History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c31: Chapter XXII
History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c31
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Chapter XXII
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Two sons of Pratāparudra are known to us from the local chronicle *Mādalā Pāñji*. Even their proper names have not been recorded and they are mentioned only by their nicknames. The eldest of them Kālu-ā Deva, succeeded Govinda Vidyādhara, who had already rebelled during the war with the Sulṭāns of Bengal, at the time when Pratāparudra was besieging Isma'il Ghāzī in the fort of Mandāran,—and became all powerful. According to the *Mādalā Pāñji*, he was murdered by Govinda after a reign of one year, five months and three days. No record of his time has been discovered and the only record in which Kālu-ā Deva is mentioned is the temple records of Jagannātha.
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He was succeeded by another son of Pratāparudra, named Kakhāru-ā Deva, who was most probably placed on the throne by Govinda Vidyādhara. According to the chronicles, Pratāparudra had left several sons but all of them were murdered along with Kakhāru-ā Deva. The murder of these two kings is admitted by all writers, all of whom depend upon the *Mādalā Pāñji*. Govinda Vidyādhara then ascended the throne and became the founder of the Bhoi dynasty.
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The length of the reign of Kakhāru-ā Deva is not mentioned by Chakravarti and it is therefore not possible to ascertain when the Sūrya-vaṁśa dynasty became extinct. Govinda ascended the throne in 1541-42, as his 4th Aṅka fell in 1543 A. D. It is therefore apparent that he ascended the throne some time in 1541 or 1542, as 1543 was his third regnal year. If we accept that he came to the throne late in 1542, even then we must add one year and six months of the reign of Kālu-ā Deva. Thus we find that Pratāparudra died either late in 1539 or early in 1540. But as no statement of the Mādalā Pāñji can be relied on without corroboration, it is extremely doubtful what happened during the interval between Chaitanya’s death in 1533-34 and the accession of Govinda Vidyādhara in 1541-1542. The dynasty founded by Govinda is called the Bhoi dynasty, because he belonged to the writer or Bhoi caste. Only one inscription of this king is known and for the rest we have to depend on the Mādalā Pāñji. According to one version of that record, Govinda reigned for seven years but according to another for eleven years and seven months. Mr. Chakravarti, with his ripe experience of Oṛiyā temple records and votive inscriptions, considered the shorter period as being more probable and consistent with the regnal years which follow. Five kings of Orissa reigned between the extinction of the Sūrya vaṃśa dynasty and the final conquest of northern Orissa in 1568. Out of these 26 years, Mukunda Harichandana ruled for eight years, leaving eighteen years only for three generations of the Bhoi dynasty, out of which if eleven and a half years are assigned to Govinda Bidyadhara only seven are left for his son and two grandsons.
