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History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c30: Chapter XXI

History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c30

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English

Chapter XXI

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The decline in the power of Orissa and the break up of its empire, practically begins with the accession of Pratāparudra. At the time of his accession, Pratāparudra ruled over an empire extending from the Hughly and the Medinipur districts of Bengal to the Guntur district of Madras. A large portion of the highlands of Telingana, such as Khammamet, also belonged to him according to his conqueror Kṛṣṇadevarāya of Vijayanagara. The date of his accession has been calculated from his only Aṅka date in the temple of Jagannātha; 4th Aṅka, Kakaṛā śu 10, Wednesday=17th July 1499. As the 3rd regnal year was 1499, the date of his accession must be 1497 A.D.

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The earlier period of the long reign of Pratāparudra was very favourable to the expansion of Orissa, as the imbecile Maḥmud was on the throne of Bidar and the five great Musalman monarchies of the Deccan were already formed. There was, therefore, no chance of another Musalman irruption into the Kṛṣṇa-Godāvarī doāb in the near future. In the extreme south of the Indian Peninsula the Sāḷuva dynasty of Vijayanagara was fast approaching extinction and the founder of the Tuḷuva dynasty, Narasa Nāyaka, was already an imposing figure in the Empire. From 1497 to 1511 Pratāparudra could have easily conquered the Tamil districts of the coast land, if he had only exerted himself. But Orissa was fast approaching a state of political stagnation to which the great religious reformer Chaitanya of Bengal gave permanency between 1510 and 1533. Narasa Nāyaka died in 1505 and was followed by his son Vīra-Narasimha who deposed the nominal Śāḷuva emperor Immāḍi Narasimha.¹ Nunez has recorded that the death of Narasa Nāyaka was followed by a widespread revolution of the Nāyakas of the empire of Vijayanagara.² When Kṛṣṇadevarāya succeeded his brother in December 1509 or January 1510, Pratāparudra’s chance of extension came to an end, because the greatest emperor of Vijayanagara had two ambitions : the conquest of the eastern coast from Orissa and the humbling of the power of the Musalmans. The first years of the reign of Kṛṣṇadevarāya were spent in suppressing rebellions, but he very wisely invaded the southern provinces of the empire of Orissa before tackling the ’Adil-Shāhī Sulṭāns of Bijapur. The new emperor’s aims were known to his people and two inscriptions from Nagalapuram in the Chingleput district inform us that people were applying to Kṛṣṇadevarāya for things to be performed after his victorious return from the campaign against the Gajapati king.

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¹ Cambridge History of India, Vol. III, pp. 494-95.

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² Sewell—A Forgotten Empire, p. 314.

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The Portuguese writer Nunez has preserved a valuable account of the series of campaigns conducted against Pratāparudra of Orissa by the greatest emperor of Vijayanagara. According to him Narasa Nāyaka had enjoined upon his son in his last will and testament the necessity of capturing Raichuru Mudkal from the Musalmans and Udayagiri from the Oṛiyās. The army collected by Kṛṣṇadeva consisted of 34,000 foot and 800 elephants and arrived at Udayagiri. Though the Oṛiyā garrison consisted of 10,000 foot and 400 horse the place held out for a year and a half on account of its great natural strength. Kṛṣṇadevarāya cut roads through the surrounding hills and carried the place by assault. On this occasion an aunt of the king Pratāparudra was captured. According to inscriptions one Tirumala Rāūtarāya or Tirumalai Rāhuttarāya, an uncle of Pratāparudra called Rāghavarāya or Kaṇṭharāya, was captured at Udayagiri. Evidently, Pratāparudra had made Koṇḍaviḍu the base of his operations in the last war against Vijayanagara. When Udayagiri fell in 1513—the date is certain as an image of Bālakṛṣṇa captured at Udayagiri was dedicated by him in 1514—Kṛṣṇadevarāya turned against Koṇḍaviḍu. Pratāparudra hastened with a large army in order to relieve Koṇḍaviḍu but was defeated about four miles from the fortress on the bank of the Kṛṣṇā estuary. The siege of Koṇḍaviḍu continued and the great fortress capitulated two months after the battle. The renowned minister Sāḷva Timma was placed in charge of Koṇḍaviḍu. The Vijayanagara army proceeded to invest Koṇḍapalle and occupied the whole country as far as Rājamahendri. Koṇḍaviḍu was captured on Saturday the 23rd June 1515 and the date is given many times in the Mangalagiri inscriptions. In this campaign one of Pratāparudra’s sons was captured by Kṛṣṇadeva Rāya.¹ According to the local chronicle of Koṇḍaviḍu, this son Virabhadra was the Viceroy of Koṇḍaviḍu Daṇḍapāṭa till its capture in 1515.² Vijayanagara inscriptions prove This image is blank and contains no text to transcribe.

