Indian Epigraphy c15.t19.12

c15.t19.12

The records of the Bhañja kings of Dhṛtipura and Vañjulvaka, who apparently owed allegiance to the Bhauma-Karas, bear dates generally in the regnal years of particular kings. We know that king Raṇabhañja of this family flourished about the third quarter of the tenth century A.D.⁵ The successors of Raṇabhañja, viz. his sons, Neṭṭabhañja Kalyāṇakalasa I and Digbhañja, and Digbhañja’s son Śilābhañja II and grandson Vidyādharabhañja, had all very short reigns, so that a Brāhmaṇa named Bhaṭṭa Stambhadeva is known to have served all the four kings, while a goldsmith named Durgadeva not only served all of them but also Neṭṭabhañja Kalyāṇakalasa II, son of Vidyādharabhañja. Considering the fact that the active period of the lives of Stambhadeva and Durgadeva probably covered about half a century, the reign of Neṭṭabhañja Kalyāṇakalasa II may be assigned to the first quarter of the eleventh century A.D. Raṇabhañja flourished earlier than, or was an earlier contemporary of, the Somavaṁśī monarch Mahāśivagupta Yayāti I (c. 970-1000 A.D.) who conquered the Dhṛtipura region and pushed the former’s successors to the Vañjulvaka area.