History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c29.49

v1.c29.49

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.