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¹ Epi., Ind., Vol. VI, pp. 110-11.

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² A sketch of the dynasties of Southern India, p. 48,

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Double storeyed cave—Udaygiri, Puri District

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that Pratāparudra had descended to the level of employing Musalman mercenaries in his campaign against Kṛṣṇadevarāya. Among the notables captured by the Vijayanagara army were two Hindus named Kumāra Hammīra Mahāpātra and Keśava-Pātra and two Musalman generals named Mallū Khān and Uddaṇḍa Khān of Raichur. Mallū Khān can be recognised as a Musalman name, but it is difficult to reduce the term Uddaṇḍa to its Perso-Arabic equivalent. The late Mr. H. Krishna Sastri argued from the connection of Raichur with these two names that they were officers or nobles of the Ādil-Shāhi Sulṭāns of Bijapur. The acquisition of help from a Musalman neighbour to fight with a Hindu adversary involved a moral and political degradation in the Hindu world which can be easily understood by those who are familiar with Rajput history, but this was not the only occasion when Pratāparudra employed Musalman mercenaries against Hindus.

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After the fall of Koṇḍaviḍu Kṛṣṇadevarāya consolidated his conquests by the reduction of the important inland fortresses in the country at the foot of the ghaṭs, such as Vinukoṇḍa on the Gundlakamma river and Ballamkoṇḍa near Amarāvatī. In the third campaign Kṛṣṇadevarāya crossed the Kṛṣṇa and camped at Bezwada. His object was the great fort of Koṇḍapalle under the charge of the Oṛiya minister Praharāja Śiraśchandra Mahāpātra. According to Nunez, all the chiefs of the empire of Orissa were collected at Kaṇḍapalle. Among the notables captured after the fall of Koṇḍapalle was a queen of Pratāparudra and another son along with seven of the principal nobles. An inscription from Kāḷahasti mentions two of the nobles, Boḍaijenā Mahāpātra and Bijli Khān. Prahārāja Śiraśchandra Mahāpātra and Boḍai-Jenā Mahāpātra are not proper names but Oriyā official titles.

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From Koṇḍapalle Kṛṣṇadevarāya continued his march northwards and arrived at Siṁhāchalam near Vizagapatam. He acquired all the districts of the sea-board, including the hill districts of Nalgonda and Khammamet, at present in the Nizam's dominions. At Siṁhāchalam he is said to have have erected a pillar of victory about which the late Mr. H. Krishna Sastri stated that "there exists even to-day records in Telegu characters written on the basement of the entrance into the Asthāna Maṇḍapa and on a pillar on the verandah round the Lakshmī-Narasimha-Svāmin temple at Siṁhāchalam which relate in unmistakable terms the victories of Kṛṣṇadevarāya, his stay at Siṁhādri and his gifts to the temple.¹ According to the Pārijā-apaharanamu and other Telegu works, Kṛṣṇadevarāya devastated Orissa and burnt the capital Kaṭaka, but there is no epigraphical corroboration for such statements. In 1519 Kṛṣṇadevarāya gave certain villages, which had been granted to him by the Gajapati king, to the temple.

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¹ Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of India, 1908-9, p. 179.

