History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c24.4

v1.c24.4

Another grant was issued by the same king in the Śaka year 976-1054 A. D., in which he is called Anantavarman, a name assumed by many of his successors in addition to their real names. The plates on which this charter is to be found belong to the Raja Sahib of Mandasa in the Ganjam district. The actual donor was a feudatory chief, named Dharmakhedi, son of Bhāmakhedi of the Kādamba family, who was governing the district of Pañchapātra. The Kādambas were officers of the Eastern Gaṅgas and an Ugrakhedi is mentioned in the Parlakimedi plates of Vajrahasta.¹ Another Dharmakhedi is also mentioned in the Tekkali plates of Devendravarman II, son of Rajendravarman of the Gaṅga year 254. If the initial year of the Gaṅga era is taken to be 715 A. D. then the grant of G. s., 254 was issued in 969 A.D. *i.e.*, three generations earlier than Vajrahasta, son of Kāmārṇava. This Dharmakhedi, therefore, appears to be an ancestor of Dharmakhedi of 1054 A.D. The order was brought by the *Rāṇaka* Vettikuratha. A *Sāmanta* named Nala-Cheṇḍāla is mentioned towards the end of the inscription and the learned South Indian Epigraphist proposes to identify him with a Chandella chieftain.² The third inscription of Vajrahasta was discovered in Nadagam, a village in the Narasanna-peṭa *taluqa* of the Ganjam district. This inscription contains two very important dates. The charter itself was issued in Śaka 979, Sunday the 12th of the bright half of Phālguna-4th March 1058 A.D., but the inscription mentions that Vajrahasta ascended the throne in Śaka 960 when the Sun was in Vṛsha, the Moon in the Rohiṇī *Nakshatra*, in the *Dhanur-lagna*, Sunday the 3rd of the bright half of the month (Jyaishṭha), Sunday 3rd May 1038 A.D. This grant was issued from the ancient capital, Kaliṅganagara and opens with the mention of Śiva Gokarṇasvāmin on Mahendra mountain. The genealogy of Vajrahasta is traced from Guṇamahārṇava. The only important historical information to be derived from it is that Vajrahasta I, the father of Guṇḍama I, united the kingdom of Kaliṅga by conquering the five different parts into which it had been divided. The charter records the grant of an extensive tract of land containing twelve villages, "which were separated from the district of Erada and constituted into a separate district, which was named the Velāpūra *vishaya* after its chief village Velāpūra."¹ The latest known date of Vajrahasta is to be found in the Madras Museum plates of Śaka 984-1061. A. D. by which the king granted the village of Tāmaracheru with the hamlet of Chikhali in Varāhavartanī to five hundred Brāhmaṇas on the occasion of a solar eclipse. The village of Tāmaracheru was previously granted to Brāhmaṇas by the early Gaṅga kings Devendravarman and Indravarman.² According to the late Professor Kielhorn the eclipse took place on the 20th June 1061.³ Kaliṅganagara has been identified by some with Mukhalingam, and Nagara-kaṭakam, and by others with Kaliṅgapatanam.