History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c17.1

v1.c17.1

The kings of the Kara dynasty of Orissa were absolutely unknown to the people of India twenty years ago. During this period the labours of a number of epigraphists and the French Sinologist, M. Sylvain Levi, has enabled us to reconstruct the history and chronology of this dynasty of kings. The date of the dynasty was fixed by M. Levi's fortunate discovery of the reference to an embassy from Orissa to the Chinese Emperor Te-tsong towards the end of the 8th century : "in 795 A.D., that is, the 11th year of the period Cheng-yuan." The king who sent this embassy was called Śubhakara. It was the good fortune of the writer to come across the first inscription of king Śubhakara fourteen years ago. In this inscription, the Neulpur plate, three generations of kings of the Kara dynasty are mentioned, viz., (1) Kshemaṅkaradeva, (2) Śivakaradeva and (3) Śubhakara-deva. Since then the history of the dynasty has been much better illuminated by the fortunate discovery of two other grants, (1) the Kumuraṅga plate of Daṇḍi Mahādevī and (2) the Chaurāsī plate of Śivakaradeva. These two newly discovered inscriptions now enable us to link together the informations supplied by the two plates of Daṇḍi Mahādevī, at one time preserved in the office of the Collector of Ganjam, and the grant of Tribhuvana Mahādevī from Dhenkanal edited by Mahāmahopādhyāya Dr. Hara Prasād Śāstrī, C.I.E. These inscriptions show that there were two groups of dynasties of Kara kings ruling at different dates. The first group or dynasty is known from two inscriptions only: (1) the Neulpur plate of Śubhakara and (2) the Chaurāśī plate of Śivakara II. The remaining inscriptions of this dynasty are later in date and belong to the period of the second group.