History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c14.1

v1.c14.1

It is dawning upon us slowly that in the very dawn of Indian History the people of Kaliṅga were the pioneers of Indian colonisation in Further India and the Indian Archipelago. More than half-a-century ago Kern recognised that South Indian tribes took the most prominent part in the colonization of the Indian Archipelago and among the Simbiring tribe (which means the Black) there are five sub-divisions designated Choliya, Pandiya, Meliyala, Depari and Pelawi. In these five names he rightly recognised the South Indian names Choḷa, Pāṇḍya, Pahlava or Pallava and Malayali or Chera. The origin of the Depari is still a subject of conjecture. The Meliyala, according to Vogel, are the Malayalis of the Malabar Coast of South India. The same authority states that "it is curious that among the other tribes of the Karo-Bataka the 'Keliṅg' origin of the Simbiring is a recognised fact. This term Keliṅg or Kiliṅg by which immigrants from the Indian continent are generally designated among the inhabitants of the Archipelago is clearly derived from Kaliṅga, the ancient name of the Telegu country, situated on the East coast of India between the rivers Mahānadī and Godāvarī. I may note parenthetically that the use of this term indicates that the Telegu country too must have had a considerable share in the colonisation of the Far East."[1] Vogel is too cautious and, therefore, unjust to the claims of Kalinga. It is universally admitted that Keling or Kling is the term applied in the Malaya Peninsula and all parts of the Indian Archipelago to denote a man from India, irrespective of the province from which he comes. It proves directly that the earliest Indians with whom the Indonesians became familiar were people from Kalinga. The names of the five tribes of the Simbirings of Sumatra are due to the incorporation of Chola, Pandya, Pallava and Malayan people in them owing to the Indians' losing hold on the islands of the Archipelago. Originally the Simbirings must have been people of Austric origin who had imbibed Negrito blood and there came a further admixture of South-Indian or Dravidian blood when the Malayas drove the Indians of the coastland of Java, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines into the hinterland. The Kalingan origin of the earliest colonists from India does not depend merely on the term now applied to Indians in the Indian Archipelago, but also on definite archaeological and historical evidence. During the reign of the Chola king, Rajendradeva Parakesarivaman, one of the younger sons of the great Chola conqueror, Rajendra Chola I Gangaikondan, an expedition was sent to Ceylon some time before 17th August, 1055. This inscription is to be found in the Manimangalam or the Rajagopala-Perumal temple in the Tanjore district. It is recorded that this army captured the king Vira-Salamegha (Vira-Salamegan), who was beheaded. There was, therefore, a king of Ceylon belonging to a Kalingan dynasty, which country had itself lost its independence long before that date.