Tribes in Ancient India c36.52

c36.52

The reference to Trikalinga in some of the old records is very interesting. The S. Indian dynasties that ruled in the northern districts of Madras, C.P., and Orissa assumed the title ‘Lord of Trikalinga’ or ‘Trikalingādhipati’.⁸ Kalinga, evidently in a narrow sense, has always been distinguished in literature and sometimes also in epigraphs from Oḍra and Utkala and Kosala; but we must also take the Puranic statement into consideration that the Amarakantaka hill was situated in the western half of Kalinga (Kalingadeśe paścārdhe parvate Amarakantake). Mention may also be made in this connection to Pliny’s reference to three Kalingas in his time, already mentioned: (i) the Gangaridae-Calingae, the Kalingas who lived conterminously with the Gangaridae, (2) the Macco-Calingae, either the Mekala-Kalingas or (Macco = Muka = three) the Muka-Kalingas (perhaps identical with Mukhalingam) and (3) the Calingae proper. The word Tilang which we meet with in some Arabic records¹ evidently is a corruption of this Trikalinga which is also responsible for the term Talaing used to designate the ancient people of Lower Burma or Ramaññadeśa who must have originally migrated from the Trikalinga countries. The term Kling applied to the people of Malay Peninsula must have originally been derived from Kalinga which seems to have been the original home of the Kling people.