History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c8.16

v1.c8.16

In northern Orissa the only important place from the point of view of antiquity is Khiching, the Khijiṅga of the second group of Bhañja kings, which has been recently explored by Rai Bahadur R. P. Chanda of the Indian Archaeological Department. The next important ruin in Northern Orissa is Udayagiri and Lalitagiri in the Cuttack District, which was a considerable Buddhist establishment at one time. These ruins have not been sufficiently explored as yet to permit us to form any definite opinion. Kaṭaka or modern Cuttack has been given undue importance by many writers, who have identified it with the word Kaṭaka, meaning the camp of a king in Copper plate charters. Beyond the fact that the position occupied by this town at the junction of the Kāṭjuṛi with the Mahānadī is important, there are no remains of antiquity at any place near Cuttack. Kaṭaka may therefore be a capital of recent origin, specially of the time of the Sūryavaṁśis, of which period there are several buildings in this town, all ascribed to Pratāparudra. The first important town or city of undoubted antiquity is Dhauli near Bhuvaneśvara, in the vicinity of which there are wide-spread ruins as yet untouched, which may represent Uttara Tosala or Tosali.