History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c27.8

v1.c27.8

Prāchyavidyāmahārṇava-Siddhāntavāridhi Nagendranāth Vasu has recorded the discovery of three sets of copper plates consisting of seven plates in each set, in the village of Kenduapatna in the Kendrapada sub-division of the Cuttack district. Of these he has published only one set in an Oriental Journal with facsimiles. Of the remaining two sets one has been published in the Bengali Encyclopædia *Viśvakosha*. The inscription on these three sets of plates give the entire genealogy of the Eastern Gaṅgas up to Narasimha II in one hundred and five verses and contain, moreover, some lines in prose. One of these three sets was issued in the Śaka year 1217=6th August 1296, Monday, which was the 21st Aṅka of Narasimha II. The object of this inscription is to record the grant of certain lands in two villages while the King was out on a campaign on the banks of the Ganges on the occasion of a Lunar Eclipse. The donee was a Brāhmaṇa named Bhīmadeva-śarman of the Kāśyapa gotra who held the title or rank of Kumāra-Mahāpātra. The wording of this inscription is very peculiar. It uses the words Vijaya-samaye and mentions that at that time the King was at Remuṇā, a place still existing in the Balasore district, which is regarded as a holy place by Bengali and Oṛiyā Vaiṣṇavas. The King’s presence at Remuṇā close to the Ganges “in the time of conquest” indicates a campaign against the Musalmans of Bengal. It is stated that Mughiṣuddīn Tughral, the Governor of Bengal, who rebelled in the time of Sultan Ghiyāṣuddīn Bilbun of Delhi, invaded Orissa in A. H. 678=1275 A. D.¹ When the aged Emperor Bilbun started personally against Tughral, the latter had invaded Orissa once more, because he thought that Bilbun would not be able to stay in Bengal for a long time and that he would return to Gaur as soon as the former had retired. After Tughral’s death in 1282 Narasimha II seems to have invaded Bengal once more. The date of the 3rd set of Kenduapatna plates indicates that the campaign was undertaken in 1296, i.e., during the reign of Sulṭān Ruknuddīn Kaikāūs Shāh of the Bilbunī dynasty of Bengal, when the celebrated Sulṭān ’Alāuddīn Muḥammad Shāh Khāljī was on the throne of Delhi. The date 1296 is very significant because about this time, Saptagrāma or Sātgāon was conquered by the Musalmans of Bengal. According to an inscription discovered at Triveṇī in the Hooghly district of Bengal, Saptagrāma was conquered by Ikhtiyāruddin Firoz Ītgīn Ulūgh-i-’aẓam before A. H. 698=1298 A. D.¹ It is possible that the campaign undertaken by Narasimha II on the banks of the Ganges had for its purpose an attempt to succour the unfortunate inhabitants of Southern Bengal from the dreaded and hated yoke of the Musalmans. We do not know what victories Narasimha II achieved and why the term *Vijaya-samaye*² was used, because for the time being Saptagrāma passed into the hands of the Musalmans of Bengal. The Kenduapatna plates mention a number of officers of this King by name. The *Śrī-Karaṇa* or Private Secretary was Śivadāsa, who measured the land in the village of Eḍzrā in the district of Derā. Another *Karaṇa* (Clerk) named Chandradāsa is mentioned as having measured the land in the village of Sunailā in the Svaṅga district. Some interesting names are to be found in this inscription. A portion of the land granted was named Gaṅgā-Narasimhapura in which a certain portion was given to a *Sebāit* named Allālanātha. The name Allālanātha becomes common later on, but this is the earliest instance of the use of the word *Sebāit* meaning the trustee of a religious endowment.³