of that country as an independent state was over within 27 years. From this date began the creation of feudatory states and old zamindaris of Orissa (Garhjat and Qila' jAt), many of which exist even now and claim to be descended from dynasties older than the Süryavansi dynasty, Rajput or otherwise.
83 Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, vol. I, p. 215. 63 T. W. Haig, Historic Landmarks of the Deccan, pp. 85-8. 64 Rources of Vijayanagara History, p. 165. 66 Bpi. Ind., vol. III, p. 152.
65 See ante, p. 30. 67 Ibid., vol. IV, p. 12.