History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c26.25

v1.c26.25

Narasimha I will be remembered by posterity as the builder of the great temple of the Sun-God at Koṇakoṇa or Koṇārka near Gop in the Puri district. This fact is mentioned in the land-grants of all the successors of Narasimha I. According to an inscription at Śrī-Kurmam, Rājarāja of the Eastern Chālukya family was a minister of Narasimha I.¹ According to another inscription at the same place, a person named Sāhasa-malla made a grant at this temple during the reign of Narasimha I in 1251 A. D. According to the Bhubaneśvar inscription, now in the Royal Asiatic Society, Narasimha’s brother-in-law, the Haihaya Prince Paramardin, fell fighting the battles of the King. Paramardin had married Chandrikā, a daughter of Anaṅgabhīma II. This Chandrikā built a temple of Viṣṇu at Bhubaneśvar in the Śaka year 1200=1278 A. D., during the reign of her brother’s grandson, Narasimha II.² A work on Alaṅkāra called Ekāvalī was composed in the reign of Narasimha I by a person named Vidyādhara in which Narasimha is called “The master of the kingdom of Yavanas, *i. e.*, Musalmans (*Yavan-āvani-vallabha*). Narasimha I is also said to have defeated the Hamīra, *i. e.*, the Musalman Amirs of Bengal. The wars with the Musalman in Bengal are distinctly referred to as “Vaṅga-saṅgara-sīmani” along with the white waves of the Ganges, “Gaṅgā-Taraṅga-dhavalāni.”