History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c19.33

v1.c19.33

In the majority of his charters Raṇabhañja I is styled “Lord of both the Khiñjalis.” Many of the villages or the districts in which such villages were situated were on the river Mahānadī. Mr. Hira Lal is inclined to identify Khiñjali with Keunjhar. There were two divisions of Khiñjali and he conjectures these two divisions to be Upper and Lower Keunjhar. The identification is very tempting, because Mr. Parmananda Acharya informed me when he was excavating at Paharpur in the Rajshahi district of Bengal with me during the winter of 1925-26 that the common people of Panchpir in the Mayurbhañja and Keonjhar States speak Kenjhari and not Kendajhari, which is phonetically very much near to Khiñjali. But modern Keonjhar is far away from the Mahānadī and, therefore, it is extremely doubtful whether Keonjhar should be identified with Khiñjali unless one is prepared to admit that Keonjhar at one time extended as far as the Ghumsur Taluga of the Ganjam district. The villages mentioned in the charters of Raṇabhañja I indicate that they were situated in the country on both banks of the upper reaches of the Mahānadi. There is no indication yet of the conquest of the Koṅgoda country or Southern Orissa in the reign of Raṇabhañja I. Only one capital, Dhṛtipura, is mentioned, which has not been identified as yet.