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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA discussion. This is clearly suggested by the fact that the amount given in words as ‘ a hundred chūrṇīs and five purāṇas ’ is separately mentioned in figures as pu 105 (i.e., 105 purāṇas). Thus the amount granted for making provision for the burning of a lamp perpetually in the temple of Garttēśvara was 105 chūrṇis, purāṇas, or kāhāṇas which were equivalent to 134,400 cowrie-shells. It is interesting to note that the family of Kāmāṇḍi, who made grants in favour of the village god of Alagum near Purī and appears to have been an official serving the Gaṅga monarch Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga, is said to have hailed from the country of the Chōḷas. It is well-known that Chōḍagaṅga’s mother Rājasundarī was a Chōḷa princess and that the very name of the king points to the existence of Chōḷa or Chōḍa blood in his vein. Rājasundarī is described in the Gaṅga records as the daughter of the Chōḷa king Rājēndra who is variously identified by scholars with Rājēndra I (1016-43 A.C.), Vīrarājēndra (1063-70 A.C) and Rājēndra Kulōttuṅga I (1063-70 A.C. as Eastern Chālukya king ; 1070-1118 A.C. as ruler of the united Chōḷa-Chālukya kingdom), although the Gaṅga king’s name, Vīrarājēndra-Chōḍagaṅga, found in some records, suggests that he was the grandson of the Chōḷa king Vīrarājendra after whom he was nemed.[1] One of the queens of Chōḍagaṅga was the Chōḷa princess Chōḍa-mahādēvī who is known to have granted some Kulōttuṅgamāḍas for a lamp at the temple of Bhīmēśa at Drākshārāma and may have been a daughter of Rājēndra Kulōttuṅga I.[2]This seems to suggest that Chōḍagaṅga’s mother was a cousin of Kulōttuṅga (son of a daughter of Rājēndra I), a granddaughter of Rājēndra I and a daughter of Vīrarājēndra. We have also evidence to show that there was considerable Chōḷa influence at the court of some of the early monarchs of the imperial Gaṅga dynasty, who sometimes employed Chōḷa officials.[3]
There is little doubt that the rise of the imperial Gaṅgas in Kaliṅga was connected with the expansion of Chōḷa influence in that country.[4] It is now accepted by most scholars that the Gaṅga dynasty was established at Kaliṅgangara (modern Mukhalingam near Chicacole or Śrīkākulam) about the close of the fifth century A.C. The Gaṅgas soon established their power in Central Kaliṅga ; but, in the seventh century, their position was threatened by the expansion of the power of their eastern neighbours, the Śailōdbhavas of Kōṅgōda (about the border between the Ganjam and Puri Districts of Orissa) and by the establishment of the Eastern Chālukyas at Pishṭapura (modern Pithapuram in the East Godavari District) in the south. The authority of the Kaliṅganagara government was also considerably shaken about this time by the rise of collateral viceregal families like that of the Gaṅgas of Śvētaka. The process of decline continued and, in the tenth century, the kingdom seems to have been divided into five states under different branches of the Gaṅga family as well as of viceregal lines.[5] About the 6end of the same century, Vajrahasta Anantavarman (circa 985-1016 A.C.), belonging to one of the branch lines of the Gaṅga family, seems to have consolidated his position in all the five states.[6] His success may have been due to the help he may have received from the Chōḷas. It has to be noted that this king, the first important ruler of the imperial branch of the Gaṅga family, was a contemporary of the great Chōḷa king Rājarāja (985-1016 A.C.) who claims to have conquered Vēṅgī (the kingdom of the Eastern Chālukyas) by 998 A.C. and Kaliṅga (the kingdom of the Gaṅgas) sometime before 1003 A.C.[7] _________________________________________________
[1] Cf. Subba Rao, History of Kaliṅga (offprint), pp. 130-31. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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