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According to the Mādalā Pāñji the Sulṭāns of Golkonda (Jamshed Qūli Quṭb Shāh, 1543-50) invaded Orissa in the 7th Aṅka or the 5th year of the reign. While Govinda Vidyādhara was in the south, his sister's son, Raghu Bhañja Chhoṭa Rāya, rebelled in the north with the assistance of the independent Sulṭāns of Bengal. This statement of the Mādalā Pāñji requires careful analysis. In the first place, Raghu was a Bhañja and he was sufficiently close to the frontiers of Musalman territory in Bengal or Bihar to be helped by them. In the second place, he is called a Chhoṭa Rāya or the second son of a king. He was therefore not the king of Mayurbhañja or Keonjhar, but a younger brother or uncle of one of these kings. In the third place, the first two conclusions make it certain that he was a Garhjāt chief or the general of one, evidently of the Bhañja kingdoms of Mayurbhañja or Keonjhar. In the fourth place, Fariduddīn Sher Shāh had died on 24th May 1545 and had been succeeded by his son Islām Shāh, under whom Bengal and Bihar were included in the Afghan empire of Delhi. There was no independent Musalman kingdom in Bengal and Bihar till Islam Shah's death in 1553. Raghu Bhañja Chhoṭa Rāya had therefore rebelled with the help of either Muhammad Khān Sūr or any of his predecessors. The rebellion of Raghu Bhañja shows the true position of the Bhañjas of Mayurbhañja and Keonjhar on the political stage of Orissa, a position which they continued to occupy till they were hemmed in on all sides with British territory. As soon as the trunk became weak and the great Gajapati a mere shadow of his former splendour, the Bhañja chiefs rose in instant rebellion and continued to defy their overlord by alliance with a foreign power. The result of Raghu Bhañja's rebellion made the king hurry back to northern Orissa and subdue the Garhjāt chief, neglecting the southern provinces of the empire. There is an echo of the rebellion of Raghu Bhañja in the only known inscription of Govinda Vidyādhara. The Jagannātha temple inscription contains an injunction to the Garhjāt chiefs for obedience. This is the first epigraphical record of the term Garhjāt. It is not possible even now to ascertain how much of Orissa to the north of the Godāvarī was conquered by Jamashed Qūlī Quṭb Shāh during the campaign of 1545-46. Mr. Chakravarti is perhaps right in placing the death of Govinda Vidyādhara in *Circa* 1549 A.D.
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In the Jagannātha temple inscription on the right side of the Jaya-Vijaya gate Govinda Vidyādhara uses the high-sounding titles of the Sūrya Vamśa dynasty, e.g., *Gajapati, Gauḍeśvara, Nava-koṭi-Karṇāṭa-Kalavarageśvara* and *Māna-Govinda, Vīravarapratāpa* and *Pratāpadeva-Mahārāja*. The object of the record is a proclamation like those of Kapilendra. It runs thus :
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“Oh Jagannātha, without going and coming to see your lotus feet all appear as hell. The gifts of pilgrims (of places) up to Vindhya and Udayagiri mountains, whether native or foreigner (rest illegible)...The kings of Garhjāt, (illegible) will obey. He who violates this order rebels against Jagannātha, and gets the sin of killing a brāhmaṇ with one’s own hands. (Here follow four stanzas of Sanskrit slokas.”¹
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¹ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXII, 1893, Part I, pp. 101-102.*
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Govinda Vidyādhara was succeeded, according to the *Mādalā Pāñji*, by his son Chakra-Pratāpa or as he is known locally Chakā-Pratāpa. According to one version of the *Mādalā Pāñji*, this king ruled for eight years and according to another twelve years and a half. Mr. Chakravarti, with his usual historical acumen, has accepted the shorter period, making his reign end in 1557. The *Mādalā Pāñji* represents him as a bad king who oppressed the people. Nothing is known of the reign of this king and no record has been discovered of the period. He is not even known to us from any other source. At the close of his reign he was succeeded hy his son Narasimha Rāya Jenā, who was murdered by the general Mukunda Harichandana, a Telinga by birth, after a reign of one month and sixteen days. A civil war now ensued between Raghurāma Jenā, a younger son of Chakra Pratāpa and Mukunda Harichandana, who defeated and captured the prime ministers of the kings of the Bhoi dynasty, named Dānāi Vidyādhara and at the same time defeated and captured Raghu Bhañja Chhoṭa Rāya, who had once more invaded Orissa from the north with the help of the Musalmans of Bengal. Finally after one year seven months and fourteen days Mukunda Harichandana succeeded in capturing the king and ascended the throne after putting him to death. This long record of Hindu treachery and murders comes to a temporary halt in 1559-60 with the accession of Mukunda Harichandana. Inspite of his crimes he is remembered with affection in Orissa as the last Hindu king of the country who gave some respite to the people from continual warfare. But before he had succeeded in making himself secure on the throne of Orissa, the northern part of the country was captured by the Musalmans of Bengal. In 1560, which was the first or the second year of the reign of Mukunda Harichandana, Sulṭān Ghiyāṣuddīn Jalāl Shāh of the Sūr dynasty of Bengal had conquered northern Orissa as far as Jajpur and established a mint at that place.¹ Only one coin from this mint has been discovered, and none are to be found in any of the Indian museums.
