History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c48.37

v2.c48.37

I shall take only one other instance among the chiefs of Orissa, *viz.*, that of Mayurbhanj. The Bhanjas of Orissa were independent monarchs in the time of Ranabhanja I. This chief began as a semi-independent ruler sometime in the 8th century A. D. From the rank of a Ranaka he rose to be a Maharaja and his descendants ruled over almost the whole of Orissa from modern Mayurbhanj to the Gumsur Taluk of the Ganjam district of Madras. Many chiefs of Orissa still call themselves Bhanjas and rule over many of the Garhjat States and Zamindaries. The present chiefs of Mayurbhanj, instead of claiming descent from the ancient Bhanja kings of the inscriptions, started a new theory about their descent in the British period. Evidently the Oriya "*Chhamukarana*" of Mayurbhanj and the allied group of chiefs were neither so intelligent nor so forward as those of the so-called Chauhan chiefs of Patna- Sambalpur-Sonpur. The theory they started was very fallacious and therefore it immediately became open to attacks of the writers. Mr. Mazumdar says: "It is narrated that a son of a celebrated Man Sing of Jaypur in Rajputana came to Puri and got the zemindari of Hariharpur on marrying a daughter of the then Gajapati Raja of Puri and that subsequently the eldest son of this adventurer became the ruler of the northern half of the State and the second son became the proprietor of the southern half, which developed into the State of Keonjhar. It is also stated that Jay Sing after the acquisition of Hariharpur conquered Mayuradhvaja, then holding the Gadi at Bamanghati in the western part of the State, and thus effected a territorial extension. The new ruler after this acquisition of territory assumed the surname of Bhanja as a measure of policy. The absurd dates recorded in the family annals may be wholly disregarded, as the Temple of Jagannath and the progenitors of the Gajapati Rajas were not in existence earlier than the middle of the 12th century A. D." (pp. 119-20)." The statements of Mr. Mazumdar are perfectly correct. In Mr. Cobden-Ramsay's Gazetteer of Feudatory States of Orissa it is stated that "the Mayurbhanj State was founded some 13 hundred years ago by one Jai Sing who was a relative of the Raja of Jaipur in Rajputana. Jai Sing came on a visit to the shrine of Jagannath at Puri and married a daughter of the then Gajapati Raja of Orissa and received Hariharpnr as a dowry. Of his two sons, the eldest Adi Sing, held the Gadi of the Mayurbhanj State. The Annals of the Mayurbhanj Raj family, however, say that Jay Sing came to Puri with his two sons. Adi Sing and Jati Sing, the elder of whom was married to a daughter of the Puri Raj.” (p. 239). The Rajputs were not in existence as a generic clan in the 6th century A. D. and the Kachhwaha State of Dhundhar, Amber or Jaipur was not in existence at that time. Therefore, the “informations” supplied to the compiler of the Gazetteer was totally wrong. The attempt of the modern chiefs with the affix Bhanja of Orissa can, therefore, be regarded only as a very ill-conceived attempt to obtain Rajput ancestry. The “Chhamakarana” of the Mayurbhanj State was not equipped in Rajput history or ancient Indian chronology and therefore, he made statements to the compiler of the Gazetteer which would make any other man blush in the 20th century.