History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c8.12

v1.c8.12

The inclusion of the Oṛiyā speaking district of Ganjam in the Madras Presidency is due to the different steps in the Musalman conquest of Orissa. While the Sulṭāns of Bengal conquered Northern Orissa in 1568, their own independence was at stake, as Akbar destroyed the independence of the Musalman kingdom of Bengal eight years later, in 1576. The Musalman conquest of Central Orissa was left unfinished and the Afghans seldom succeeded in penetrating into the interior of the Mahānadī Delta. The Quṭb-shāhīs of Golkonda were very slow in approaching Central Orissa, though they occupied Rājamahendrī soon after the death of Pratāparudra. They advanced as far as Qasimkoṭā in many different stages. So far only the plain flat country at the foot of the Ghats had submitted to them and the Hindu chiefs remained independent in the vast hilly country to the North-west. The Ganjam district was reached by the Quṭb-shāhis only a few years before their fall in 1687. Because the Oṛiyā speaking tracts were included at that date in the kingdom of Golkonda, therefore they continued in the Ṣūbah of Ḥaidarābād till their transfer to the British in 1761. Even after the unification of the whole of Oṛiyā-speaking countries under British rule in 1804-5 and 1856, the Ganjam district still continues to form a part of Madras, and the states on the border of Kośala belonged to the Central Provinces till 1905, while Southern Medinipur is still included in Bengal.