Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/454



442 ORISSA. Tradition relates that he built sixty stone temples to the gods; bridged ten broad rivers ; dug forty great wells, and encased them with solid masonry; constructed one hundred and fifty-two flights of stairs on the river banks, as landing and bathing places; planted four hundred and fifty colonies of Bráhnians upon lands granted out of the royal demesne; and excavated one million tanks to protect the crops of the husbandmen. To him appeared lord Jagannath in a dream, and commanded him to journey to the sands of Puri, and there to call on his name. So the king in the twelfth year of his reign journeyed to Puri, and offered up his prayers. Thereafter he gathered around him his princes and vassals, and all the chief men of his state, and said: 'Hear, O chiefs and princes! It is known to you that the kings of the ancient Lion line ruled over a wide country, and enjoyed a revenue of hfteen hundred thousand measures of gold. But by the grace of lord Jagannath, the princes of iny line have subdued many chiefs and peoples, and enlarged the kingdom, so that my revenues are now three and a half millions of measures of gold. Out of this I have assigned fixed sums for the payment of my generals, for the captains of my horses and of my elephants, for the priests, and for the temples of the gods. Princes and chiefs ! touch not these grants, lest ye suffer the penalty which the holy scriptures denounce against those who take back that which has been given. Above all, in the countries under your charge, be merciful to the people. Be just to the husbandmen, and exact no more than the established rates. And now I have gathered together a great treasure. Four millions of measures of gold have I taken from the nations I conquered, and jewels to the value of eight hundred thousand measures of gold besides. What can I do better with this great treasure than build a temple to the lord Jagannath ? Speak freely your minds with regard to the work.' All the chiefs and princes applauded the king's speech. Gold and jewels to the value of a million and a half measures of gold were set apart for the work, being estimated at half a million sterling in the money of our time. For fourteen years the artificers laboured, and the temple was finished, as it now stands, in 1198 A.D. At the end of the thirteenth century, according to some authorities, —at the end of the fourteenth, according to others,-the great reformation took place which made Vishnu-worship a national religion of India. Rámánuja's early movement in Southern India had left behind a line of disciples. The first in the inspired descent to illustrate the doctrine in Northern India was Rámánand, who wandered from place to place proclaiming the equality of man before God. One of his disciples, Kabir, carried his master's doctrine throughout Bengal; and a monastery called after his name exists in Puri at the present day.