Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c8.s3.11

c8.s3.11

The name Kaliṅga has been used here in a wide sense. The *Mahābhārata* (III, 114, 4) recognises the Vaitaraṇī river as the north-eastern boundary of Kaliṅga, and at the time of Aśoka and Khāravela it certainly comprised the Puri-Cuttack region in the east. At the time of the Eastern Gaṅga king Anantavarman Coḍagaṅga, the Kaliṅga kingdom extended from the Ganges to the Godīvarī. The statement in the commentary on the Kāmasūtra (VI, 6) that Kaliṅga lies to the south of Gauḍa-viṣaya appears to indicate the extension of ancient Kaliṅga as far as the Ganges. The expansion of Kaliṅga from the Mahānadī to the river Kṛṣṇā in the south seems to be referred to in an inscription of the fifth century A.D.¹ The reference in our text may, however, be to the dominions of the Sūryavaṃśī Gajapatis of Orissa. Their empire originally included certain tracts lying to the south of the Kṛṣṇā, though they were later ousted from those areas by the kings of Vijayanagara.