Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c11.13

c11.13

With reference to the geography of Kaliṅga, mention has to be made of the views of certain scholars based on the repeated reference to the country in the Ceylonese chronicles. Chapter 59 of the Cūḷavaṃsa says how king Vijayabāhu I (1055-1110 A.D.) of Laṅkā married the Kaliṅga princess Trilokasundarī and offered befitting maintenances to her relations Madhukārṇava (Madhukāmārṇava ?), Bhīmarāja and Balātkāra of Siṃhapura, capital of Kaliṅga, for settling them in his kingdom. The younger sister of the Kaliṅga princes, Sundarī by name, was given in marriage to Vijayabāhu’s son Vikramabāhu. In this connection, Geiger observes, “Siḥapura (Siṃhapura) is the town which according to the legend (cf. Mhvs, 6.35) was founded in Lāḷa (Rāḍha) by Vijaya’s father Sihabāhu. Lāḷa borders in the north of the Kaliṅga kingdom, the home of Tilokasundarī, as must be inferred from Mhvs, 6.1-5. The south-eastern district of Chutea Nagpur to the west of Bengal is still called Singbhum.”¹ It has however to be noticed that, in the age of Vijayabāhu (actually from about the end of the sixth to at least about the begining of the twelfth century), the name Kaliṅga was exclusively applied to the kingdom of the Eastern Gaṅgas of Kaliṅganagara near Śrīkākulam, who styled themselves as Kaliṅg-ādhipatis. Siṃhapura (modern Singupuram in the same neighbourhood) was, however, the capital of the Kaliṅg-ādhipatis in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. and was no longer the capital of Kaliṅga although it may have been the residence of some scions.