Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.204

c7.204

Kaliṅganagara.—In the Narasiṅgapalli plates of Hastivarman and the Sāntabommāli plates of Indravarman, Kaliṅganagara has been identified with modern Kaliṅgapatam at the mouth of the Vamśadharā river or Mukhaliṅgam near Chicacole (E.I., IV, 187). According to some, Mukhaliṅgam is a place of pilgrimage, 20 miles from Parlakimedi in the Ganjam district (E.I., XXIII, Pt. II, April, 1935, p. 76). Fleet has identified it with Kaliṅgapatam (Ind. Antiquary, XVI, p. 132) as a kingdom. Kaliṅga occurs in Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (IV. I. 170). Patañjali mentions it in his Mahābhāṣya (3. 2. 2, p. 191). It was a well-known country on the eastern coast of India lying between the Mahānadī and the Godāvarī (J.U.P.H.S., XV, Pt. II, p. 34). It is also mentioned in the Triliṅga Inscription of Devendravarman, son of Guṇārṇava (Gaṅga year 192). The India Office plate of Lakṣmaṇasena refers to Kaliṅga (E.I., XXVI, Pt. I; XXV, Pt. V, January, 1940) which also occurs in the Tekkali plates of Anantavarman of the Gaṅga year 358 (E.I., XXVI, 174ff.) and the Indian Museum plates of Gaṅga Devendravarman, year 308 (E.I., XXIII, Pt. II). Randle is right in pointing out that the tribute on the pratipad days in the shape of a gift of woman was paid by the ruler of Kaliṅga to Lakṣmaṇasena while he was young (E.I., XXVI, Pt. I, p. 11., F.N. 4). The kingdom of Kaliṅga included Pithuḍaka, Pithuḍaga or Pithuṇḍa on the sea-coast, which existed near the river Lāṅguliyā. The Kaliṅga Edict I tells us that a Kumāra was in charge of Kaliṅga with his headquarters at Tosalī (Tosala) or Samāpa (Law, Geography of Early Buddhism, p. 64 f.n.). According to the Hāthigumphā Inscription king Khāravela brought back to his realm the throne of Jina from Aṅga-Magadha.¹ He stormed a stronghold of the Magadhan army in the Barabar hills, known as the Gorathagiri, and caused a heavy pressure to be brought to bear upon the citizens of Rājagṛha, the earlier capital of Magadha. He also compelled king Bahasatimita of Magadha to acknowledge his suzerainty. Khāravela repaired the buildings, walls, and gates in the city of Kaliṅga, which were badly damaged by the stormy wind, raised the embankments of the Isitāla tank, and restored all the damaged gardens. According to the Hāthigumphā Inscription King Khāravela is said to have defeated the Bhojakas and Rāṭhikas (i.e., the Bhojas and Rāṣṭrikas of Aśoka's inscriptions) in the 4th year of his reign and to have compelled them to do him homage. King Khāravela has been described in his own Inscription as Kaliṅgādhipati, and as Kaliṅga-cakkavatti in the Inscription of his chief queen. The Hāthigumphā Inscription clearly shows that Kaliṅganagara was the capital of Kaliṅga during Khāravela's reign. It has been satisfactorily identified with Mukhaliṅgam on the Vaṃśadharā and the adjacent ruins in the Ganjam district. Khibīra was really the capital of Kaliṅga in Khāravela's time. It had its connection with a river near it by a canal opened up three hundred years back by a king named Nanda. It was brought into the heart of this capital by its further extension from the Tanasuliya road. It appears from the location of the new royal palace that the capital was situated on the bank of a stream known by the name of Prācī, which flows on the northern part of the Puri district showing many temples in ruins on its both banks. The river Prācī flows southwards within five or six miles east from the Liṅgarāja temple (B. M. Barua, Khāravela as King and Builder published in the Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Vol. XV, p. 52).