Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.206

c7.206

The ancient Kaliṅga country seems to have comprised modern Orissa to the south of the Vaitaraṇī and the sea-coast southwards as far as Vizagapatam (cf. Mahābhārata, III, 114. 4). It also included the Amarakantaka range which is said to be in its western part (Mahābhārata, Vanaparva, CXIV, 10096-10107; Kūrma-Purāṇa, II, XXXIX, 19; Cunningham, A.G.I., pp. 734-35; for further details, vide Law, Geography of Early Buddhism, pp. 63-64). The Matsyap. refers to Jaleśvara which is a tīrtha in the Amarakantaka hill of Kaliṅga (186. 15-38; 187. 3-52). The Bhāgavata Purāṇa refers to it and to its people (IX, 23. 5; X, 61, 29, 37) and the Bṛhat-saṃhitā also mentions it (XIV, 8). The Kaliṅga country lies between the Godāvarī and Mahānadi rivers (Hultzsch, S.I.I., I, pp. 63, 65, 95, etc.). The capital of Kaliṅga was Dantapuranagara (E.I., XIV). Many other Kaliṅga capitals existed in the Ganjam district (E.I., IV, 187). The Sonepur grant of Mahāśivaguptayāyāti refers to Kaliṅga, Koṅgoda, Utkala and Kośala ruled by Lakṣmaṇasena of Gauḍa. Kaliṅga formed a geographical unit by itself, and had its own rulers from the earliest times. Two eastern Gaṅgā copperplate grants from Sudava (E.I., XXVI, Pt. II, p. 63) also refer to Kaliṅganagara which has been variously located at modern Kaliṅgāpatam or at Mukhaliṅgam. According to this copperplate Kāmarūpa is located in ancient Kaliṅga.