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History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c29: Chapter XX. The Empire of Orissa—Purushottama (1470-97)

History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c29

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English

Chapter XX. The Empire of Orissa—Purushottama (1470-97)

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The removal of the strong hand of Kapilendra Gajapati was followed by uprisings throughout Orissa. *Firishta’s* account of the Orissan wars of the Bahmani Sulṭāns bears on it the stamp of untruth. That author states that two sons of Kapilendra, named Maṅgal Rāi and Ambar Rāi, were rival claimants for the throne and the latter sought the alliance of the Bahmani Sulṭān Muḥammad III, who had succeeded his brother Niẓām Shah on the 30th July 1463.A.D. Therefore, at the time of Kapilendra’s death Muḥammad’s age could not have been more than eighteen, as at the time of his accession he was not more than ten. He was perhaps yet too young to take any real interest in the disputed succession of a powerful neighbouring State. The more blunt *Burhān-i-Ma’āṣir* enables us to tear the veil of camouflage of the polished diction of *Firishta*. The *Burhān-i-Ma’āṣir* says that, as soon as the news of Kapilendra’s death was received at Bidar, Sulṭān Muḥammad III rejoiced openly and determined to conquer Kapilendra’s dominions. A council of war was held and Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī, the renegade Hindu and the worst traitor among Bahmani officers, volunteered to undertake the campaign against Orissa and was invested by the Sulṭān with a robe of honour.¹ The Bahmanīs of Bidar had not dared to raise their heads after their crushing defeat at the battle of Pevārkoṇḍā and they were now eager to wipe out the disgrace of repeated reverses at the hands of the Hindus. They considered the death of Kapilendra an opportune moment for the destruction of the Hindu empire. There is not a single line in the *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir* about the disputed succession to the throne of Orissa. Therefore, the straightforward statement of the intentions of the Bahmanī officers and the Sulṭān Muḥammad III is much more reliable than the garnished account of *Firiṣhta*. Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī defeated the Orissan army somewhere in the northern Telegu country and advanced upon Rājamahendrī. *Firiṣhta* agrees with the *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir* in stating that Niẓām-ul-Mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī commanded the campaign in Orissa, but states in addition that in A. D. 1471=876 A. H., Ambar Rāi, a cousin of the king of Orissa, had appealed for help as the throne had been usurped by a brāhman named Maṅgal Rāi, the adopted son of the late king. Ambar Rāi joined Niẓām-ul-Mulk Ḥasan on the frontiers of Orissa and the latter, after defeating Maṅgal Rāi, placed Ambar on the throne of that country. Then he proceeded to capture Koṇḍapalle¹ and Rājamahendrī. The *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir* states that after the capture of Rājamahendrī, Ḥasan marched against Koṇḍavidu and not Koṇḍapalle and captured it with several other forts.² That the story of the disputed succession in the empire of Orissa is a myth is proved by an inscription on the left-hand side of the Jayā-Vijayā gate of the *Jagamohana* of the temple of Jagannātha at Puri, which was incised on the 2nd *Aṅka* of the reign of Purushottama, *i.e.*, the year of his accession=12th April 1470 A. D.,¹ and as the same Purushottama has been proved to have reigned uninterruptedly up to 1496-97, *Firishta's* statement about Maṅgal Rāi being defeated and replaced by Ambar Rāi by Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī can be rejected without further consideration.

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¹ *Ind., Ant., Vol. XXVIII, p. 285.*

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¹ Brigg's—*Rise of the Muhammadan Power in India*, Cambray & Co., *Calcutta*, 1909, *Vol. II, pp. 487-88*.

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² *Ind. Ant.*, *Vol. XXVIII, p. 285*.

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¹ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, Vol. LXII 1893, *pp.* 91-92.

