North Indian Inscriptions

RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.

......After what has been shewn above as to the valueless nature of their contents, there is, perhaps, not much to be gained from any consideration of the time when the annals may have been commenced. Still, a few words on this point may be not amiss. Of the two vaṁśâvalis used by Mr. Stirling for his article in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. XV., one was obtained from a Brâhmaṇ of Purî, and the other from a Brâhmaṇ living in the family of the Râja of ‘Puttia Sarengerh,’— “one of the branches of the royal house of Orissa.” In respect of the former, he was told that it was originally composed by some of that Brâhmaṇ’s ancestors, three or four centuries ago, and had been continued up to date (loc. cit. p. 256). No information is given as to the time when the compilation of the second vaṁśâvali may have been started ; but there can be no reasons for attributing real antiquity to this, any more than to the other.¹ The Mâdlâ-Pâñji pretends to greater age. According to the article in the Asiatic Researches, the compilation of it was commenced in the time of ‘Chûrang’ or ‘Sarang Deo’ (loc. cit. p. 268) ; i.e. in the time of Chôḍagaṅga, or, according to the annals themselves, in the period A.D. 1132to 1152. And another compilation, or a different recension of the annals, would invest it with even much greater antiquity : the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. VI. (1837) p. 756 ff., contains another account of the kings of Orissa, taken from a manuscript by Mr. Stirling, found after his death, in respect of which we are told that it is the source whence the materials for his article in the Asiatic Researches was taken, but which really given a very different account, both in names and in dates ; according to this compilation, the Kêsari dynasty was established by Chandra-Kêsari,— Yayâti-Kêsari being here represented as the second king of that line,— in B.C. 144 or 132,² and lasted till A.D. 553 or 565 ; then came ‘Udi Patchourang’ of the ‘Chourang’ dynasty, reigning for ninety years, from A.D. 553 or 565 ; and he started the compilation of the Mâdlâ-Pâñji,— in the period, thus made out, A.D. 553 to 643, or 565 to 655. This is altogether incredible.

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The period A.D. 1132 to 1152 is, perhaps, a possible one ; though not very probable,— because the statements which follow the mention of Chôḍagaṅga are not suggestive of any true history having been preserved even from that point. But this much is certain,— whatever may be the date when the compilation of the annals was commenced, the stories about the Yavanas shew that they cannot have been finally reduced to their present form till the sixteenth century A.D. Sir William Hunter has said (Orissa, Vol. I. p. 286) that the vaṁśâvali on which Mr. Stirling’s posthumous article was based, is “a subsequently compiled list.” But, as far as the published account goes, it makes no mention at all of the Yavanas ; unless this expression is used in the original where in Mr. Stirling’s render- ing we have ‘Musalmân’ and ‘Moghal,’— in the account of Têliṅga-Mukundadêva (A.D. 1512 to 1534, or thereabouts) and onwards. And if this be the case, it seems rather to be a rudimentary compilation, of earlier date, from which the fuller annals were afterwards elaborated.

......A.─ Paṭṇâ Copper-plate Grant of the sixth year of Mahâ-Bhavagupta I.

......This record was originally brought to notice in 1877, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. XLVI. Part I. p. 173 ff., by Babu Pratapachandra Ghosha, according to whose account the plates were found buried in an earthen vessel somewhere in the Native State of Paṭṇâ, attached
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......¹ He mentions also numerous other vaṁśâvalis, possessed by almost every almanac-maker in the province (loc. cit. p. 257). But, while claiming that “occasionally a few facts or illustrations may be gleaned from them,” he says that they “in general abound with errors and inconsistencies,” and he stamped them as “less certain and transtworthy guides.”
......² According to whether Yudhishṭhira is allotted a reign of twelve years in the Kali age, or not. The article simply says— “On the death of Râja Yudhishṭhira, the period of the Kaliyuga obtained complete prevalence.” — Sir William Hunter (Orissa, Vol. I. p. 286) has taken the dates of B.C. 132 to A.D. 655 for the duration of the Kêsari dynasty according to this compilation ; but he has wrongly included the ninety years reign of the isolated king ‘Udi Patchourang,’ of the ‘Chourang’ dynasty, who came between the last of the Kêsaris and the first of the Sûryavaṁśa dynasty.