The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.80

v1.c6.80

For the civil history of Orissa our best guide is the *Mādlā Pāñji*, or the annals of the temple of Jagannātha. It begins with an enumeration of the kings of the Satya Yuga, or the age of purity, and brings down the record day by day and year by year to the present time, noticing every remarkable occurrence that has taken place in the province in connection with the history of the idol, and of its chief adorers, the sovereigns of Khurdā. Such a record for such a length of time, if authentic and reliable, would be of the utmost importance; but unfortunately there is nothing to show that the annals were really taken in hand at any very extraordinarily early period, or regularly kept up from the time when it was first undertaken. Judging from the language (Uriyā) in which it is written, and its general character, we believe, it was first commenced about six centuries ago. That it has ever since been regularly written up is questionable; the political vicissitudes of Khurdā during the last five hundred years tend to show that there must have been many and very long breaks. We are also loth to vouch for the strict accuracy of the large benefactions of the former Rājās of Orissa, and of their martial successes over sea and land as recorded in it. On the whole, however, it is a valuable document, and contains a pretty fair account of the later *Rājās* of Orissa. The Pāñjiās, or almanac-makers of the province, have also their chronicles of extraordinary events, and a few *Vaṁśāvalis* in Sanskrit, giving the genealogies of royal dynasties; but as these have already been analysed by Stirling in his *Essays on the History of Orissa*,⁵⁸ and by Bhavānīcaraṇa Bandyopādhyāya in his history of Puri, we need only refer to them here.