The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.24

v1.c6.24

The prevalence of the *Oḍ* race in Khurdā, and the prominent position which that district occupies in the history of Orissa, suggest the idea of its having been at one time the capital of the *Oḍ* dominion. But how far that dominion extended, it is impossible now satisfactorily to determine. According to Sterling, "the original seat of the Or or Oḍra tribe was limited by the Ṛsikulyā river on the south, and the Kansbans on the north"; that is the delta of the Mahānadī with a small area round about it. I cannot ascertain the authority on which he was given this boundary; but there is no reason to doubt that it is the most probable conjecture. This limit, however, was soon exceeded, and the dominion of the Oḍra Rājās in its palmiest days extended very largely, both towards the north and the south, and to some extent also towards the west, though not so extensively. Traces are not wanting to shew that during the ascendancy of the Gaṅgāvaṁśa princes, their kingdom embraced Gour on the one side, and the whole, or at least a part, of Karṇāṭa on the other; though the epithets "lord of nine millions" and "sovereign of Gour and Karṇāṭa" which their descendants invariably assumed were, of course, empty titles, very much like "the king of France" in the coins and medals of George the Second and some of his predecessors,¹⁸ emblematic of some success in war, or temporary possession, but expressive of no permanent sovereignty. Certain it is, however, that for a long time "their dominion extended from a line drawn from Triveṇī Ghāt above Hugli, through Bishenpur to the frontier of Patkum on the north, and to the Godavari on the south ; and from the Hugli river and the sea on the coast to a line carried from Singbhum to Sonepur, skirting Gangpur, Sambhalpur and its dependencies, through Bastar to Jayapur and the Godavari”.¹⁹ According to the *Āin i Ākbari*, Orissa, two centuries ago, comprised the five “sircars” or district of Jelasir, Bhadrack, Cuttack, Kallendrapat and Rajmahindri.²⁰