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In three or four campaigns Kṛṣṇadevarāya had compelled Pratāparudra to cede that part of his empire which lay to the south of the Godāvari. According to Nunez, Pratāparudra was compelled to give one of his daughters in marriage to Kṛṣṇadevarāya.² This marriage is also mentioned in the Rāyavāchakamu where the Oriya princess is called Jaganmohinī. The marriage is also mentioned in the *Kṛṣṇa-rāya-vijayam* and *Tamil-Navalar-Charitai*.¹ She is also called Tukkā. After her marriage she was neglected by her husband and led a life of seclusion at Kambam in the Cuddappa district.² Pratāparudra’s son, Virabhadra, remained in honourable confinement till the end of the war. He became the governor of the district of *Malega-Beṇṇur-sīme* and remitted taxes on marriages in 1516 for the merit of his father Pratāparudra and his sovereign Kṛṣṇadevarāya.³

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² A Forgotten Empire, p. 320.

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¹ Sources of Vijayanagara History, pp. 116, 132, & 155.

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² Ibid., p. 143.

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³ Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. IX, Dg. 107.

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The decline of Orissa was now rapid and within forty years of the end of the Vijayanagar war, Jajpur was already in the occupation of the Musalmans of Bengal. According to the *Riyāz-us-salāṭīn*, ’Alāuddin Husain Shāh of Bengal conquered all the kingdoms between Gaur and Orissa. According to the *Mādāla Pañji* ’Ismail Ghāzī of Bengal commanded the Musalman expedition into Orissa during the reign of Pratāparudra. “In A. D. 1509 Ismail Ghāzī (named Surasthāna in M. Pañji) a general of the Bengal Nawab, made a dash into Orissa, ravaged the country, sacked Puri town and destroyed a number of Hindu temples. Pratāparudra hurried from the south and the Mahomedan general retreated. He was closely pursued and defeated on the bank of the Ganges. The general took refuge in fort Mandaran (sub-division Jahanabad, district Hooghly) and was besieged. But one of the Raja’s high officers, Govinda Vidvādhara, went over to the enemy’s side; and so the Raja had to raise the siege and retire to Orissa.”¹ A reference to the war with the Musalmans of Bengal is to be found in the Kavali plates of Pratāparudra of the Śaka year 1432=1510-11 A. D. We learn from this inscription that Pratāparudra recovered his kingdom from the king of Gauḍa, who was defeated by him. He is called Pañcha-Gaud-adhināyaka. He was ruling over Choḷamaṇḍala and the grant was issued from Uṇḍrakoṇḍa, the capital of Pākanāḍu. The Bengal campaign took place in the reign of ’Alāuddin Husain Shāh and not Shamsuddin Muẓaffar Shāh, as stated by the government epigraphist for Madras, Mr. G. Venkoba Rao, in 1921. ² The Kavali grant was issued in 1510 and Muẓaffar Shah of Bengal had ceased to reign in 1493.³ during the life time of Purushottama.

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¹ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXIX, 1900, p. 186.

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² Annual Report of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent, for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1921, p. 113.

