History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c12.3

v1.c12.3

There is, therefore, definite evidence in the Hathigumpha inscription to prove that one of the Nanda kings had conquered Kalinga and brought that Dravidian Empire under its sway. It would be more natural to suppose that a great conqueror, Mahāpadma Nanda, to whom the Purāṇas ascribe the subversion of all Kshatriya kingdoms, put an end to the Kshatriya monarchy in Orissa also. The second mention of Nandarāja in the Hathigumpha inscription as having brought away the image of a Jina from Kalinga is extremely interesting from the point of view of the ancient culture of Orissa. Orissa had been a Jaina stronghold from the very beginning. The Jaina Harivaṃśa-Purāṇa says that Mahāvīra Vardhamāna had preached his religion in Kalinga. Another Jaina work, the Haribhadrīya-vṛtti, says that Mahāvīra Vardhamāna went to Kalinga as the king of that country was a friend of his father. The difficulty lies in the identification of this Kalinga-Jina, because Jaina tradition does not assign any of the 24 Tīrthaṅkaras of the present age or Kalpa to Kalinga. Mr. Jayaswal and I have suggested that this Kalinga-Jina should be taken to refer to the tenth Tīrthaṅkara, Śitalanātha, who was born at Bhadalpur,¹ which is probably the same as Bhadrāchalam or Bhadrapuram in the Kalinga country. This Bhadrāchalam is at present in the Godāvarī district of the Madras Presidency.