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The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.s5: IV. The Kaliṅgas

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.s5

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English

IV. The Kaliṅgas

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The boundaries of Kaliṅga, the territory under the Eastern Ghāts lying along the coast of the Bay of Bengal on the north of Teliṅgāna, seem to have been uncertain. On the north it may at one time have reached up to the delta of the Ganges, if reliance can be placed on the statements of Pliny, *H.N.* vi, 17–18 (21–22)², and thus included Oḍra-deça, now Orissa; but usually its northern limit was somewhat lower. South of this it comprised Utkala (Ganjām) and the Northern Circārs down to the basin of the Godāvari, or thereabouts³. Early literature however distinguishes the Kaliṅgas from the Oḍras or natives of Orissa. A somewhat unedifying epic legend (*Mbh.* I, 104) makes the races of Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga, Puṇḍra, and Suhma (*v. sup.* p. 317) to be descendants of the saint Dīrghatamas by Sudeshṇā, wife of king Bali; and similarly the grammar of Pāṇini (iv, 1, 170; cf. ii, 4, 62, schol.) groups together Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga, Puṇḍra, etc. The Oḍras also appear very early in Sanskrit literature (*Taittirīya Āraṇyaka*, ii, 1, 11, and the epics); and the law-book of ‘Manu’ wrongly classes them, with the natives of Puṇḍra and the Draviḍas, as degraded Kshatriyas (x, 44). How far Kaliṅga is to be regarded as a Dravidian province is not clear. The name *Pertalis*, which is given by Pliny, *H.N.* vi, 18 (22), as that of the capital of Kaliṅga, has a Dravidian sound, and Dravidian etymologies for it readily suggest themselves¹. At the present day the Circārs and southern Ganjām are mainly Telugu in speech, and 'Dravidian' physical features are found in their populations, as well as in Orissa.

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² He speaks of *Maccocalingae* or *Mactocalingae* as a subdivision of the ‘Brachmanae,’ of *Calingae* on the coast, and of *Modogalingae* on an island in the Ganges.

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³ Pliny (*ut supra*) mentions a cape Calingon, probably Point Godāvari, as being 625 miles from the mouth of the Ganges.

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¹ The first syllable is most probably *per*, *peru*, 'great'; the rest of the word may be connected with *taḷi*, which in Kanarese means 'covert,' 'refuge,' and in Tamil 'temple,' or Tamil *talai*, 'office of a district official,' or *talai*, 'head.'

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The only data of the early history of Kaliṅga, apart from unenlightening references in literature, are those that are supplied by the inscriptions of Açoka and the Hāthigumphā cave in Orissa. The edicts of Açoka (XIII, ed. Senart) tell us that early in his reign—about 262 B.C.—he conquered Kaliṅga and ravaged it pitilessly. The sight of the horrors which he had brought upon the wretched land caused a revulsion of feeling in the king, and inclined him towards the Buddhist faith. When after his death the Maurya empire began to decay, Kaliṅga asserted its independence, and rose again to prosperity. The most important of the Hāthigumphā inscriptions is the record of Khāravela or Bhikshurāja, to whom reference has already been made (p. 600). From this we learn that Khāravela of the Cheta family succeeded to the throne in the 24th year of his age. He claims to have had a population of 350,000 men in his capital, and to have increased the power of Kaliṅga by triumphs gained over his western and northern neighbours. He seems to have been a magnificent ruler of liberal tendencies, and styles himself 'a worshipper of men of all sects.' Other inscriptions record the names of king Vakradeva, probably his son, and of a prince Vaḍukha². For the rest, all is dark.

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² *Epigr. Indica*, vol. x, App. nos. 1347-8.

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