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

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The Musalman peril was getting stronger in another direction. After the dismemberment of the Bahmani empire, the Quṭb-shāhī kingdom of Golkonda was growing stronger on the eastern coast and Sulṭān Qūlī was striving his utmost to regain the lost domination of the Musalmans over that area. He had declared his independence in 1512 and begun to consolidate his power in Telingana. So long as Kṛṣṇadevarāya was in the field, Sulṭān Qūlī remained quiet. There is no mention of his taking any side in the war with Orissa. Inspite of the statements of *Firishta*, it is perfectly clear that Sulṭān Qūlī did not effect any conquest in any Hindu kingdom in Telingana so long as Kṛṣṇadevarāya was in the field. As soon as war broke out between Kṛṣṇadevarāya and Sulṭān Ismail 'Adil Shāh I of Bijāpur, Sulṭān Qūlī found it easier to despoil the monarch of Orissa. This is the only possible time for Sulṭān Qūlī Quṭb Shah to have invaded and conquered any part of Hindu Telingana. Briggs thought that the invasion of Orissa by the Musalmans of Golkonda took place in 1511 (See his Comparative Chronology of Deccan kingdoms, principally during the 16th century, at the end of Volume III, Cambray's edition of 1910, of his "Rise of the Muhammadan Power in India"). He actually put the capture of Ballamkanda and Koṇḍapalle against this date. But in the text he says: "After having repaired the fort of Golkonda Sulṭān Koolly Kootb Shah turned his thought towards the reduction of the fortress of Roykonda."¹ The long rambling narrative of *Firishta* bears on its face the stamp of untruth and confusion. In the first place there was no king in Orissa named Rāmchandra Gajapati between 1512 and 1543 or during the entire reign of Sulṭān Qūlī Quṭb Shāh. In the second place Kṛṣṇadevarāya of Vijayanagara ascended the throne in December 1509 or January 1510. His campaign against Orissa began early in 1512, as Udayagiri fell in 1513, Koṇḍaviḍu in 1515 and Koṇḍapalle in 1517. The series of records of Kṛṣṇadevarāya at Koṇḍaviḍu, Kaza, Maṅgalagiri and finally at Siṃhāchalam-Poṭnuru prove that during this period, 1512-17, no Muhammadan king could have captured the area between Koṇḍaviḍu and Waltair-Siṃhāchalam, thus proving *Firishta*'s statement about the conquest of Ballamkonda, Koṇḍaviḍu and Koṇḍpalle by Sultān Qulī Quṭb Shāh to be entirely untrue. If Sultān Qūli had really conquered these places, then he must have done so after 1519. Therefore, the late Mr. Monmohan Chakravarti was perfectly correct in dating the Musalman invasion from Golkonda in 1522.¹ There is no mention of the capture of Koṇḍaviḍu by the Musalmans in the local chronicle of Koṇḍaviḍu.² Sewell mentions an inscription of Sultān Qulī Quṭb Shāh at Koṇḍapalle,³ but there is no inscription from that place recorded in Horovitz list of published Muhammadan inscriptions in India in the Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica.

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¹ *Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. III, p. 354.*

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¹ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXIX, 1900, p. 185.

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² Sketch of the dynasties of South India, p. 48.

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³ Ibid., p. 28.

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Suddenly, from the beginning of the 16th century a decline set in the power and prestige of Orissa with a corresponding decline in the military spirit of the people. This decline is intimately connected with the long residence of the Bengali Vaishnava saint Chaitanya in the country. If we accept only one-tenth of what the Sanskrit and Bengali biographies of the saint state about his influence over Pratāparudra and the people of the country, even then, we must admit that Chaitanya was one of the principal causes of the political decline of the empire and the people of Orissa. Not only that; the acceptance of Vaishnavism or rather Neo-Vaishnavism was the real cause of the Musalman conquest of Orissa twenty-eight years after the death of Pratāparudra. Considered as a religion, Indian Bhakti-mārga is sublime, but its effect on the political status of the country or the nation which accepts it, is terrible.

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The religion of equality and love preached by Chaitanya brought in its train a false faith in men and thereby destroyed the structure of society and government in Bengal and Orissa, because, in reality, no two men are born equal and government depends upon brute force specially in a country like India in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries A. D. A wave of religious fervour passed over the country, and during this reformation Orissa not only lost her empire but also her political prestige. The effect of Vaishṇavism on the society and government of Orissa was far more destructive than in Bengal, because in the latter country militant Saktism was not destroyed totally and the effect of Neo-Vaishṇavism was beneficent to the extent of bringing within the pale of society a number of decadent Buddhists who had been outcasted by orthodox Brahmanism. In Orissa, on account of its acceptance by royalty, Neo-Vaishṇavism became fashionable, and powerful officers of Pratāparudra, like Rāmānanda Rāya, the governor of Rājamahendrī before its final loss and Gopīnātha Baṛajenā, that of the Maljyāthā Daṇḍapāṭa or Medinipur, were the most notable converts after the king himself. The result was corrosive, though Tāranātha, the Buddhist historiographer, has recorded that some form of Buddhism lingered in Orissa till the end of the 16th century, gradually stamping out all other sects of Hinduism from the country.

