The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.38

v2.c17.38

Thus, the history of the city may be traced to the sixth century B.C., and its name may very reasonably be concluded to have been Kaliṅga-nagarī. We have then Bhuvanes'vara under the name of Kaliṅga-nagarī, the capital of Orissa from the 6th century B.C. to the time of Yayāti Kes'arī, in the middle of the fifth century A.C. Assuming that Yayāti was an adventurer from the north, probably a lieutenant of the Gupta Rājās of Magadha, he must have come down from Behar to Orissa, and the first important place where he could establish his capital was Jājapur, which is believed by some to have derived its name from him. Proceeding thence to the south, he gradually subverted the supremacy of the Buddhists, and, at the close of his reign, got possession of Bhuvanes'vara where he made preparations for establishing the large tower, but died before accomplishing it. His successor, knowing the importance of the place in the estimation of the people, naturally wished to make it their capital, and so it again became the capital of Orissa a generation or two afterwards—certainly in the time of Lalāṭendra Keśarī in the 7th century A.C. when the temple of Bhuvaneśvara was completed; and in honour of the Lord of the Universe its name was changed to Bhuvaneśvara, in the same way as Puri is called Jagannāth, and Benares Tripurāri-rājanagari. It finally lost its proud position of a metropolitan city and all political importance in 940 A.D., when Nripati Keśari founded Cuttack, as his capital. As an inland town without any water-communication with the rest of the province, and having no manufactory of importance of its own, the loss of its political importance was synonymous with its desertion and ruin. Elsewhere the halo of religion is able to avert such a catastrophe, for a time at least; but in the case of Bhuvaneśvara even this protection was wanting, for the Śāstras having enjoined that all Śivite temples must cease to be sacred the moment they are desecrated and that a temple where service has once ceased should not be again consecrated, temple after temple repidly lost its sanctity from desuetude of worship, and with the loss of worship, the sanctuary itself fell into decay and under the all-destroying influence of an Indian climate and the roots of the destructive fig tree soon became shapeless ruins.