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¹ Thomas-Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, p. 417.
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Sarpagumpha—Udaygiri, Puri Distrct
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Mukunda Harichandana was an inhabitant of Telingana and is therefore called Telinga Mukundadeva by the people of Orissa and the local chronicles. He was a man of exuberant energy and a skilled general. He would have succeeded in maintaining the independence of the country had he not been surrounded by traitors on all sides. His short reign of eight years was spent in continual warfare and the last Hindu king of Orissa died on the battlefield. Though he obtained his throne by a successful revolt, he obtained respect of his neighbours by overthrowing Raghu Bhañja Chhoṭa Rāya and driving out his Musalman allies. If the Mādalā Pāñji is to be believed, then Mukunda Harichandana drove out the Musalmans from northern Orissa and reoccupied the northern districts up to the river Bhāgīrathī. A ghat in the holy tīrtha of Triveṇī on the Ganges, a few miles to the north of the Hughly in Bengal, is still ascribed to him. When the crafty Mughal emperor Akbar I was planning the conquest of Bengal, he considered it necessary to enter into an alliance, offensive and defensive with Mukunda Harichandana in order to attack the Afghans of Bengal from both sides. He sent Hasan Khān Khazānchī as an ambassador to Orissa. Ibrāhīm Khan Sūr fled after his defeat in the Panjab to Bengal, but shortly afterwards he had to run away from Gaur to Orissa. Mukunda Harichandana gave him shelter and assigned some property for his maintenance. On account of this protection Sulaimān Khān Kararānī failed to capture Ibrāhīm Khān Sūr. The defeat of the Musalman army in the campaign for the restoration of Raghu Bhañja Chhoṭa Rāya and the succour to Ibrāhīm Khān Sūr made Sulaimān Kararānī of Bengal the inveterate enemy of Mukunda Harichandana. This fact became known to Akbar, who proceeded immediately to ally himself with such a great enemy of Kararānī Afghans of Bengal. Akbar’s ambassadors requested Mukunda Harichandana to prevent Sulaimān Kararānī from assisting ’Alī Qūlī Khān-i-Zaman. The repeated revolts of ’Alī Qūlī, the son of one of Humayun’s trusted offcers, are too well known to be mentioned.¹ Perhaps Akbar’s intentions were to persuade Mukunda Harichandana to create a diversion in favour of the Mughals in case Sulaimān Kararānī of Bengal joined ’Alī Qūlī Khān. Mukunda kept Ḥasan Khān Khazānchī for four months in Orissa and then sent him back with costly presents and some elephants. At the same time he sent his own envoy named Paramānanda Rāya to the Court of Akbar.² Nothing of advantage accrued to Mukunda Harichandana from the Mughal alliance. When Akbar was engaged in his famous siege of Chiṭore, Sulaimān seized the opportunity to crush Orissa and Mukunda’s protegee, Ibrāhīm Khān Sūr. Mukundadeva did not receive any help from Khān-i-Khānān Mun’im Khān and both he and Ibrāhīm Khān Sūr were put to death after the conquest of Orissa.¹
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¹ Ain-i-Akbarī Eng., trans., vol. I, pp. 319-20.
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² Akbarnāmā, Eng. trans., vol. II, p. 381.
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¹ *Ibid.*, pp. 478, 480.
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The *Mādalā Pāñji* contains a more detailed account of the wars of Mukundadeva with the independent Sulṭāns of Bengal, which has been recently collected with great labour by Rai Bahadur Ramaprasad Chanda, B.A.,F.A.S.B. from five different collections of palm-leaf records :
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A. Two manuscripts marked A and B, sent by Babu Gauranga Charan Samanta Roy, Deul Karan of the temple of Jagannātha and
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B. Three manuscripts marked C, D and E, sent by Babu Shyam Sundar Pāṭnāyak, the Tadhau Karan of the same temple.
