RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.
As we have already seen, Yayâti-Kêsari, representing Yayâti-Mahâ-Śivagupta, is mistakenly
described as the first of his dynasty, and is placed at least five centuries before the earliest date
to which he can possibly belong ; and Janamêjaya-Kêsari, representing his father and predecessor
Janamêjaya-Mahâ-Bhavagupta I., is placed nearly three centuries after him, in the period A.D.
754 to 763. Chôḍagaṅga (A.D. 1132 to 1152) is possibly a historical person, placed not very
far from the period to which he really belonged ; he may be identified with Anantavarma-Chôḍagaṅgadêva of the family of the later Eastern Gaṅgas, lords of Trikaliṅga or the three
Kaliṅgas, who was anointed to the succession in A.D. 1078, and for whom we have also the date
of A.D. 1118-19 (Ind. Ant. Vol. XVIII. pp. 162, 166) : one of the records of this king tells us
that he replaced the fallen lord of Utkala, i.e. Orissa, in his kingdom (ibid. p. 171) ; and he
seems, therefore, to have played some important part in the local history. But all that precedes,
resolves itself into simply this :─ The object in view was the magnifying of the antiquity and
importance of the temple of Jagannâtha at Purî, and of all its surroundings and connections.
The persons who set about doing this, by concocting the annals, could not well go back to before
the commencement of the Kaliyuga,─ the present age. But they felt bound to go back as far as
that point. And they had before them two other well-known epochs,─ the initial points of the
Vikrama and the Śaka eras,─ and, apparently, the date, not much displaced, of a fairly recent
king, Anantavarma-Chôḍagaṅgadêva.1 They thus had three periods to fill up with names,─
B.C. 3102 or 3101 to B.C. 58 or 57 ; B.C. 58 or 57 to A.D. 77 or 78 ; and A.D. 77 or 78 to A.D.
1100 or thereabouts. The last of these periods, being the best filled one, seems to have
been taken in hand by them first ; and,─ except for the alleged occupation by the Yavanas for
a hundred and forty-six years, from A.D. 328 to 474, As regards the meaning of which see
further on,─ they filled it, partly with a few names which are obviously inventions, and partly
with a number of names, connected mostly with reigns of reasonable and admissible duration,
which present no appearance of antiquity and cannot by any means be accepted for the period
to which they are allotted, but may very possibly be names of real rulers of later date,─ say of
the twelfth century and onwards,─ probably many of them petty princes contemporaneous
with each other.
But the accounts for this period do not even agree with each other ; for (see
page 340 below ), another compilation makes the Kêsari dynasty begin in B.C. 144 or 132 and end
in A.D. 553 or 565,─ places next an isolated king of the ‘Chourang dynasty’ named ‘Udi
Patchourang,’ who reigned for ninety years, and then a line of kings belonging to the Solar
Race, which lasted till A.D. 1324,─ and makes the Gaṅgavaṁśa dynasty begin only then.
The interval from the commencement of the Vikrama era to the commencement of the Śaka
era was accounted for in the customary traditional manner, with the reigns of a purely
fictitious king Vikramâditya and his brother Śakâditya. On the earliest period, less trouble
was expended. The list was opened with three well-known Purâṇic names, which were made
to account for 1,294 years ; and it was imperfectly eked out with only nine names, which were
made to fill the remaining 1,750 years with reigns of almost equally fabulous duration : of
these nine names, seven may possibly, like some of the names of the third period, be real names
of rulers of the twelfth century and onwards, or, as already suggested, one of these seven may
contain an anachronistic and otherwise erroneous reminiscence of the great Buddhist king
Aśôka ; but one, that of Mahêndradêva, seems to be a pure invention, to account for the name
of a city which is to be allotted to a period about eighteen centuries later ; and the ninth, that
of Bhôjadêva, is the name of a real king antedated by about twelve centuries. In the whole
account, from B.C. 3101 up to the mention of Chôḍagaṅga with the date of A.D. 1132 to
1152, the only historical gleams which can be detected are that (1) the opening of the list
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......1 It is not made clear whether the dates A.D., allotted to the various kings who are mentioned in the annals,
are taken from Śaka dates put forward for each king, or are simply worked out from the lengths of the reigns.
If the latter is the case, the initial date for the Chôḍagaṅga of the annals could easily be made to coincide exactly
with the date of the coronation of Anantavarma-Chôḍagaṅgadêva.
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