Page:Ancient History of the Deccan.djvu/97

93 § 5. The Kings of Kalinga.

We have six documents that give us information about the kings of Kalinga. We have said that, about A. D. 340, Samudra-Gupta met on the coast of Orissa with Mantaraja, king of Koràla, Swamidatta of Kottura, Damana of Erandapali and Mahêndra of Pislitâpura. The last of them had probably the title of king of Kalinga: we shall see, in fad, that Sakti- varman (Ragolu plates) who also reigned at Pishtapura had this title. The six documents we have mentioned being all m Sanskrit are probably posterior to the year 400 A. i). On the other iiind the coast of Orissa was conquered by Pulakêsm 11 (Aihole inscription) about 609 A. D. and was probably shared between the Eastern Chalukyas in the south and the Eastern Gangas in the north. The dates of the 6 documents in question are therefore between 400 and 600 A. D.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to establish a chronology of the kings of Kalinga whose names we know. Therefore we shall now proceed to enumerate those documents without any ascertained chronological order.

a) The Ragolu plates (Ep. Ind. Vol Xll, page 2) mention Vasishthiputra Saktivarman, king of Kalinga who reigned at Pishtapura. It is said that this sovereign "adorns the Maga- dha family." which goes to show that this prince was related to the Guptas and reigned towards the middle of the V century when the Guptas and the Vakatakas dominated the Deccan.

b) The Godavari copper plates (J. B. B. K. A. S. Vol XVI, page 116) had been studied when we gave the history of Indrabhattaraka of the Vishnukundin dynasty: the king Prithivimula who was the donor of the Godavari plates was the son of Sri-Prabhakara and reigned in the city of Kândâli. He was the vassal of another more powerful king named Indra who was the son of Mitavarman, reigned at Mapalkud