History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c11.18

v1.c11.18

Kalinga is not mentioned among the 16 great nations enumerated in early Pali Text-books, such as the Aṅguttara Nikāya; but a verse preserved in the Dīgha Nikāya mentions that Dantapura was the capital of the Kalingas and this has been reproduced in the Mahāvastu in a very incorrect form.⁴ This tradition proves "that at the time when the four Nikāyas were put into their present forms, it was believed that before the Buddha's life-time the distribution of power in Northern India, had been different from what it afterwards became." Dantapura the capital of Kalinga has been mentioned several times in the Jātakas, which shows that the town or the city was very old. It is very tempting to identify this Dantapura with the Dantakura mentioned in the Mahābhārata, where the Pāṇḍava Sahadeva and Kṛishṇa Vāsudeva defeated the army of Kalinga. It was from this Dantapura that the Tooth of Buddha was taken away to Ceylon.