The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c17.s1.15

v1.c17.s1.15

The name of the first king of the Orissan branch of the Somavaṁśīs so far available is Śivagupta. No inscription of this prince has yet been discovered. But in the grants of his successors he is given imperial titles (*Pb.-M.-P.*). On palaeographic considerations I have approximately referred him to *c.* 950 A.D. If this guess is correct, he is probably to be identified with the *Kosalendra* from whom the Tripurī Kalacuri Mugdhatuṅga is said to have taken a place named Pāli.¹ I have elsewhere suggested the identification of Pāli with the modern village of that name, situated about 12 miles N.E. of Ratanpur in the Bilaspur district (C.P.). The acceptance of these identifications would reveal one of the stages of that struggle between the Kalacuris and the Somavaṁśīs which gradually ousted the latter from their possessions in Chhattisgarh and restricted their power within the present limits of Orissa.