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In the 10th *Aṅka*, *i. e.*, the 8th year of his reign, Mukunda Harichandana had advanced as far as the Ganges. It was at this time that the alliance with the emperor Akbar was concluded. When Sulaimān Kararānī heard of the advance of Mukunda to the north, he went with a large army and compelled Mukunda to take refuge in the fort of Kotsarma (Kotsamba according to Chakravarti). Orissa was now invaded by two different Musalman armies according to the chronicles, one of which proceeded straight south and compelled Mukunda Harichandana to seek refuge in the fort of Kotsarma, when the second entered Orissa through the bordering States of Mayurbhañja and Keonjhar under Sulaimān’s son Bāyazid. Kotsarma has been identified with Kotsimul on the western bank of the river Damodar in the Hooghly district of Bengal. According to *Akbarnāmā* and the *Mādalā Pāñji*, Mukundadeva had at that time yielded himself to self-indulgence.
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He sent an army under Durga Punj (Durga Bhañja or Durga Pāñja) and Jihata Rai (Chhoṭa Rāya). According to Abu’l Fazl, these two officers corrupted the officers of the Musalman army and then turned against Mukunda Harichandana. Mukunda and the Chhoṭa Rāya were both killed and the kingdom fell to Durga Bhañja.¹ Both chronicles agree about the route taken by the second army under Bāyazid. Reaching the head waters of the Kāñsābāñsā river, Bāyazid marched through the interior of Dhalbhum and the western part of the Māyur-bhañja State and surprised Katak. At that time Mukunda Harichandana was besieged in the fort of Kotsarma or Kotsīmul. Koli Sāmanta Singhāra, the commandant of Katak fort, was killed and the royal palace stormed by the Musalmans. During this confusion in the country one Rāma Chandra Bhañja, the commandant of Sarangarh fort near Katak, proclaimed himself to be the king. This unexpected treachery on the part of the Bhañja chief compelled Mukunda Harichandana to come to terms with Sulṭān Sulaimān Kararānī and hasten to Katak. A civil war now ensued during which Mukunda Harichandana was killed by Rāma Chandra Bhañja. According to the Mādalā Pāñji, Bāyazid attacked Rāma Chandra Bhañja and both were killed on the same day. Mukunda Harichandana died in Śaka 1490=1568 A. D. Raghu Bhañja Chhoṭa Rāya, who was in prison up to this time, now escaped and tried to take possession of the country, but he was also defeated and killed by the celebrated renegade Hindu Kālāpāhāḍ. The latter had accompanied prince Bāyazid and desecrated the temple of Jagannātha and tried to destroy and burn the wooden idols. According to the *Mādaḷā Pañji*, "During the troubles that followed the Pathan invasion Divyasimha Pāṭnāyak, the *Parikṣha* or the manager of the temple of Jagannātha, removed the idols to Parikud, an island in the Chilka lake, and hid them underground at Chhavali Hathipada. Kālāpāhāḍ got scent of this, proceeded to Parikud and recovered the images. From Parikud he returned to Puri, plundered the stores (*Bāvaṇa-koṭi bhaṇḍāra*), damaged the great temple up to the *āmalaka* stone, disfigured all the images and uprooted the *Kalpa-vaṭa* tree and set fire to it after covering it with horses' dung. The images of Jagannātha was then conveyed to the bank of the Ganges and thrown into fire. It is added that the son of Kālāpāhāḍ cast the half-burnt image into the Ganges".¹
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¹ Akbarnāmā, Eng. trans., Vol. III, pp. 933-34.
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¹ *Journal of the Bihar & Orissa Research Society*, Vol. XIII, 1927, p. 25.
