Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 176

164
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
Chwang's visit than Chândâ or Wairagarh, giving in a footnote my reasons for that suggestion. The matter rested there, until 1928, when that footnote attracted the attention of my esteem. ed friend, Mr. C. E. A. W. Oldham, C.S.I., who asked me whether, with my fuller local know ledge of the country after the lapse of a score of years, I still stuck to that opinion, pointing out at the same time certain difficulties which the description given by the Chinese pilgrima raised. I admit that I have found it very difficult to reconcile these, but I have endeavoured to reconsider the question and put on record what my acquaintance with the country sug gested a country which I have travelled through from the source of the Narmadá down to the Godavari and from the Bâmrâ state of Orissa to Berår.
[ SEPTEMBER, 1933
In the first place, General Cunningham fixed Rajamahendri as the capital of Kalinga, but later investigations show that it was at Mukhalingam on the left bank of the Vamsadhara, 18 miles from Parlakimidi in the Ganjam District. 12 In that case three other reputed capi. tals of South Kosala would at any rate require consideration before they can be summarily rejected, as Mukhalingam would place them within the distances and bearings recorded by the Chinese traveller. These are Sirpur (old Sripura) in the Raipur district and Tummâna and Ratanpur in the Bilaspur District. All these lie to the north-west of Mukhalingam, but from Rajamahendri they would lie slightly east of north.
The distances are as follows:
Sirpur Ratanpur
Tummâna
From Rajamahendri.
370 miles.
434
450
It may be noted at once that Tummâna and Ratanpur did not become capitals until the ninth century A.D. or still later. The first was founded by a descendant of Kalingaraja, a younger son of a descendant of Kokalla I of Tripuri, who flourished about 875 A.D. and the second came into existence when Ratnadeva, a later descendant of Kalingaraja, transferred his residence to Ratanpur, which he named after himself. So, what remains to bo considered is the claim of Sirpur as the seat of the Somavamsi kings and their predecessors. In the beginning of the seventh century A.D., a line of Rishitulyakula kings ruled there. The Arang plates 13 of Bhimasena II give his genealogy for six generations. These were issued in Gupta Samvat 282, or 601 A.D. This at any rate establishes the fact that Sirpur enjoyed the honour of being a capital in the fifth century A.D., when the 5th ascendant of Bhimasena II must have been on the throne. It was just 38 years after the Arang record that the Chinese pilgrim visited the capital of South Kosala. In view of the fact that Sirpur even now possesses two images of the Buddha inscribed with the creed of his religion and numerous remains of Vaisnava and Saiva temples, it presents itself as a strong rival to Bhandak, whose Buddhistic cave, carved out of the rock in the Wijâsan hillock, had ranged me in its favour, taking into consideration also the fact that an inscription was found in that cave mentioning a line of Ksatriya kings, though belonging to a later date. The Rishitulyakula of Sirpur was deva guru-brahmana bhaktaḥ, and as such out and out Hindu. It does not appear probable that it had changed its religion within the short interval of 38 years, unless it was superseded by another dynasty, which apparently, could not be other than the Somavamsî one of the Pându lineage, which played a conspicuous part in the history of Dakṣina Kosala before the advent of the Haihavas. Several inscriptions of kings of that dynasty have been found,
From Mukhalingam. 221 miles. 284
300
12 Madras Provincial Gazetteer, vol. I, p. 228. For a collection of various views on the subject see an article on Kalinga in the Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, vol. II, pp. 196 ff. Rajamahendri is said to have been founded by Rajaraja Narendra (1022-1063 A.D. of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty and called after his surname, Rajamahendra (op. cit., vol. III, p. 144.)
13 E.I., vol. IX, pp. 342 ff.