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Sāḷuva Narasiṁha may have risen during the lifetime of Mallikārjuna (1449-67), but he found an opportunity to increase his territories northwards after the demise of Kapilendra in 1470. His ancestral territory lay around Nārāyaṇavanam in the Chittur district of Mysore State and he was hemmed in both on the north and the east by the empire of Orissa. During the Musalman invasion of Telingana, when Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī captured Koṇḍapalle or Koṇḍavidu and Rājamahendri for Sulṭān Muḥammad III, Sāḷuva Narasiṁha conquered the whole of the eastern coastland as far as the mouth of the Godāvari. The Tirukoilur² inscription of 1470-71 proves that Sāḷuva Narasiṁha had either joined hands with the Musalmans of Bidar or invaded the territories of Orissa as soon as the Bahmanī army had interposed a formidable barrier between the capital of Orissa and her provinces in the extreme south. During his war with Orissa Sāḷuva Narasiṁha had under him Naresa Nāyaka, the founder of the Tuḷuva dynasty. Mallikārjuna was succeeded by Virupāksha, who ruled over Vijayanagara till he was deposed by Narasa in 1487. Virupāksha was the contemporary of Purushottama during the earlier years of his reign. South Indian scholars claim that details of the campaigns of Sāḷuva Narasimha are preserved in the Sāḷuv-ābhyudayam of Rājanātha Diṇḍima. In the fourth canto of this work it is stated that when Sāḷuva Narasimha marched against the king of Kaliṅga, the latter came out at the head of his army, but was defeated and retired to his own city. Later on he was besieged in that city and compelled to surrender. The Sāḷuv-ābhyudayam is a standard type-specimen illustrating the historical value of the work of a Court panegyrist. It proves the unreliability of praśastis not corroborated by independent extraneous evidence. From 1470 till about 1476 the Musalmans of Bidar were in possession of the Godāvarī delta and had interposed a wedge of territory between the Hindus of Orissa and Vijayanagara and it is therefore absolutely impossible to imagine how Sāḷuva Narasimha could have besieged and captured Kaṭak, the capital of the Sūrya-vamśīs. According to the Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir Sulṭān Muḥammad III Bahmanī found Sāḷuva Narasimha strongly posted on the Godāvarī when he came to conduct the campaign against Orissa personally. The evidence of the Sāḷuv-ābhyudayam must, therefore, be accepted with great caution.¹

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² *Annual Report of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent, for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, Madras for 1906-07; p.* 84.

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¹ Ind., Ant., Vol, XXVIII 1899, p. 288; Ayyangar—Sources of Vijayanagar History, pp. 90-102.

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Purushottama lost more than one half of his ancestral dominions within five or six years of his accession. The loss of the southern provinces of the empire was followed by a reaction. An Oṛiyā officer of Sulṭān Muḥammad III Bahmanī named Bhīmarāja returned to the allegiance of his own king and, capturing Koṇḍapalle in 1474, invited Purushottama to come and recover his ancestral dominions in Telingana. Purushottama arrived with ten thousand horse and eight thousand foot and drove out Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī from Rājamahendri. Sulṭān Muḥammad III Bahmanī was compelled to march in person accompanied by Khwājah-i-Jahān Maḥmūd Gāwān Gilānī and the heir-apparent prince Maḥmūd. Bhīmarāja shut himself up in the fort of Koṇḍapalle and Purushottama re-crossed the Godāvarī. According to *Firishta*, Sulṭān Muḥammad III sent twenty thousand horse in pursuit of Purushottama, ravaged the districts as far as the capital in 1477 and intended to send for Maḥmūd Gāwān in order to occupy the country permanently. Purushottama was compelled to sue for peace, sent repeated embassies and purchased peace by delivering twenty-five elephants belonging to his father. Muḥammad III Bahmanī is said to have retired with these presents.¹ It is necessary to receive these statements of *Firishta* with very great caution. In the first place, if Muḥammad III had really retired from the capital of Orissa after receiving twenty-five elephants, then it has to be admitted that he was compelled to turn tail by a superior force. No victorious Musalman army had ever let off a defeated Hindu king at such a small cost. *Firishta's* story reminds one of the retreat of Seleukos Nikator from India with a present of five hundred elephants from Chandragupta Maurya after ceding four of the fairest provinces of Alexander's empire to the Indian monarch. As soon as he received twenty-five elephants Muhammad's intention to occupy Orissa permanently vanishes. No indemnity or permanent cession of territory is demanded and the Mussalman king retires with his so-called victorious army. This story is accepted without any caution by Sir Wolsely Haig, who adds that Muḥammad captured Koṇḍaviḍu, and made Rājamahendrī his headquarters for three years.¹ Let us now return to the comparatively sober account of the Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir :—

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¹ *Rise of the Muhammadan Power in India, Vol. II, pp. 494-96.*

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¹ Cambridge History of India Vol. III, pp. 415-18.

