History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c19.48.3

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.