History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c8.6

v1.c8.6

There is no natural boundary, at the present time, dividing Koṅgoda or southern Tosala from Kaliṅga, unless we take it for granted that the Vaṃśadhārā or the Lāṅguliyā were at one time much larger and perhaps tidal rivers which could be taken as a landmark. From Chikakole to the Godāvarī Delta the country is very beautiful but in this tract the ghats are divided into a number of parallel ranges which reduce the breadth of the flat plain country to a minimum. The rivers in this tract are few and far between and very small in size. This is Kaliṅga proper as described by Yuan Chwang in the 7th century A.D. The people of this country were warlike from the very dawn of history and it was reduced with great difficulty by the Musalman conquerors of Orissa. The ferocity of the people of Kaliṅga may be judged from the number of people killed and captured during Aśoka’s campaign in Kaliṅga. In mediaeval times, long after the Musalman conquest of Northern Orissa, Central and Southern Orissa continued to offer stout resistance to the Quṭb-shāhī Sulṭāns of Golkonda and the independent Pathan or Afghan Sulṭāns of Bengal. The Musalmans of Golkonda ousted the Gajapatis of Ganjam in 1571, but the first Musalman Faujdār of Chikakol was appointed only a few years before 1641.¹