History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c17.15

v1.c17.15

Beyond their prosperity and their great temples and buildings we have little to record of the politics of the Kesari line of kings of Orissa. As the palm-leaf records show, this dynasty began in about 500 A. D. but their real power and independence began with 657 A. D. the date of the completion of the Bhuvaneśvara temple to Śiva after Harsha's death. They were orthodox worshippers of Śiva and invited thousands of Śaivite Brahmins of Oundh and settled them at Jaipur where they are still to be found in the enjoyment of lands given to them in fee by devout kings more than a thousand years back. These kings continued to rule down to 1132 A. D. according to the palm-leaf records in their capital Cuttack (which was built about 1030 A. D.) when a revolution took place and the Kesari line of kings came to an end. A religious revolution also happened about this time and in a sense Buddhism reared its head again in the form of Vaishnavism. Both this religious change and political revolution belong to the third portion of our period, and we finish this history of Orissa here to return again to it in the third volume of our history.