History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c31.27

v1.c31.27

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