History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c17.9

v1.c17.9

From these three inscriptions we learn that one Unmaṭṭasiṃha was regarded as the remote ancestor of this line of kings. The Ganjam plates mention a king named Maṅgapāda after him. The Dhenkanal plates mention Gayāḍa and others instead of Maṅgapāda. Evidently, Prof. Kielhorn could not read the name Gayāḍa correctly.¹ In the family of Gayāḍa was born Lolabhāra or Loṇabhāra. His sons Kusumabhāra and Lalitabhāra succeeded him. Lalitabhāra’s son was Śāntikara according to the inscription of Daṇḍi Mahādevī. We learn from the Dhenkanal plates of Tribhuvana Mahādevī that she was the wife of Lalitabhāra, who is styled the Moon of the Kumuda flowers of the Kara family, mahārājādhirāja and Parameśvara. Tribhuvana mahādevī was the daughter of a southern chief named Rājamalla, who upheld the fortunes of the Kara family at the time of a great misfortune. At that time, requested by the Gosvāminī Purayidevī and the assembly of great feudatories (mahāsāmanta-chakra), Tribhuvana Mahādevī ascended the throne. We do not know whether Śāntikara was her son or not. The three grants of Daṇḍi Mahādevī carry the genealogy of the second group of Kara kings three generations further. Śāntikara, the son of Lalitabhāra, was succeeded by his son Śubhakara II and he by one of his queens who is not named. Later on Daṇḍi Mahādevī, the daughter of Śubhakara II ascended the throne. The date of the Kumuraṅga plates of Daṇḍi Mahādevī, the year 187 of an unknown era is the latest known date of this dynasty. If applied to the little known Gaṅga era it would give 965 A.D., as the latest known date for Daṇḍi Mahādevī.