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Portion of the frieze—Corridor of the Ganeshgumpha—Udaygiri, Puri District

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"In the midst of these affairs the Sulṭān was informed that the perfidious Rāya of Orissa, with a large force of foot and horse, had invaded the territories of Islam. Niẓām-ul-mulk Baḥrī, who was situated as a barrier between the country of the infidels and the territories of Islam, owing to the numbers of the enemy's force, was unable to cope with them, hastened towards Wazīrābād. The Sulṭān ordered his army to be assembled in all haste at the town of Malikpur, near Āshṭūr, on the bank of a tank, which was one of the innovations of Mālik Ḥasan Niẓām-ul-mulk Baḥrī. According to orders, they flocked there from all parts, and in a short time an immense force was assembled, and the Sulṭān marching with them in the time arrived near the fortress of Rajamundri (Rājamahendrī). From that innumerable force the Sulṭān picked out 20,000 men with two horses each, and leaving the minister Khwājah Jahān in the royal camp in attendance on the prince (Maḥmūd Khan) he himself with the picked troops proceeded to Rajamundri... When they arrived in the neighbourhood of the fortress, they saw an immense city, on the further side of which the infidel Narasimha Rāya with 7,00,000 accursed infantry and 500 elephants like mountains of iron had taken his stand. On this side of the river he had dug a deep ditch, on the edge of which he had built a wall like the rampart of Alexander, and filled it with cannon and guns and all apparatus of war. Yet notwithstanding all these army and pomp and pride and preparation, when Narasimha Rāya heard of the arrival of the Sulṭān's army, thinking it advisable to avoid meeting their attack, he elected to take to flight.

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"When the Sulṭān became aware of the flight of the enemy, he appointed Malik Fathullah Daryā Khān with several other 'amīrs of his conquering army to go in pursuit and in slaughtering and plundering to strive their utmost. Daryā Khān accordingly, with his division, pursued the infidels as far as the fortress of Rājamundri, and laid siege to it. The Sulṭān also followed him with all speed and raised his victorious standards at the foot of the fortress... Orders were given to the army to surround the fortress, and with cannons, guns, arrows and all the engines of war to reduce the besieged to extremities and deny them the necessaries of life.

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"It had nearly arrived at that stage that the face of victory was reflected in the mirrors of the desires of the royal troops, when suddenly the commander of the fortress cried for quarter. The Sulṭān in his exceeding mercy and kindness took pity on these unfortunate people, pardoned their offences and gave them a written promise of quarter. The governor of the fortress riding on an elephant of gigantic size went to pay his respects to the Sulṭān. He made his obeisance and was enrolled among the Turki, Tilangi and Habshī slaves.

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"The Sulṭān with some of the nobles and great men went out on the summit of the fortress, and signified his wish that the rites of the faith of Islam should be introduced into that abode of infidelity. He appointed to the charge of the fortress the same person to whom it had been formerly assigned.¹

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¹ *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XXVIII, p, 288.

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A comparison of these two accounts shows certain facts to be common which can, therefore, be regarded as accurate :

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(1) That a few years after his accession Purushottama drove out the Musalman intruders from the lower Godāvarī delta.

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(II) That the Sulṭān Muḥammad III Bahmanī had to undertake the campaign personally, as Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Bahrī had been defeated.

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(III) That Rājamahendrī was besieged and capitulated.

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The account of *Firishta* differs a good deal from that given in the *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir*, the most important differences being the mention of a traitor named Bhīmarāja Oṛiyā and the substitution of Koṇḍapalle for Koṇḍavīḍu. The *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir* is also silent about the capture of Katak, the capital of Purushottama by Muḥammad III. On the other hand, *Firishta* does not mention anything about the presence of Sāḷuva Narasiṃha in the neighbourhood of Rājamahendrī. The presence of the Sāḷuva chief on the bank of the river Godāvarī may be interpreted in different ways. In the first place, he may have allied himself with Purushottama against the common enemy of all Hindus, the Musalmans of the Deccan. In the second place, he may have made an independent attack on the then southern frontier of the empire of Orissa. The third interpretation is more probable. The Bahmanī Sulṭān and the Gajapati king of Orissa were both his enemies and Sāḷuva Narasiṃha, like a prudent general, was prepared on frontiers for an invasion from both of them. He was right, as immediately after the close of the campaign against Rājamahendrī Muḥammad III Bahmanī invaded the Vijayanagara empire. The people of Koṇḍavīḍu had broken out in open rebellion against the Musalmans in A. H. 885=1480 A. D., and thrown themselves on the protection of the Sāḷuva chief. So Muḥammad III was compelled to march against Koṇḍavīḍu in November of that year. Therefore, in 1480 Koṇḍavīḍu was included in the empire of Vijayanagara and the Bahmanī campaign of that year was in northern Telingana and not in the Tamil country. The war of 1474-77 was for the recovery of Musalman possessions in the delta of the Godāvarī and that of 1480 against the Vijayanagara empire in the delta of the Kṛṣṇā. For the time being, Purushottama had to give up all hopes of recovering the southern provinces of his father's empire. Sāḷuva Narasiṃha had become the *de facto* king of the Eastern Coast of the Bay of Bengal, though the emperor Virūpāksha II was still living and ruling in 1487.¹ But the north-eastern provinces of Vijayanagara empire had passed out of his control. It was mainly in his own interest that Sāḷuva Narasiṃha was present on the south bank of the Godāvarī in the war of 1474-77. This campaign ended in the total loss of the Godāvarī-Kṛṣṇā *doāb* to the empire of Orissa and that of 1480 drove Sāḷuva Narasiṃha to the south of the Kṛṣṇā.

