History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c22.29.3

v1.c22.29.3

The charter records the grant of the village of Chāndagrāma in the Maraḍa district (vishaya) of Southern Tosala to a Brāhmaṇa named Śaṅkhapāṇi of the Bhāradvāja gotra of the Kauthuma branch of the Sāmaveda, who was an inhabitant of Śīlabhañja-pāṭi in the Oḍra country and who was an emigrant from Śrīvallagrāma in the Middle Country. The order was issued in the ninth year of the reign of the king on the thirteenth day of the bright half of Jyaiṣṭha. The king's name is given towards the end of the inscription as Yayāti. The record was composed by the Sāndhivigraha Chhichchhaṭeśa.¹ The most important point established by this inscription is the fact that in the ninth year of his reign Mahāśivagupta-Yayāti had obtained possession of a portion, at any rate, of the flat plains of Orissa. Tosali or Toshala was divided into two parts, the Northern Toshala around Bhuvaneśvara and Purī, and the Southern Toshala to the south of the Chilka Lake. Toshala is mentioned for the first time in the Dhauli separate edict of Asoka.² Vinītapura has been identified with Binka on the river Mahānadī in the Sonpur State. Far more interesting than Toshala is the name Śīlabhañj-pāṭi in the Oḍra country of which the donee was a resident. It provides a landmark in the chronology of Orissa and fixes the sequence of the kings of the Bhañja and Somavaṁśī dynasties. Śīlabhañja-pāṭi must be a village founded by one of the two Śīlabhañjas of the Bhañja dynasty.