History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c24.19

v1.c24.19

Rājarāja I was succeeded by his son Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga, born of the Choḷa princess Rājasundarī. Many inscriptions of this king have been discovered. The date of his accession, the Śaka year 998=1078 A. D., has been verified from many different inscriptions. He enjoyed a very long reign of 72 years according to his own inscription, but those of the successors assign 70 years to him. The king is very well-known from three dated land-grants originally discovered in the Vizagapatam district and now preserved in the Central Government Museum at Madras. The earliest of them is dated Śaka 1003= Sunday, 4th April 1081 A.D. The date of the accession of the king is also given in this inscription : Śaka 999 expired, Saturday 17th February=1078 A. D. The grant was issued from the ancient Gaṅga capital of Kaliṅganagara. The inscription records the gift of the village of Chakivaḍa in the Samvā vishaya to the god Rājarāieśvara in the village of Reṅgujeḍā.¹ This inscription does not give any information of historical interest except that the king used the title of Tri-Kaliṅgādhipati. The second grant gives the complete genealogy of the Gaṅgas from the moon to Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga. The historical information supplied by this inscription is very important. According to it one of the ancestors of the king built the city of Kolāhalapura in the district or vishaya of Gaṅgavāḍi. It also records the migration of Kāmārṇava I from Gaṅgavāḍi or Mysore to Kaliṅga, his worship of the god Gokarṇeśvara on Mahendra-giri and the defeat of a king named Bālāditya, which resulted in the conquest of the Kaliṅga country. As regards Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga, it states that he "first replaced the fallen lord of Utkala in his kingdom in the Eastern region and then the waning lord of Veṅgi in the Western region and propped up their failing fortunes." The grant was issued in the Śaka year 1040=1118 A. D., in favour of a personal attendant named Mādhava. The name of the village granted was Tāmarakhaṇḍi of the Samvā vishaya. The last line of the inscription contains the information that the king Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga considered himself to be "decorated with the rank of entire sovereignty over the whole of Utkala." This grant was issued from a town called Sindurapora and not from Kaliṅganagara.² The third grant belongs to the Trustees of the temple of Saṅgam in the Vizagapatam district. It was issued in the Śaka year 1057=1135 A. D., from the ancient Gaṅga capital of Kaliṅganagara. The object of this inscription is to record the grant of the village of Sumudā with its hamlet in the Sammāga district in the Kalinga country to a person named Choḍagaṅga, son of one Permāḍirāja, who is called a trusted agent.¹ The date of the accession of Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga is given but the very interesting historical references to be found in the grant of the Śaka year 1040 are omitted.