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¹ Cambridge History of India, Vol. III, p. 494.

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The scene on the political stage now changes swiftly.

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The murder of the great Musalman general and statesman Khwājah-i-Jahān Maḥmūd Gāwān Gīlānī on the 5th April 1481 caused a complete paralysis of Musalman activities in the Deccan for nearly a quarter of a century. His murder was followed by the death of the last real Bahmanī Sulṭān, Muḥammad III, on the 26th March 1482, who was succeeded by the weak and imbecile Maḥmūd Shāh Bahmanī. The real cause of the murder of Maḥmūd Gāwān was the attribution of treachery to him by his enemies of the Deccanī party at the Court of Bidar. Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī forged a letter supposed to have been written by Maḥmūd Gāwān to Purushottamadeva, in which it was stated that he was tired of the tyranny and ill-treatment of Muhammed III and was ready to join the Hindu army. If *Firishta's* account be correct then Purushottama, shorn of the greater part of his empire was still regarded as formidable by the Musalmans of the Deccan. We do not know what happened to the Kṛṣṇā-Godāvari *doāb* after the death of Muhammad III. At that time, according to *Firishta*, Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī had been permitted to appoint his son Mālik Aḥmad to be his deputy at Rājamahendri, as his own presence was considered necessary at Court. The old actors now retire from the political arena on the eastern coast. Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī is murdered and his son Niẓm-ul-mulk Aḥmad retires to the south-west to carve out an independent kingdom for himself in the Mahārāṣṭra. Sulṭān Maḥmūd Bahmanī had to undertake a campaign in Telingana immediately after his accession and before the murder of Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan. The silence of the *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir* about the result of this campaign is a damning proof of its failure. Hindu records prove that, within six years of the death of Muhammad III Bahmanī, Purushottama had overrun the whole of the Godāvarī-Kṛṣṇa doāb and driven out the Musalmans from their coveted post of Koṇḍaviḍu. The reconquest of the Godāvarī-Kṛṣṇa doāb and Guntur district is proved by two inscriptions, one of which was discovered at Koṇḍaviḍu¹ and the other at some unknown place in Telingana, which was published for the first time in the Transactions of the Literary Society of Madras in 1827.²

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¹ Sewell—A Sketch of South-Indian dynasties, p. 48; Chakravarti, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1900, Vol. LXIX, p. 183.

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² Epi. Ind., Vol. XIII, pp. 155-58.

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The last king of the Voḍeyar or Yādava dynasty had been deposed and murdered in 1487 and the usurpation of Sāḷuva Narasiṁha was complete. Yet Purushottama of Orissa was steadily progressing in the re-conquest of his father's dominions in Southern India. There are reasons to suppose that towards the end of his reign Purushottama became sufficiently strong to attack the kingdom of Vijayanagara as far as the capital itself. The southernmost inscription of Purushottama was discovered on the road from Koṇḍapalle to Kavuluru in the Bezwada taluga of the Kṛṣṇa district. The date of this inscription has not been read completely and therefore it is difficult to say at what time the Bahmanīs were expelled from the Godāvarī-Kṛṣṇa doāb and the armies of Vijayanagara pushed back further south.³ The Potavaram grant of Purushottama is dated Śaka 1412, *i. e.*, Saturday 1489.

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³ Annual Report of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for the year ending with 31st March, 1914, v. 18, No. 156.

