The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.69

v1.c6.69

These and like notices in the *Purāṇas* prepared the way for several independent works devoted exclusively to the *Tīrthas*, or sacred places of Orissa, and among them may be noticed the *Kapila Saṃhitā*, the *Ekāmra Purāṇa*, the *Puruṣottama Māhātmya*, the *Ekāmra Candrikā*, the *Tīrtha-cintāmaṇi*, and the *Puruṣottama Tattva*. The first is by far the oldest, and its name occurs in some of the *Purāṇas*. It opens with a request from Satyajit to give him an account of the different holy places of Utkala, and the gods, who dwell therein. Kapila, in reply, says, "Among continents, that of Bharata, and among countries that of Utkala, are the noblest, and nowhere on the face of the earth is there a country like unto it. Its holy places were, in a former age, described by the great sage Bharadvāja for the edification of the sages assembled near the sacred waters of Puṣkara, and I shall relate to you what I have heard of it". The work then describes successively the origin of the four sacred *Kṣetras* of Orissa, viz., 1, *Śaṅkha Kṣetra*, or Puri; 2, *Arka Kṣetra*, or Koṇārak; 3, *Virāja Kṣetra*, or Jājapur; 4, *Padma Kṣetra*, or Bhuvaneśvara. Later authorities add a fifth, the *Vināyaka Kṣetra*, or *Darpaṇa*; but it seems never to have risen to any importance, having nothing beyond an insignificant waterfall and a small temple dedicated to Gaṇeśa. The *Saṃhitā* evinces no marked sectarian tendency, and its praises of the four sacred places are, on the whole, very fairly distributed; though the fact of its placing Bhuvaneśvara, the oldest, at the end, would imply that its author at heart was a Vaiṣṇava of Orissa. Generally it has very little to say beyond the efficiency of the place as a remover of all kinds of moral taint, having been expressly designed for the purpose by the gods.⁴⁹ The principal river of the country, the Mahānadī, is said to be the Ganges herself in a new form, and a story is related of a sage, Sukānti by name, who induced that "celestial stream" to produce a second edition of herself, stretching from the Vindhya to the sea.