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The recent researches of Rai Bahadur Rama Prasad Chanda have thrown some more light on this dark period of the history of Orissa. The *Mādaḷā Pañji* states that Chakrapratāpa, the son and successor of Govinda Vidyādhara, was a tyrant and compelled brāhmaṇas to cut grass for his horses. He died in the temple of Jagannātha at Puri, but according to Abu'l Fazl, he was murdered by his own son Narasimha Jenā.² It was about this time that Mukunda Harichandana and his four brothers had come from Telingana. He was indignant at the wickedness of the king and sent armed men disguised as women in covered litters inside the fort and had the king Narasimha Jenā killed. He then set up the late king's brother Raghurāma Jenā on the throne. Raghurāma was murdered and removed in Śaka 1481=1559 A. D., and Mukunda ascended the throne.¹
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² *Akbarnama Eng., trans., Vol. III. p. 933.*
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¹ *Journal of the Bihar & Orissa Research Society*, Vol. XIII, 1927, pp. 10-27.
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The death of Mukunda Harichandana, the last great Gajapati of Orissa, brought the solidarity of the country to an end. Up to this time the Gajapatis were in possession of almost the whole of the kingdom left to Pratāparudra at the time of the conclusion of the peace with Kṛṣṇadevarāya of Vijayanagara in 1519. The southern limit of the kingdom of Mukunda Harichandana is indicated by a short Telugu inscription on a pillar at Drākshārāmam on the Godāvari which has not been fully published as yet. The summary published by the late Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Sastri is not very reliable; "States that the king while ruling from his throne at Kataka (i. e., Cuttack) having conquered the Gauḍa (country), giving promise of favour to the Gauḍa king, and having performed the pearl Tulapurusha and other donations at the Gaṅgā (? Ganges), remitted the duties on the marriages in the 27th sthalas attached to Rajamahendravaram." The inscription is dated 10th Aṅka, di. 5, kri, 7, Akahaya Pushya, ba 7, a Thursday. The 10th Aṅka corresponds to the 8th year of the reign and the inscription must have been incised in 1568. This inscription calls Mukundadeva *Vira Mukunda-Gajapati-Mahadeva*.² The inscription is to be found on a pillar in the *Mandapa* in front of the western *Gopuram* of the temple of Bhimesvara in the village of Drākshārāmam of the Ramachandrapuram *taluga* of the Godāvari district. It proves that up to 1578 the Gajapatis had not lost any land to the north of the Godāvari.
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² *Annual report of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy. Southern Circle for the year 1919*, pp. 77, No, 335, and 106, .
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After the defeat and death of Mukunda Harichandana the decline of the Gajapatis was swift and sure. Mr. Chanda surmises that "Kalapahar's expedition to the Puri district of Orissa was a mere raid. Soon after he had turned his back Ramachandra-deva carved out a kingdom in southern Orissa, with Khurda as its capital."[1] This is a misstatement of facts. Two independent kingdoms were founded upon the remains of the empire of Pratāparudra, one in the south and the second in the north, both of which claimed to be Gajapatis. In the north the chiefs of Khurda were given the rank of Raja of Orissa by the Mughal Emperor Akbar at the intercession of Māna Simha, whom Rāmachandra I of Khurda had succeeded in bribing more heavily than Rāmachandra, the son of Mukunda Harichandana. The history of the southern Gajapatis is not so very well known. One of them is mentioned in the Bodagulo inscription on the road from Kallikota to Boirani. The inscription belongs to the reign of Muhammad Qūlī Qutb Shāh of Golkonda (1580-1612 A.D.) when the Gajapati ruler Narasimha was the subordinate Hindu chief. The late Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Sastri stated in 1914 that "The Gajapati kingdom was from 1559 in the hands of a Telegu family of usurpers of which Mukundadeva and Bāhubalendra were members. Narasimha or Singabhūpala mentioned in the Bodagulo record would perhaps be another of the same family.” The inscription at Bodagulo makes Narasimha born of the lunar race of the Sālvas.