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Tribes in Ancient India c62.s1: The Utkalas

Tribes in Ancient India c62.s1

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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.

Cites (17)