The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c17.2

v1.c17.2

The region now known as Orissa, approximately extends from the river Subarnarekha to the Chilka Lake and from the Bay of Bengal to the borders of the Chhattisgarh division of the C.P. It lies between Lat. 19° 28′ and 22° 4′ N. and Long. 82° 38′ and 87° 31′ E. This area which is bigger in size than Ireland (32,531 sq. miles) contains no less than 17 Tributary States covering an area of 28,046 sq. miles, which is more than double the area (13,770 sq. miles) under the direct administration of the British Government. The modern distribution of the territories of the feudatory and the sovereign rulers throw interesting light on the period of Orissan history under survey. It would appear that in the pre-Muslim period also the sovereign powers often held only "the narrow alluvial tract between the sea and the Chota Nagpur plateau and the Sambalpur tract lying in the valley of Mahanadi" while the region in between seems to have been, as now, governed by feudatory rulers. Another interesting characteristic of the history of Orissa is its intimate connection with the history of the Chhattisgarh division of the C.P. and with that portion of the Madras Presidency which lies to the north of the Godavari. The district of Sambalpur and five of the feudatory states of Orissa formed a part of the C.P. as late as 1905, while the problem of uniting the Oriya-speaking Ganjam district with Orissa is still exercising the minds of Indian administrators. During the period under survey, some of the most important dynasties that ruled in Orissa appear to have come into the country from these tracts, or ruled it from their head-quarters situated in those areas. There is some reason to believe that Kaliṅga, in its wider sense, included not only the area now known as Orissa but also considerable portions of the C.P. and northern Madras.¹ This probably explains the assumption of the title ‘lord of Trikaliṅga,’ by the dynasties which ruled in northern Madras, C.P., and Orissa. The history of Orissa, therefore, in one sense, is included in the wider history of Kaliṅga. Looked at from this point of view the dynastic history of Orissa assumes some amount of homogeneity. But there is another difficulty. I have already indicated that Orissa has been always ruled by a number of dynasties simultaneously. Of these, one or more at various periods assumed sovereign authority over the others, but at no time did the superior power completely destroy the tributary princes. These latter continued to enjoy a large measure of autonomy and generally did not mention the names of their sovereigns in their records. It is therefore often difficult to find out to which particular power they owed allegiance. The confusion is further increased by the fact that most of the Orissan records before the advent of the Gaṅgas of Kaliṅganagara do not contain any date, or only contain dates whose epochs have not yet been settled. Palaeographic tests, though extremely helpful where long periods are concerned, are of comparatively little use when shorter periods are involved. In the present state of our knowledge of the palaeography of Orissan records, it would be rather risky to dogmatise, for instance, that a particular grant must belong to the 9th century and cannot belong to the 10th century A.D. The confusion is still further increased by the occurrence in certain groups of grants of common names and the inevitable tendency towards identification, often disregarding vital dfferences.¹ In the following survey therefore I shall take up the dynasties separately, indicating as far as possible, in each case, their special characteristics, their time, and the area under their rule, and leaving it for some future occasion to attempt a synthetic and more ambitious outline of their history.