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It proves that towards the close of his reign Purushottama was in undisputed possession of the whole of the Godāvarī-Kṛṣṇa doāb and the whole country as far as Bezwada to the south of the delta of the Kṛṣṇa. The village granted in 1489, Potavaram, still exists in the Ongole taluga of the Guntur district. The object of the charter was the gift of the village of Potavaram to the Liṅgodbhava Mahādeva of Chadaluvāḍa on the bank of the river Brahmaguṇḍi for the purpose of personal enjoyment, stage-entertainments, and other splendours of the god.¹

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¹ Epi. Ind., Vol. XIII, pp. 157-58

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As noticed by Chakravarti, the conquest of Vijayanagara by Purushottama is recorded in the Bengali poem Śrī-Chaitanya-Charitāmṛta by the Vaiṣṇava saint Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. This poem mentions that Purushottama conquered Vijayanagara and brought an idol named Sākshī-gopāla and a jewelled throne from that country.² This throne was presented to the Lord Jagannātha at Puri and appears to be the same as the stone altar on which the wooden images of Jagannātha, Balarāma and Subhadrā stand at present. Those who have examined this Ratnavedī at close quarters inside the Vimāna of the temple of Jagannātha at Puri will be able to recognise the bizarre arabesque of the decadent Hoyśala type, which one sees in the temple of Hazāra-Rāmasvāmī at Hampe or Vijayanagara, on it. It appears to me that a part, at any rate, of this jewelled throne consisted of a carved stone altar which also was presented along with the metal portion to the Lord Jagannātha. There are no reasons to disbelieve the statements of Gosvāmī Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, as he wrote in distant Vṛndāvana long after the fall of the Gajapatis of the Surya Vaṃśa dynasty and was no court sycophant. While the Kāñji-Kāverī-Pothi is a mere romance of the type of the Gaṅgādāsa-Pratāpa-Vilasam the Chaitanya-Charitāmṛita is a reliable biography of Chaitanya with which panegyrics of the type of the Sāḷuv-ābhyudayam would not even bear comparison.

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² Ibid., Madhya Līlā, Bangavāsī Edition, p. 98.

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Chhota Hathigumpha and other caves near it—Udaygiri, Puri District

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In the beginning of his reign Purushottama lost the southern half of his dominions from the Godāvarī downwards, the country to the south of the Kṛiṣhṇā being captured by Sāḷuva Narasiṃha and the Godāvarī-Kṛiṣhṇā doāb by the Bahmanīs. Towards the end of his reign he had expelled the Musalmans from the doāb and regained a portion of the Andhra country, as far as the modern district of Guntur. Whether any of the Tamil districts of the empire of Kapilendra was recovered by Purushottama is a matter of conjecture. Sāḷuva Narasiṃha and Narasa Nāyaka were very hard pressed to stop "the Oḍḍiyān", as they styled the Gajapati king of Orissa. The throne passed on peacefully to Purushottama's son Pratāparudra some time in 1496-97, as the latest date of Purushottama is to be found on the northern face of the 41st pillar of the temple of Śrīkurmam ; Śaka 1417, the Jovian year Rākshasa the 33rd Aṅka,=31st October 1495 A. D. As his 2nd Aṅka or first year fell in 1470, his accession took place immediately after the death of his father Kapilendra. Like his father, Purushottama is also known from a number of inscriptions discovered in Orissa proper. The records on the left hand side of the Jayā-Vijayā gate of Jagannātha contained two. The earliest is an order dated the 2nd Aṅka=12th April 1470, A.D. Thursday, recording the gift of the village of Madhotila in the district of Antarodha, certain weights of paddy, two thousand kāhans of cowries and two other villages named Kamalapura and Gopapura in the Banchas district of the Dakṣiṇadik Daṇḍapāṭa for the Bhoga of the gods and goddesses. The next order was issued in the 3rd Aṅka=20th November 1470 (O. S.) and records the remittance of the Chaukīdārī tax on brāhmaṇas in the South.¹ The 3rd record of Purushottama in the temple of Jagannātha is the fourth on the right side of the same gateway. It was issued in the 19th Aṅka=18th August 1485 and records an injunction to the future kings of Orissa not to interfere with grants made to brāhmaṇas.² The temple of Śrikurmam contains a number of inscriptions from which the regnal years of the king may be thoroughly verified:

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¹ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXII, 1893, part I, pp. 90-92

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² Ibid., pp. 100-1.

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(I) 3rd Aṅka, Śaka 1392=Tuesday 25th September 1470. A. D.

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(II) Śaka 1393, the Jovian year Khara=Sunday 31st March 1471. A. D.

