History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c19.48

Language: English

v1.c19.48.1

The next group of Bhañja kings ruled over the territory now occupied by the Bhañja Chiefs of Mayurabhañja and Keonjhar. It is not possible in the present state of our knowledge to connect them with any of the kings of the dynasty founded by Śīlabhañja I. Their genealogy begins with a king called Koṭṭabhañja, whose son was Digbhañja II, and his son, Raṇabhañja, is the first known king of this group of the Bhañja dynasty. Many different scholars have tried to identify this dynasty with that founded by Śīlabhañja by assuming that both Raṇabhañjas were one and the same person. They assume that Koṭṭabhañja was the same as Śīlabhañja I and Digbhañja the same as Śatrubhañja, but the difference in the forms of the characters and the radical difference in the names of the fathers and the grandfathers prove definitely that the Raṇabhañja of these two groups must be different persons. The genealogy proposed by Mr. Hira Lal, therefore, cannot be accepted as correct.¹ The second group of Bhañja kings is known from three inscriptions only, all of them grants of land. Two of them were discovered at Bamanghāti in the Mayurbhañja State and the third at Khaṇḍadeuli in the Daspalla State. Unlike all other Bhañja grants the plates of Raṇabhañja II and his son, Rājabhañja, are single plates. The only connecting link between the first and the second group of Bhañja kings is to be found in the legend of the birth of the ancestor of the dynasty from an egg.

v1.c19.48.2

The phrase *Aṇḍaja-vaṃśa-prabhava* to be found in the charters of Śatrubhañja I and Raṇabhañja I is omitted in those of Neṭribhañja II, Vidyādharabhañja and Neṭribhañja III. The same legend is given in a more elaborate form in the inscriptions of the second group. The Bamanghāti plates of the second group of kings mention that the Gaṇadaṇḍa Virabhadra was born in Koṭṭāśrama from the egg of a pea-hen and was nursed by the renowned sage Vasiṣṭha. In his family was born Koṭṭabhañja and his son was Digbhañja II. From him was born Raṇabhañja II, who was a constant resident of Khijjiṅga-koṭṭa. This is the first time that Khijjiṅga is mentioned in Bhañja history. The charter is dated in the year 288 of some unknown era and records the grant of four villages named Timaṇḍira, Nankolaḍā, Jamvupadraka and Pāsanna in the district of Uttarakhaṇḍa, which included the districts of Koraṇḍiyā and Devakuṇḍa, to a son of the Mahāsamanta Maṇḍi.¹ The Koṭṭa or fort of Khijjiṅga is certainly modern Khiching, about ninety miles from Bāripada, the present capital of the State. Jambupadraka has been identified with Jamda, eight miles west of Bamanghāti, Timaṇḍira, with Tendra, south-west of Bamanghāti, Koraṇḍiyā with Korinjiya, five miles from Khiching and Devakuṇḍa still exists under the same name about seventy-five miles west of Bāripada and eight miles of Bamanghāti in the Mayurbhañja State.

v1.c19.48.3

Even the mythical Koṭṭāśrama-Tapovana has been identified with Kuting, thirty-two miles from Bāripada.² The second group of Bhañja kings are remarkable for the special form of the draft of their land-grants. Three grants of this group of kings are known and in these they use a different verb altogether. These charters are the Bamanghāti and Khaṇḍadeuli plates of Raṇabhañja II and the Bamanghāti plate of his son Rājabhañja. In all of these plates we find that the term Kuśalī or Kuśalinaḥ, used as an adjective of the king in the prose portion immediately after his proper name, is omitted. Instead of the usual verbs, Manayati, Bodhayati and Samādiśayati, these three plates use the phrase S-ānunaya prāhaḥ. The names of the Sandhi-vigrahika or Dūtaka, and the mason are omitted in the first of these two plates. The want of any title in the case of Raṇabhañja II and his son Rājabhañja prove that they were minor chiefs and not kings though the term king is applied to them in the metrical portion. The absence of any title, regal, imperial or subordinate at a time when even petty kings had assumed the imperial titles of the Gupta period, Parameśvara-Paramabhaṭṭāraka-Mahārājādhirāja, is extremely significant. It proves that the second group of Bhañja kings were subordinates to some higher power. According to Mr. B. C.

v1.c19.48.4

Mazumdar, the year 288 of the Bamanghāti plate of Raṇabhañja II is a date in the little known Gaṅga era and is equivalent to 1066 A.D., which, if correct, would make the second group of Bhañja kings slightly earlier than the Eastern Gaṅga kings Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga. Raṇabhañja II was most probably succeeded by his son, Rājabhañja. We know this Chief from one charter only. In this record Koṭṭabhañja is made the father of Raṇabhañja II and the name of Digbhañja is omitted altogether. The legend of the ancestor of the dynasty having been born out of the egg of a pea-hen and nursed by the sage Vaśiṣṭha is mentioned as well as the fact that the king always resided in the fort of Khijjiṅga. The charter records the grant of the village of Brahmaṇa-vasti in the district of the same name included in Khichiṅga to Subrahma, son of the Sāmanta Muṇḍi. This Muṇḍi is probably the same as the Mahāsāmanta Maṇḍi, the donee of the Bamanghāti plate of Raṇabhañja II of the year 288. There is no date in the Bamanghāti plate of Rājabhañja.¹ The village of Brāhmaṇa-vastī has been identified with Brāhmaṇavas, six miles from Bamanghāṭī and the district of the same name with the present sub-division of Bamanghāṭī in the Mayurbhañja State.¹ In these two plates the peculiar title Gaṇa-daṇḍa applied to Virabhadra, the ancestor of the dynasty, is taken by Mr. Hira Lal to be the same as Gandhaṭa, the ancestor of Raṇabhañja I.

v1.c19.48.5

This is hardly possible, as the mention of Gandhaṭa-pāṭī as the name of a village in three grants proves that the name Gandhaṭa is quite different from the term Gaṇa-daṇḍa.² This term Gaṇa-daṇḍa has been correctly translated as “the office of a Hindu Republic,” and it would appear that the ancestor of Raṇabhañja II was an officer with such a designation.