Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c11.41

c11.41

The Somavamśīs established their power in the Patna-Sonpur region in the upper Mahānadī valley in the tenth century. The Somavamśī king Mahābhavagupta I Janamejaya (circa 935-70 A.D.) issued most of his charters from Suvarṇapura (Sonpur). His son and successor, Mahāśivagupta Yayāti I (circa 970-1000 A.D.) transferred his capital to the new city of Yayātinagara (modern Binka) built by and named after himself. In the second quarter of the eleventh century, the Somavamśī king Mahāśivagupta Yayāti III Caṇḍīhara (circa 1025-60 A.D.) extended his power over the coastal regions of Orissa. The story of the transference of the lordship of that region from the Bhauma-Karas to the Somavamśīs is not clearly known.¹ But there is little doubt that Yayāti III built a city, named Yayātinagara after himself, in the erstwhile Bhauma-Kara kingdom. This city is mentioned in the Mādalā Pāñji as Abhinava-Yayātinagara (i.e. the new Yayātinagara) in its description of the Gaṅga kings who conquered coastal Orissa from the Somavamśīs but had originally little to do with the upper valley of the Mahānadī. The Gaṅga king Anaṅgabhīma III seems to be described in this work² as Abhi-nava-Yayātinagara-Viṣṇu. The Muslim authors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries mentioned the Gaṅga kingdom as Jājnagar (no doubt a corruption of the name Yayātinagara) apparently after the Abhinava-Yayātinagara of the Mādalā Pāñji, which seems to have continued to remain the capital of coastal Orissa under the Gaṅgas for some time.