History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c19.48.1

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.