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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA the Kāñchīpuram region about 1230 A.C. in spite of his loss of the Śrīraṅgam area five years earlier, he must have occupied parts of that country for a considerable period of time. Under the circumstances, the silence of his court poet who composed the stanzas dealing with his achievements in regard to this spectacular success becomes inexplicable. The verses in question are quoted in Anaṅgabhīma’s own Nagarī plates[1] of 1230-31 A.C. as well as in the charters[2] of his successors. Fifthly, the evidence of the Nagarī plates clearly shows that the year 1230 A.C. was passed by Anaṅgabhīma III in his capital and its vicinity.[3] It is impossible to believe that he could have led an expedition against the Tamil land, about one thousand miles away, in the neighbourhood of that year. But the most serious error in the consideration of the Kāñchīpuram inscriptions seems to be the identification of Abhinava-Vārāṇasī, where the Gaṅga king Anaṅgabhīma (actually, the donatrix Sōmaladēvī) is said to have been stationed, with Kāñchīpuram. It is well known from the Nagarī Plates[4] of Anaṅgabhīma III that he had his capital at Vārāṇasī, Abhinava-Vārāṇasī or Abhinava-Vārāṇasī-kaṭaka, which is the same as modern Cuttack on the Mahānadī in Orissa. It should be pointed out that there are numerous Vārāṇasīs in different parts of India ; but Cuttack seems to be the only Vārāṇasī with the word abhinava prefixed to it. We know that the Gaṅgas originally had their capital at Kaliṅganagara (modern Mukhaliṅgam near Śrīkākuḷam) ; but, sometime after the overthrow of the Sōmavaṁśīs of Orissa by Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga about the beginning of the twelfth century A.C., they transferred their headquarters to Cuttack. Vārāṇasī-kaṭaka or Cuttack is mentioned as the Gaṅga capital not only in the above grant of Anaṅgabhīma III but also in the records of his successors.
[5] The Muslim historians who have described Sultan Fīrūz Shāh’s expedition against the kingdom of Jājnagar (i.e., the Gaṅga kingdom of Orissa) in circa 1360 A.C. during the reign of Gaṅga Bhānu III (circa 1352-78 A.C.) mention the same city on the river Mahānadī as Banārasī (i.e., Vārāṇasī).[6] It is not known as to who amongst Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga’s descendants transferred the capital from Kaliṅganagara to Cuttack. But the Mādalā Pāñjī[7] states that Anaṅgabhīma, who dedicated his kingdom to Purushōttama-Jagannātha, lived at Chaudvāra-kaṭaka on the Māhanadī, while his younger brother and successor, also called Anaṅgabhīma, transferred his residence from Chaudvāra-kaṭaka to Vāṇarāśī(Vārāṇasī)-kaṭaka, a city built by him at the site of a village called Vāravāṭi (in Kodiṇḍā Daṇḍapāṭa) on the other (i.e., southern) bank of the Mahānadī. The evidence of the Nagarī plates, coupled with that of the confused tradition of the Mādalā Pāñjī, however, suggests that it was Anaṅgabhīma III who was the builder of the new capital city called Abhinava-Vārāṇasī-kaṭaka. The correct interpretation of the Kāñchīpuram inscriptions seems to be that the Gaṅga queen Sōmaladēvī made a grant in favour of a Vaishṇava shrine at Kāñchīpuram while she was staying at Abhinava-Vārāṇasī (i.e., the present Cuttack) which was her husband’s capital. Making grants in absentia in favour of ________________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 235 ff. (verses 72-80).
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