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An educated Oriya, the late Mr. Tarini Charan Rath, a munsiff of the Madras presidency, wrote a short note on Rāmānanda Rāya in 1920, voicing the modern Oriya opinion on this officer of Pratāparudra. According to Mr. Rath, Rāmānanda belonged to the Karṇa family and was an Oṛiyā by birth. He was the eldest son of Bhavānanda Paṭṭanāyaka who resided both at Puri and Katak. Rāmānanda rose to be the prime-minister of Pratāparudra and governed the southern viceroyalty from Vidyānagara near Rājamahendrī. It appears that this Vidyānagara may be Vizianagram. In 1510 Rāmānanda met Chaitanya on the banks of the Godāvarī and, being struck by his appearance, became one of his earliest disciples. Chaitanya had heard of Rāmānanda from one of his notable disciples, the logician Vāsudeva Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācharya, and is said to have been attracted towards Rāmānanda on account of his piety and learning. The romantic story of the meeting between Chaitanya and Rāmānanda is cited with reverence by all Neo-Vaishṇavas; but its result was disaster to the empire of Orissa. After meeting Chaitanya, Rāmānanda Rāya resigned his post and retired to Puri. It is said that Pratāparudra had already become possessed of a religious and spiritual turn of mind and Rāmānanda became the cause of their meeting. Their subsequent meeting and the great hold Chaitanya came to possess over this king are now well known.

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At a time when the Oṛiyā nation needed the services of every honest and capable man for the defence of her political prestige and empire, Rāmānanda Raya betrayed his trust to his own people by retiring from his position on the weakest frontier of the country, and one may ascribe the fall of Koṇḍaviḍu, Koṇḍapalle and Rājamahendrī to their being left in charge of young and inexperienced officers like the prince Vīrabhadra on the retirement of Rāmānanda. After Chaitanya's death in 1533-34 Rāmānanda spent the remainder of his life in devotion.

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Baghumpha—Udaygiri, Puri District

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He wrote a Sanskrit drama called *Sri-Jagannātha-vallabha-nāṭaka* and several other minor works.¹

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¹ *Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society*, Vol. VI, 1920, pp. 448-53.

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Neo-Vaishṇava effect on Pratāparudra and his policy is only too apparent even in the literature of that sect in Bengali. In Jayānanda’s *Chaitanya-maṅgala* it is stated that Pratāparudra had consulted Chaitanya about invading Bengal but that saint had dissuaded him, pointing out that the war would have a disastrous effect on his own country.² It is stated in the *Chaitanya-charitāmṛita* that Rāmānanda’s brother Gopīnātha Barajenā, who was the governor of Maljyāṭhā or Medinipur, had fallen in arrears to the extent of two lakhs of *Kahans* of cowries and was ordered to be put to death by Pratāparudra, but he was saved and reinstated at the intercession of Chaitanya’s disciples.³ The *Chaitanya-bhāgavata* mentions Pratāparudra’s wars with the independent Sulṭāns of Bengal and describes the devastation of the country and the destruction of images;⁴ yet the advice of Chaitanya was sufficient to cause this cowardly and religiously-minded king to desist from a proper defence of his own teritories.⁵

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² *Chaitanya-mangala*, published by the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad.

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³ *Antya-Khaṇḍa*, 9th parichheda, Bangabāsī edition.

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⁴ *Antya-Khaṇḍa*, 2nd adhyāya, pp. 772, 779-80; 4th adhyāya, pp. 865-66.

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⁵ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, Vol. LXIX, 1900, pp. 186-7.

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What happened to Pratāparudra after the humiliating treaty with Kṛṣṇadevarāya we are not in a position to determine. Vijayanagara panegyrists credit him with another invasion of the Vijayanagara empire. But the account is incredible, because a few Telugu verses by Kṛṣṇadevarāya’s favourite Telugu poet, Allasāni Peddan, were said to have been sufficient to compel Pratāparudra to retire in haste and confusion.¹

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¹ *Sources of Vijayanagara History, p. 153.*

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At Puri Chaitanya died, or as his disciples believe, was carried away bodily to heaven in 1533-34. Pratāparudra survived him for six years. It has been deduced by Chakravarti from the date of the accession of Govinda Vidyādhara of the Bhoi dynasty that Pratāparudra must have died early in 1540. According to tradition as recorded in the *Jagannātha-Charit-āmṛita*, a biography of the Oṛiyā saint, Jagannātha Dāsa, the founder of the *Atibara* sect of Oṛiyā Vaishṇavas, Pratāparudra survived Chaitanya.²

