History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c16.4

v1.c16.4

The next division of the country was Kon-yu-t’o or Kung-gu-t’o, which is certainly the Koṅgoda or the Kuṅgada of the inscriptions. Yuan Chwang states that Koṅgoda was more than 200 miles from Wu-ch’a or Oṭa, i.e., Oḍra or Northern Orissa. This takes us to the region to the south of the Chilkā lake and not to the country around that lake, as Fergusson and Cunningham supposed in the last century. The Koṅgoda country begins to the south of the Chilkā lake near Chhatrapur. The capital of the country was above three miles in circuit. The country was hilly, bordering on the sea, and its people were tall and valorous. They were of a black complexion, and, though their written language was the same as that of India, their manner of speaking it was quite different. This is perfectly true, because in the Ganjam and Vizagapatam districts the influx of Telugu is of recent origin. The Ganjam plates of the time of Śaśāṅka of G. E. 300-619 A. D., show that the script of the Koṅgoda maṇḍala was of the Northern variety.² The inscriptions of the Śailodbhava dynasty prove the correctness of Yuan Chwang’s remarks. Another remark about Koṅgoda is also particularly correct. “As the town were naturally strong there was a gallant army which kept the neighbouring countries in awe and so there was no powerful enemy.” In the first half of the 7th century A. D., Śaśāṅka king of Gauḍa and his subordinate Sainyabhīta-Mādhavavarman of Koṅgoda had successfully defended the country against the aggression of Harshavardhana Śīlāditya of Thanesar, so that even in 643 A. D., the great Harsha was compelled to invade that country once more. Regarding the condition of religions Yuan Chwang states that Buddhism was not strong. There were more than one hundred Hindu temples while the Jains numbered more than ten thousand. Yuan Chwang’s silence about the government of the country proves that the country was still hostile to his patron, king Harshavardhana. Watters is wrong in supposing that it was included in the empire of Harsha. Yuan Chwang states that the circumference of Koṅgoda was slightly over 150 miles. This is also perfectly true. From later inscriptions it has been proved that Koṅgoda was a *maṇḍala* in the country of Tosalī. The country is described as very hilly and as containing a number of towns which stretched from the slopes of the hill to the edge of the sea. The Chinese pilgrim also refers to the trading activities of the people of Koṅgoda and states that the currency was *Kowri* shells and pearls. At that time the country produced very large black elephants similar to those to be found even now in the northern slopes of the Eastern Ghaṭs.