History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c19.22.2

v1.c19.22.2

Raṇabhañja I was a Rāṇaka in the 9th year of his reign when the Singhara plates were issued. This charter contains the names of Śīlabhañja and Śatrubhañja as the ancestors of the donor, who is called the master of both the Khiñjalis, who had obtained the five great sounds and whose feet were worshipped by the great feudatories (Mahāsāmantas). It was issued from the city of Dhṛitipura and it mentions the dynasty as being founded by a person produced out of an egg. It records the grant of the village of Singhara-Mahallopi in the Dakṣiṇa-palli Bhogi-Khaṇḍa of the Khiñjali Maṇḍala, situated on the banks of the river Vyāghra to a Brāhmaṇa named Vihe of the Kāśyapa gotra, of the Yajur-veda, an inhabitant of Gandhaṭapāṭi who had emigrated from the village of Bhadrapalāśi in the country of Magadha (Magaha) in the 9th year of the king’s reign. The inscription was incised by the goldsmith and merchant, Padmanābha, son of Pāṇḍi. In this inscription Raṇabhañja I is called the devout worshipper of the goddess Stambheśvarī and of Śiva.¹ The next known inscription is the Ṭasapāikerā grant. In this inscription the only ancestor of Raṇabhañja I mentioned is Śatrubhañja. In this record also we find the king mentioned as the lord of both the Khiñjalis, Rāṇaka, a devout worshipper of Viṣṇu, born of the family produced from an egg and one who has obtained the five great sounds as well as the favour of the goddess Stambheśvarī.