¹ Another inscription on a rock ten miles from Aska and four miles from Boirani mentions Narasimha as the Gajapati and a chief named Bāhubalendra as his subordinate. The rock inscription is dated Śaka 1512=1590 A. D., and proves that there was an independent line of the Gajapatis in the Ganjam district who were ruling as subordinates of the Quṭb-Shāhī Sultans of Golkonda. These two records prove that Sir Jadunath Sarkar was only partially correct when he stated that “The Golkonda troops advanced conquering to the Bay of Bengal and occupied the country from the Chilka lake to the Penner river. Their raiding bands penetrated as far north as Khurda, the seat of the faineant Rajah of Orissa. The Gajapati Rajah of Ganjam was ousted by the Golkonda Sultan in 1571.” We have seen just now that the Bodagulo inscription and the Atagada record² of Śaka 1512 prove the existence of the southern Gajapatis till 1590. Moreover the Bāhubalendras were hereditary officers whose names always appear to have been Mukundadeva. Besides the Bāhubalendra mentioned in the Bodagulo and Atagada inscriptions a number of others are mentioned in a number of inscriptions, thus proving that the name and the office were hereditary to some extent. One Bāhuvalendra put to death certain officers of the Golkonda State named Ghazanfar Beg and Birlās Khān.¹ His son Mukundarāja, also called Bāhuvalendra, fled to Bengal some time before A. H., 1012=1603 A. D.² One Bāhuvalendra was the predecessor of these two, as he was living in Śaka 1432=1510 A. D., and was therefore a subordinate to Pratāparudra. One Bāhuvalendra issued a copper plate grant in Śaka 1517 and, therefore, appears to be the same as that mentioned in the Bodagulo and Atagada inscriptions.³ The conquest of southern Orissa was more difficult than that of the north and the subordinate Hindu chiefs were practically independent till the foundation of the Faujdārī of Chikakol in 1641. "Chicacole became the seat of a Quṭb Shāhī faujdar some time before 1641, when a handsome mosque was built there by Shir Muhammad Khān, the first faujdār.⁴
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¹ *Journal of the Bihar & Orissa Research Society*, Vol, XIII 1927, p. 23.
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¹ Annual Report of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, Madras for 1914. pp 105-106.
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² Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol, XV, pp. 196-97.
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¹ Rise of the Muhammadan Power in India, Vol. III, p. 465.
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² Ibid., p. 470.
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³ The point is discussed in my note on the Atagada inscription in J. B. and O. R. S. vol. XV, pp. 201-203.
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⁴ Sarkar—History of Aurangzib, Calcutta 1912, vol. I, p. 215.
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Jambeswaragumpha—Udaygiri, Puri District
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In northern Orissa the title of Gajapati remained in abeyance till 1592, or 24 years, when, by a clever manipulation of religious opinion, Māna Simha managed to gain over the priests of Jagannātha in favour of Rāma Chandra I of Khurda against Telinga Rāmachandra. For 24 years, from 1568 till 1592, there was anarchy in Orissa and very little is known of the short Afghan rule in that province. Sulaimān Kararānī was followed by his sons Bāyazid and Dāūd and after the fall of the latter at the battle of Rajmahal in 1576, Orissa became a debateable country where the disaffected Afghans found refuge whenever chased out of Bengal. More often than not Mughal Subadars found it convenient to let troublesome Afghan chiefs like Qatlū or Osmān remain in possession of Orissa, and, therefore, the Mughal rule in Orissa did not really begin till the accession of the Mughal Emperor Nūruddīn Jahāngīr. The story of the Mughal-Afghan struggle for Orissa and the creation of a fresh Gajapati by the Rajput chief Māna Siṃha is narrated in the next chapter. (Second Volume)
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