Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s5.2

c8.s5.2

The name, Ganga, of the dynasty is not an ordinary one, and the only other occurrence of such a name in history is in the Greek and Roman accounts relating to the times of Alexander the Great and Seleucus. Chandra Gupta, and the Nandas before him, are described as ruling over the Prasii and the Gangaridæ. The latter, the people of the Ganges valley, are mentioned by Ptolemy; and the Latin authors Virgil, Valerius Flaccus, and Curtius also make reference to them. Pliny writes of the Gangaridæ Calingæ, or Gangas of Kalinga, who, as he terms them *gens novissima*, were not so ancient. We know from inscriptions that there was an important line of Ganga kings in Kalinga in the seventh and eighth centuries, and Ganga kings continued there down to as late a period as the sixteenth century. But the Gangas in Mysore were the main line, as the Kalinga Gangas admit. Both branches trace their name to the river Gaṅgā or Ganges.