History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c29.36

v1.c29.36

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: