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Tribes in Ancient India c62: Chapter LIX. The Utkalas and Uḍras

Tribes in Ancient India c62

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Chapter LIX. The Utkalas and Uḍras

The Utkalas

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Some Purāṇas seem to imply that one of the ten sons of Manu was Ila-Sudyumna, a Kimpurusha¹ who in his turn had three sons, Utkala, Vinatāśva² and Gaya who enjoyed respectively the territories of Utkala, an undefined western country and Gayā.³ These three territories have sometimes been collectively designated in the Purāṇas as Saudyumnas.⁴ The Saudyumnas thus seem to have occupied the hilly tracts from Gayā to Orissa.

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¹ For a critical and synthetic study of Paurāṇic legends in this connection, see Pargiter, A.I.H.T., pp. 253-4.

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² Or simply Vinata in most Purāṇas, or Haritāśva according to Matsyapurāṇa and Padmapurāṇa.

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³ Utkalasya Otkalam rāṣṭram Vinatāśvasya paścimam dik pūrvā tasya rājarṣer Gayasya tu Gayāpurī.

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⁴ E.g., Vāyupurāṇa, pp. 99, 266.

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Epic tradition⁵ connects the Utkalas with the Uḍras, Mekalas, Kaliṅgas and Āndhras. The Droṇaparvan of the Mahābhārata would have us believe that Karṇa conquered the Utkalas along with the Mekalas, Pauṇḍras, Kaliṅgas, Āndhras, Niṣadas, Trigarttas and Vāhlikas. In the Rāmāyaṇa the Utkala country is associated with the Mekala and Daśārṇa countries. In sending his army of monkeys to the different countries in quest of Sītā, Sugrīva asked Suṣeṇa to send his retinue among other countries of the south to Mekala, Utkala and Daśārṇa (Canto XI,II).

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⁵ Mbh., Bhīṣmaparvan, Chap. IX, 348; Droṇaparvan, Chap. IV, 122.

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From the Epic tradition as contained in the Mahābhārata cited above, it is evident that even as early as the period when the tradition was recorded, Utkala was distinguished from Oḍra or Uḍra and the distinction seems to have been maintained throughout in ancient Indian literature and inscriptions. It is equally evident that it was distinguished from Kaliṅga as well, though a verse in the Vanaparvan of the Mahābhārata⁶ seems to suggest that Utkala at one time formed a part of Kaliṅga. The Raghuvaṃśa of Kālidāsa,⁷ however, represents Utkala as an independent kingdom. The Brahmapurāṇa⁸ also suggests that Utkala and Kaliṅga were separate kingdoms. According to the Raghuvaṃśa, the eastern boundary of Utkala seems to have extended to the river Kapiśā (probably identical with either the modern Suvarṇarekhā, according to Lassen, or with the Kāśāi in Midnapur, according to Pargiter) and to the realm of the Mekalas on the west, with whom they are constantly associated, and who were inhabitants presumably of the Mekala hills. In the Apadāna of the Khuddaka Nikāya of the Sutta-piṭaka, a book of the Pāli Canon, Okkalā or Ukkalā or Utkalas were a tribe mentioned along with the Mekalas.¹ Southward must have extended the realm of the Kaliṅgas. From this, Pargiter deduced that Utkala must have comprised the southern portion of modern Chotanagpur.² He further suggests that the reading Suhmottarāḥ, a people of the eastern countries, of the Matsyapurāṇa,³ should be amended to Suhmotkalāḥ to mean the ‘Suhmas and the Utkalas’, in which case the Utkalas become the immediately contiguous southern neighbours of the Suhmas who occupied roughly the modern districts of Bankura, Midnapore, Purulia and Manbhum. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, however, locates the Utkalas as inhabiting the Vindhya mountains, along with the Karūshas, Keralas (according to Vāyu and Matsya Purāṇas, the reading here should be Mekalas and not Keralas which is evidently incorrect), the Uttamaraṇas and the Daśārṇas. Roughly speaking, the Utkalas were indeed a Vindhyan people inasmuch as the Chotanagpur hills are just an extension of the Vindhya ranges.

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⁶ Vanaparvan, Chap. 114.

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⁷ IV, v. 38.

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⁸ 47, 7.

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¹ Pt. II, p. 359.

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² Mārkaṇḍeya P., p. 327 f.n.

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³ Chap. CXIII, 44.

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Coming to more definite historical times, we hardly find mention of the Utkalas as a people, though in later inscriptions and literature there are numerous references to Utkaladeśa or Utkalaviṣaya, the country presumably of the Utkala people. Thus a twelfth century epigraph of Gāhaḍavāla Govindachandra refers to a Buddhist scholar Śāyarakṣita, who was a resident of the Utkaladeśa. Another inscription, also of the twelfth century (Bhuvaneswar Stone Inscription of Narasimha I) refers to the building of a Viṣṇu temple by Candrikā, sister of Narasimha, at Ekāmra or modern Bhuvaneswar, in the Utkalaviṣaya. It is obvious from this inscription that Utkalaviṣaya at this period at least comprised the Puri and Bhuvaneswar regions as well. Earlier, in the Bhagalpur grant of Nārāyaṇapāla, a certain king of the Utkalas (Utkalānāmādhīśa) took fright and fled from his capital at the approach of Prince Jayapāla of the Pāla dynasty. The Bāḍal Pillar Inscription of the time of Guḍavamiśra credits King Devapāla with having eradicated the race of the Utkalas along with the pride of the Huṇas and the conceit of the rulers of Drāviḍa and Gurjara. The Rāmacaritam of Sandhyākara Nandī in giving a list of foreign countries invaded by his hero Rāmapāla distinguishes Utkala from Kaliṅga in the eleventh century. A Sonpur grant of Mahāśivagupta Yayāti, of about the same date, also distinguishes Utkaladeśa from Kaliṅga and Kongoda.

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The Buddhist literature contains some interesting information about Utkalas or Okkalas. Two merchants, named Tapussa and Bhallika,¹ were on their way from Ukkala to see the Buddha who was at the foot of the Rājāyatana tree near Uruvelā. They were asked by their relative to offer food to the Blessed One who at first refused to accept it, but he afterwards accepted it and ate it up. The two merchants became his disciples.² They were wealthy merchants who also visited Majjhimadesa from Ukkala with five hundred carts.³ Two inhabitants of Ukkala, named Vassa and Bhañña, did not believe in causation action on reality (ahetuvādā, akiriyāvādā, and natthikavādā).⁴

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¹ Cf. Mahāvastu, III, p. 303, where Ukkalā is mentioned as situated in Uttarāpatha.

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² Vinaya Piṭaka, P.T.S., Vol. I, pp. 3-4.

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³ Jātaka, Fausböll, I, p. 80.

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⁴ Aṅguttara Nikāya, II, p. 3; Cf. Saṃyutta Nikāya, III, p. 73; Majjhima Nikāya, III, 78, and Kathāvatthu, I, p. 141.

The Uḍras

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The earliest mention of the Uḍras or Oḍras or Auḍras as a people is, perhaps, found in the following śloka of the Mānavadharmaśāstra where the Oḍras are classed as outside the Brahmanical pale (i.e. Mlecchas) along with the Pauṇḍrakas, Drāviḍas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Śakas, Pāradas, Pahlavas, Cīnas, Kirātas, Daradas and Khaśas.

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Sanakaistu kriyālopādimāḥ kshatriyajātayaḥ
Vṛṣalatvam gatā loke brāhmaṇādarśanena cha
Pauṇḍrakāśchaudra Drāviḍa Kamboja Yavanāḥ Śakāḥ
Pāradaḥ Pahlavaśchaināḥ Kirātā Daradāḥ Khaśāḥ.

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The Apadāna, a work of the Pāli Canon, mentions Oḍḍakā who were the same as Oḍrā or Uḍrā.⁵

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⁵ Pt. II, p. 358.

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Pliny in his *Natural History* mentions the Oretes as a people of India in whose country stood Mount Maleus which in another passage he locates amongst the Monedes and Suari. Cunningham identifies the last two peoples as the Muṇḍas and Suars, from which he is led to conclude that the Oretes must be the people of Orissa. But it must be remembered that even then we cannot definitely equate the Greek Oretes with the Sanskrit Oḍra or Uḍra or Auḍradeśa.

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Epic tradition connects the Uḍras along with the Poṇḍras, Utkalas, Mekalas, Kaliṅgas and Andhras.⁶ According to the *Brahmapurāṇa* (28, 29, 42) which is admittedly very late, the country of the Oḍras extended northwards to Vrajamaṇḍala (Jājpur), and consisted of three *kṣetras* called Purushottama or Śrīkshetra, Savitu or Arkakshetra, and Birajākshetra through which flew the river Vaitaraṇī. But it is somewhat strange that nowhere in early inscriptions do we find any mention of the people and their country. The first elaborate account of the people and their country is found in the itinerary of Hsüan Tsang. From Karṇasuvarṇa the pilgrim travelled south-west for about 722 *li* and came to the Wu-t’u or U-cha country.

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⁶ Vanaparvan, LI, 1988; Bhīṣmaparvan, IX, 365; Droṇaparvan, IV, 122.

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‘The country was above 7,000 *li* in circuit, and its capital above 20 *li*. The people were of violent ways, tall and of dark complexion, in speech and manners different from the people of “Mid-India”. They were indefatigable students and many of them were Buddhists. There were above 100 Buddhist monasteries, and a myriad brethren, all Mahāyānists. Of deva temples there were fifty, and the various sects lived pell-mell. Near the shore of the ocean in the south-east of this country was the city Che-li-ta-lo (= Charitrapura = Puri?), above 20 *li* in circuit which was a thoroughfare and resting-place for sea-going traders and strangers from distant lands.’¹

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¹ Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, II, pp. 193-4.

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About a century later the country of the Oḍras became involved in chaos which has been described as *mātsyanyāya* in contemporary records. The celebrated Tibetan historian Tārānāth in his History of Buddhism records that Oḍiviśa, Vaṅga and five other countries of the east plunged themselves in a chaotic political condition² from which they were rescued by the election of King Gopāla on the throne. Oḍiviśa of Tārānāth is certainly a corruption or adaptation of Oḍra-viṣaya. Oḍiviśa is further mentioned by Tārānāth in connection with the reign of Devapāla who is credited by him as having ‘brought into submission the kingdom of Varendra in the east and afterwards the province of Oḍiviśa’.

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² ‘There was no longer any member of it (the royal family of the Candras) a king; in Oḍiviśa, in Vaṅga, and the other five provinces to the east, each Kṣatriya, Brāhmaṇa, and merchant, constituted himself king of his surroundings, but there was no king ruling the country.’—Tārānāth, *Ind. Ant.*, IV, 1875, pp. 365-6.

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The Tirumalai Rock Inscription of the thirteenth year of King Rājendra Coḷa credits the king as having seized by his great warlike army the Oḍḍa-viṣaya in the course of his northern expedition. This Oḍḍa-viṣaya is certainly identical with Oḍra-viṣaya. The Coḷa king, Rāja-rāja, is also said to have conquered the Oḍḍa country. Doubtless, during this period, Oḍḍa-viṣaya came to mean the whole of the present Orissa country.

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