Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/442



430 ORISSA. been Vishnuites. Anang Bhín Deo, the fifth monarch of the dynasty, who reigned from 1175 to 1202 according to the temple archives, was one of the greatest of the Orissa kings. He made a survey of his whole kingdom, measuring it with reeds; and he also built the present temple of Jagannath. A description of this edifice, and a brief sketch of the form of religion it represents, will be found in the article on Puri Town. The history of the next three centuries, up to the close of the Gangetic dynasty in 1502, is taken up by a narrative of confused fighting, and of expeditions against the rebellious southern portion of the kingdom, which had always given trouble to the Orissa monarchs. On the death of the last king of the line in 1532, his prime minister murdered every male member of his family, and seized the kingdom in 1534 A.D. The Muhammadans, who had been harassing Orissa, now closed in upon the usurper and his successors. About 1510, Ismail Ghází, the general of Husáin Shah, Afghán King of Bengal, had sacked the capital, Cuttack, and plundered the holy city, Puri, itself. But the Orissa prince was yet able to beat back the invaders. The final defeat of the Hindus took place half a century later. In 1567-68, Sulaimán, King of Bengal, advanced with a great army under his general, Kálá Pahár, into Orissa, and defeated the last independent King of Orissa under the walls of Jájpur, The Afghán conqueror, on the defeat and death of the Orissa king, was not content, like previous invaders, with levying a ransom from the Province, but marched through it to its southern extremity, and besieged and captured Purí. His second son, Daúd Khán, who succeeded to the Governorship of Bengal, threw off all allegiance to the Mughal Emperor at Delhi, and declared himself independent. In the struggle that ensued, the Afgháns were worsted and retired into Orissa. Early in 1574, a great battle took place at Mughalmári, near Jaleswar in Balasor, between the Mughals and the Afgháns, in which the latter were completely defeated. In 1578, after a second defeat of the Afgháns, in which Dáúd Khán was slain, Orissa became a Province of Akbar's Empire, and remained so until 1751, when the Maráthás obtained it. The reninants of the Afgháns still used it as a basis for marauding expeditions, one of which, in 1695-98, attained the dignity of a revolt, and temporarily wrested Bengal and Orissa from the Empire. Orissa, even after the extirpation of the Afgháns, still remained a source of weakness rather than of strength to the Empire. The internal troubles which beset the Mughal Government prevented anything like a settled government in Orissa; the peasantry were left at the mercy of a succession of rude soldiers, who harried the Province and got together as much plunder as their brief tenure of office allowed them. In 1742 the Maráthás came down upon Bengal, and found Orissa an adınirable basis for their annual inroads, exactly as the Afgháns had for their