History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c16.8

v1.c16.8

The description of Kalinga is also exceedingly brief. The country was less than a thousand miles in circuit and contained long forests. This country also produced large dark elephants which were prized in the neighbouring countries. "The people were rude and headstrong in disposition, observant of good faith and fairness, fast and clear in speech; in their talk and manners, they differed somewhat from Mid-India." The last observation of the Chinese pilgrim is also particularly correct, because from the south of Ganjam people signify assent by a rolling movement of the head which signifies negation in Northern India. The exact boundaries of Kalinga are not given and the great rivers Godāvarī and Kṛṣṇa are not mentioned. It is quite possible that the Godāvarī was the southern limit of the province. It should be noted in this connection that the great rivers Godāvarī and Kṛṣṇa are altogether omitted in Yuan Chwang's account of Andhra also. There were very few Buddhists in the country. There were not more than ten Buddhist monasteries and five hundred monks who belonged to the Sthavira-vāda school of Mahāyāna. But there were more than one hundred Hindu temples, and adherents of different sects were numerous. In the case of Kaliṅga, Yuan Chwang does not mention the Nirgranthas or Jainas. The capital of the country was of the same size as the capitals of Oḍra and Koṅgoda, i. e., twenty li or three-and-half a mile in circumference. Older writers like Cunningham, wanted to identify the capital of Kaliṅga with modern Rājamahendri but Fergusson was correct in placing it near modern Kaliṅgapatam. The inscriptions of the early Eastern Gaṅgas prove that the Kaliṅganagara of their inscriptions was situated in the vicinity of Mukhaliṅgam and Śrī-Kurmam.