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² *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXIX, 1900, p. 185.*

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Pratāparudra is known from a number of inscriptions discovered at Puri and other places. The earliest of them are to be found on the left hand side of the Jaya-Vijaya gate of the *Jagamohana* of the temple of Jagannātha. In the 4th *Aṅka* Wednesday the 17th July 1499 orders were issued for the performance of dancing at the time of *Bhoga* of Jagannatha and Balarāma from the end of the evening *dhūpa* to the time of the *Baṛasiṅgār* or bed time. The dancing girls of Balarāma and of Kapilesvāra, the old batch and the Telinga batch, all of them were to learn the singing of the *Gītagovinda* only. Besides dancing, four other Vaishṇava singers were also to sing from the same work of Jayadeva. It is stated at the end of the record that the Superintendent who allows any other song except those in the *Gītagovinda* will cause a violation of the orders of the god Jagannātha. The second inscription inscription was found at the same place. It is fragmentary and contains nothing beyond the name and the titles of the king and the date, 5th Aṅka.¹ Details of the plates of Pratāparudra of the Śaka year 1432 Pramoda 1510-11 A. D., are not available. They were discovered by the district Munsif of Kavali in the Nellore district. The charter records the grant of the village of Velicherla in the Jaladanki-Sthala of the Paṅkanaṭi Sīmā to the east Udayachala or Udayagiri fort who was ruling at Uṇḍrakoṇḍā to a brāhmaṇa of the Bhāradvāja gotra and Yajurveda named Koṇḍaya who was a resident of the village of Pulugulla.² The importance of these plates lie in the fact that they bear the only known charter of Pratāparudra and were issued shortly before the conquest of Koṇḍaviḍu by Kṛṣṇadevarāya of Vijayanagara. They prove that even in 1511 the Nellore district and the former Vijayanagara capital of Udayagiri was included in the empire of Orissa, thus emphasising the need of the last request of Narasa Nāyaka to his son, according to Nunez, enjoining the immediate conquest of Udayagiri in the east and Raichur-Mudkal in the west.

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¹ Ibid., Vol. LXII, 1895, part I, pp. 96-97.

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² Annual Report of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, Madras, for 1921, pp. 16, No. 12, 113, para 70.

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With the death of Pratāparudra the pall of dense darkness descends upon the mediæval history of Orissa, to be lifted only with the Mughal conquest of the province half a century later. Inspite of Neo-Vaiṣṇavite teaching and Chaitanya’s religion of universal love and toleration the repeated treachery of Hindu Oriyas brought the power and prestige of Orissa down within a very short time and hastened the conquest of the southern vice-royalty by the Quṭb-Shāhi Sulṭans of Golkonda and the Afghan-Sur dynasty of Bengal. The result was intense anarchy, during which the Garhjāt chiefs assumed independence. The next important step in the decline of Orissa was the religious superiority of Jagannātha and its hierarchy of temple priests. We have already seen in the chapter on Kapilendra that public proclamations were incised on the Jaya-Vijaya gate of the Jagamahona of Jagannātha; not only so, whenever the Gajapati king was in trouble, he went and expressed a pious wish about his trouble at the feet of Jagannatha. From this period the importance of the Śaiva hierarchy of Āmra-tīrtha or Bhuvaneśvara decline definitely and the king becomes the representative of the Lord Jagannātha in exclusion to Kṛttivāsa of Bhuvaneśvara or Vimala of Jajpur and Kinchikeśvarī of Kiching, as much as the holy Roman emperor was of the See of Rome.

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The religious element had become ubiquitous, as much as the cult of the Sun under Akhen-Aton, Louis Quatorze of France, Kumārapāla of Gujarat and the Mughal emperor Aurangzib Alamgir of Delhi. The decline of the power and prestige of Orissa is solely due to the national adoption of the sublime Bhakti-mārga of Chaitanya. The effect on the condition of the princes of Orissa may be judged by the Garhjat chiefs of the present day who worship Śākta images in secret and in subordination to Vaiṣṇava deities. On the society of the middle and lower classes the effect was far more terrific, compelling poor starving people who ate in the public kitchens during the famines of the British period into a separate class and caste still called Satra-Khiyās.

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