The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c17.s1.112

v1.c17.s1.112

Nothing is known about the history of the successors of Uddyotakesarin. According to the *Mādlā-Pāñji* Suvarṇa Kesarī who ruled in *c.* 1123-32 A.D. was the last king of the Kesarī dynasty. We are told by this chronicle that Orissa was conquered by a king from the south named Coḍagaṅga (1132-52 A.D.) who established the 'Gaṅgā-vaṁśa.'² Fleet rightly identified this Coḍagaṅga with Anantavarmā Coḍagaṅga of the later Gaṅga dynasty, for whom we have dates ranging from *Śaka* 998 to *Śaka* 1069 (*c.* 1076-1147 A.D.). Though Suvarṇa Kesarī is utterly unknown to epigraphic evidence, and may possibly be fictitious, yet it is not unlikely that the Orissan chronicles may have retained a reminiscence of the real facts when they make the later Gaṅgas the successors of the Kesarīs in Orissa. There is no inherent improbability in the proposition that the Somavamśī Kesarīs were destroyed during the vigorous reign of Anantavarmā Coḍagaṅga sometime before *c.* 1148 A.D.¹