The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c17.s1.42

v1.c17.s1.42

From the grants mentioned above we get very little information about the political incidents of the reign of Mahābhavagupta. He is of course given imperial titles and called the lord of Trikaliṅga and Kosala. But most of his inscriptions appear to have been issued from places situated in the states of Sonpur and Patna. The villages granted in the records, including those which were found near Cuttack, so far as they have been identified, are all situated within the area now occupied by the States of Patna, Sonpur and Athmallik and the district of Sambalpur. Until further discoveries are made, we must tentatively conclude that in spite of his high-sounding titles he was the ruler of Western Orissa only.¹ As his grants are issued both from Suvarṇapura (Sonpur) and Murasīma (Mursinga in Patna State), it is difficult to decide on the name of his capital. But it has been suggested by some scholars that it may have been the city of Vinītapura, which occur in his son's grants, and which has been identified with modern Binka on the Mahanadi, in Sonpur state.² As we have dated records of his reign up to his 31st year we can approximately assign him to the period 975-1010 A.D. If this period for him is correct, he may have been the *Kosala-nātha* who was defeated by the Tripurī Kalacuri Lakṣmaṇarāja.³ We have seen that Pāli, near Ratanpur, was captured by Mugdhatuṅga, presumably from his father Śivagupta As the former was the great-grandfather of Lakṣmaṇarāja, the latter was possibly a very junior contemporary of Mahābhavagupta I.