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(III) 4th Aṅka, Śaka 1393, the year Khara=20th June 1472. A. D.

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(IV) 25th Aṅka=Thursday 27th May 1490 A. D.

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(V) Śaka 1417, the Jovian year Rākshasa, 33rd Aṅka=Saturday 31st October 1495.³ A. D.

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³ Ibid., Vol. LXIX, 1900, part I, pp. 182-83.

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The chronology of Purushottama's reign was so very little known that writing in 1919 the late Tarini Charan Rath said: "It is rather difficult to fix with precision the date of this Kāñchī-Kāverī expedition of king Purushottama-deva and find out the name of his contemporary king of Karṇāṭa, with whom he waged war and whose daughter Padmāvatī he married.¹ Purushottama’s contemporaries in Karṇāṭa were Virupāksha II, Sāḷuva Narasiṁha, Narasa Nāyaka and Immāḍi Narasiṁha. Professor S. K. Ayyangar now admits that Sāḷuva Narasiṁha failed to capture Udayagiri rājya from the Gajapati king.² If the Mādalā Pāñji is to be believed, then Purushottama erected the Bhoga-maṇḍapa or the hall of refection, being in fact the third maṇḍapa in the temple of Jagannātha. Following this custom three separate maṇḍapas have been erected in front of all important temples in Orissa. The temple of Jagannātha at Puri, that of his consort Lakshmi, the temples of Krittivāsa and Ananta-Vasudeva at Bhuvaneśvara, and that of the former’s consort Pārvatī at the same place consist of one sanctum (vimāna) and three separate maṇḍapas (Jagamohana, Nāṭyamandira and the Bhoga maṇḍapa). In another line Purushottama introduced an innovation. Up to the time of Narasiṁha IV and Kapilendra, charters in Orissa were issued after being written on plates of copper. We can trace this system from the time of Kumāragupta I (414-55 A. D.) up to that of Rāmachandra II of Khurdah (1731-43 A.D.) The usual form of these copper plates is rectangular. Purushottama issued his grant on a piece of copper, shaped like an axe, which was most probably a real pre-historic copper axe. While the material may have been got by accident, the real innovation introduced by Purushottama was the final rejection of the proto-Bengali script in favour of the cursive Oriya. All subsequent grants issued in Orissa show the use of the Oriya script. The Balasore grant written on the copper axe was issued on the 5th Aṅka 7th April 1483.A. D.¹

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¹ Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. V, 1919, p. 149.

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² Cambridge History of India Vol, III, p. 494.

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¹ *Ind., Ant., Vol. I, pp. 355-56 ; Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. IV, pp. 361-65 ; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXIX, 1900, p. 183.*

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Little else is known of the second great emperor of Orissa. According to Oriya tradition as recorded by the late Mr. Tarini Charan Rath, Purushottama is said to have been the youngest son of Kapilendra and to have married Padmāvatī or Rupāmbikā, the daughter of king of Karṇāṭa (? Sāḷuva Narasiṁha). According to the introduction of the *Sarasvati-vilāsam* by his son and successor Pratāparudra, the name of the Karnāt princess was Rupāmbikā.² The condition of the Musalman kingdoms of Northern India favoured the expansion of Orissa. Purushottama’s contemporaries in Bengal were Shamsuddin Yūsuf Shāh (1474-81 A.D.), Jalāluddin Fath Shāh (1481-86 A.D.), Nāṣiruddin Maḥmūd III (1489 A.D.), Saifuddīn Firoz Shāh (1486-89 A.D.), Shamsuddīn Muẓaffar Shāh (1490-93 A.D.),³ and ‘Alāuddīn Ḥusain Shāh (1493-1518 A.D.). The Sulṭāns of Delhi were too remote to affect the empire of Orissa and the Sulṭānate of Jaunpur was fast approaching extinction at the time of his accession. Inspite of his earlier reverses Purushottama practically recovered almost the whole of his ancestral dominions and left it to his son Pratāparudra.

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² *Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. V, pp. 147-48.*

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³ *Cambridge History of India, Vol, III, p. 696,*

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The only other known inscription of Purushottama was discovered on a slab set up in a field to the north of the road from Kavuluru to Koṇḍapalle on which the date is extremely doubtful. According to the late Mr. H. Krishna Sastri, Purushottama is styled *Paharā Hamvīra* in this inscription. It mentions a *Mahāpātra*, named Mogalarāju who was governing the country at that time.¹

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¹ Annual Report of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent, for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1914, p. 18, No. 156, 105, para 42.

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