Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c11.30

c11.30

As already indicated above, shortly before 500 A.D. the Gaṅgas founded a kingdom about the present Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh. They assumed the title of Kaliṅgādhipati, ‘lord of Kaliṅga’, and had their capital at the city of Kaliṅganagara situated in the vicinity of modern Śrīkākulam. The Vigrahas were holding sway over the Ganjam-Puri-Cuttack area lying immediately to the north-east of the Gaṅga kingdom. Naturally they wanted a new name for their own kingdom to avoid confusion. The new name of their kingdom, viz., Tosali, seems to have been coined after the name of their capital city. That is to say, the Vigrahas probably had their capital at the ancient city of Tosali i. e. the modern Dhauli in the Puri District. The name Tosali was also extended to the ancient Utkala country probably due to the expansion of Vigraha power over that area. These facts appear to supply the reason underlying the renaming of the south-western part of coastal Orissa as Dakṣiṇa-Tosali and the application of the alternative name Uttara-Tosali to the country of the Utkalas. The names Uttara-Tosali and Dakṣiṇa-Tosali were popular in the age of the Bhauma-Karas who flourished between the ninth and eleventh centuries. Later however the name Tosali lost its popularity and the names Utkala and Uḍra, Oḍra or Auḍra gradually came to be applied to the whole of coastal Orissa and ultimately to the entire Oriya-speaking area.