History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c11.26

v1.c11.26

A large mass of new material about the location of Dantapura and its identification with the Ancient Kaliṅganagara has been collected by Mr. Bhavaraju V. Krishnarao B. A., Ll. B, of Rajamahendri. According to Mr. Krishnarao the name, Jantavuram, the capital of Kāmārṇava I, is really Dantavuram and the late Dr. Fleet committed a mistake in reading it as such. The proposed identification of this Jantavuram with Jayantipuram, which is mentioned in the Kṣetra-māhātmyam, is clearly a mistake. Mr. Krishnarao says that he had examined the Vizagapatam and the Korni plates, in which the letters da of Dantapuram are quite clear. If Mr. Krishnarao is correct, then all doubt vanishes about the identification of this Dantavuram with Dantapura, the ancient capital of Kalinga mentioned in Buddhist literature as the place from which the Tooth relic was carried away to Ceylon. In addition to the charters of the Gaṅga kings of Kalinga, the name Dantapuram is also to be found in the Madhukeśvara temple at Mukhaliṅgam. Kāmāraṇava II had built a new city named Nagara and changed his residence to that place. This Nagara is said to have been built on the banks of the river Vaṃśadhārā. According to a local tradition of Mukhaliṅgam, a king of Dantavuram, who was a Śaiva, bitterly hated the Buddhists who were living in a large monastery in his capital. Acting according to the advice of his ministers, he invited all Buddhists to a great feast in his palace and as each guest arrived he was captured and quietly dispatched. In a short time the news of this treachery spread like wild fire and all Buddhists cursed the city and fled for their lives. Afraid of this curse, the king left his capital and founded a new city on the bank of the river Vaṃśadhārā. Since then Dantavuram or Dantapura has been deserted. According to Mr. Krishnarao, the ruins of an old city near Amudalavalasa and Chicacole Road station of the B. N. R. is still called Dantapuram, but the origin of the name is now traced to Dantavaktra, the brother of Śiśupāla, the king of the Chedis. Mr. Krishnarao identifies this Dantapura with Dandaguḍā or Dandagula of Pliny which was situated at a distance of 625 Roman or 524 English miles from the mouth of the Ganges. Cunningham also suggested this identification but placed it on the Godāvarī as it was said that Calingon stood at the mouth of a great river. Mr. Krishnarao identifies Calingon with Kaliṅgapatanam and Dandagula with Dantapura. The river Vaṁśadhārā is taken by him to be the great river mentioned by Pliny. According to Mr. Krishnarao the very name Dantapura is also to be found in the inscriptions in the temple of Madhukeśvara.¹ It has been already suggested before that either the Lāṅguliyā or the Vaṁśadhārā must have been larger and tidal rivers at one time so as to act as provincial boundaries. In fact, one of these two rivers was the Southern boundary of Koṅgoda or Central Orissa and therefore the Northern boundary of Kaliṅga. These two rivers are mentioned almost side by side in the Matsya and the Vāyu Purāṇas. They are mentioned among rivers rising out of the Mahendra mountains. The verses occur almost in an identical form in these two Purāṇas "Tribhāgā, Rushikulyā, Ikshudā, Tridivā, Laṅgulinī and Vaṁśadhārā are daughters of the Mahendra."² The Matsya adds Tāmraparṇī, Mūlī, Sarava