| KALING Kaling was a country in central-eastern India, which comprised of most of the modern state of Orissa, as well as some northern areas of the bordering state of Andhra Pradesh. It was a rich and fertile land that extended from the river Subarnarekha to Godavari and from Bay of Bengal to Amarkantak range in the West. The kingdom had a formidable maritime empire with trading routes linking it to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Bali, Sumatra and Java. Colonists from Kaling settled in Sri Lanka, Burma, and the Indonesia archipelago. Even today Indians are referred to as Keling in Malaysia because of this. Many Sri Lankan kings, both Sinhalese and Tamil, claimed decent from Kaling dynasties.
Variants
:
Kaling mana is a reference to Panini in Ashtadhyayi.
History
:
Rajtarangini mentions the victory of Kashmir king Lalitaditya over various kingdoms. He marched thence with his army towards the east. He passed Kaling, where elephants were caught. And then he came to Gour. Thence he reached the Eastern Sea, and pursued his course along the coast towards the south, conquering as he went. Karnata submitted on his approach. A beautiful Karnati lady named Ratti who ruled supreme in the south, her territories extending.
[p.69]: as far as the Vindhya hills, also submitted to him. The army then rested on the banks of the Kaveri beneath the palm trees, drinking the water of coconuts. Thence he marched to Chandanadri. And then the king crossed the sea passing from one Island to another ; and thence marched towards the west, the sea singing the songs of his victory. He then attacked the seven Kramuk and the seven Kongkan which suffered much thereby. His army was anxious to enter Dvaraka situated on the Western Sea. The army then crossed the Vindhya hills and entered Avanti where there was an image of Shiv named Mahakal.
Kaling
Nagar :
Kaling
:
Kaling is mentioned in Uttaradayan Sutra, Mahagovind Sutra, Panini 4.1.170 and Bodhayan 1,1,30-31. From Mahabharat Shanti Parv, 4,2, it is reported that the king of the place during the Mahabharat was Chitrangad - 'Kaling vishye rajna rajnatanthangadasya'. Among the natives, the capital of Kaling has been mentioned in a city called Dantpur, but in the Mahabharat, this position is available to Rajpur - Srimadrajapuram Naam Nagantra Bharat'- Shanti Parva 4,3. Another city of Kaling, Sinhala, is mentioned in the Mahavastu (Senart - page 432). Pliny (first Sati AD), the ancient historian of Rome, has told a place called Parathalis, the capital of Kaling. Jain writers of Kaling in KanchanpurCalled mentioned a city (Indian Antikweri, 1891, p 0.375) Kalingnagar mentioned.
[p.149]: It is in Kharavel's inscription (1st century AD), who was the king of Kaling. The entrance to the city and the corridor were repaired by Kharavel in the first year of his reign. Kalingnagar is identified with Mukhlingam (near Shishupalgarh) which is situated on the banks of the Vansadhara river. Kaling is also mentioned several times in the Vishnupuran - 'Kalingdesadabhyetya preetan Sumhatmana' 3,7,36; 'Kaling Mahish Mahendra Bhowman Guha Bhokshyanti' - 4,24,65 indicates that Kaling probably had a Guha-people kingdom before the Gupta rule. Kalidas has described Kaling to the south of Utkal in Raghuvansh 4,38 - 'Path of the carved: Kalingbhimukhoyayou' (De.Utkal ) During Raghu's Vijay Yatra, the heroes of Kaling had faced Raghu strongly. He had a large army of yards. The Kaling King Hemangad is mentioned in Raghuvansha 6,53 ('Athangadashlishtibhunam-bhujishya Hemangandam name Kalingnatham) and his Gajasena is beautifully described in 6,54.
Even in Kautilya Arthashastra Kaling elephants have been considered superior - 'Kalingnggaja: Shrestha: OriyaSchedicadushruja (s), Dasaranashchaprantashtwa Dwipanam Madhyamata:. Saurashtraika: Panchandasteshan Pratyavara: Smrita: Sarveshanam karmana semen javasjateshvardhte '.
Ashok Maurya by 261 BC I had won Kaling. One lakh human beings were killed in this campaign. Seeing this terrible massacre, Ashoka had taken up Buddhism and resolved to spend the rest of his life in preaching religion.
2. Kaling (AS , p.149): Valmiki-Ramayana , a city mentioned in Ayodhya Kand 71,16 - 'A brother-in-law, Vinte Gomtindin, Kaling-nagre chapi prapya salvanam tada'. It is mentioned in the context of the journey from Bharat Kekay to Ayodhya . After this, after spending one night, he reached Ayodhya . It seems that the condition of Kaling Nagar must have been between Gomti and Saryu river (eastern Uttar Pradesh). It has mention of Sal forests.
3. Kaling (AS, p.149): In the early powers of AD, an Indian colony settled in the Middle Jawadwip where the inhabitants of the Kaling country of India were inhabited. Chinese people knew it by the name Holling.
Kaling
Introduction :
In Bhagavat Puran :
Yayati → Anu → Sabhanar → Kalanar → Janamejay → Maha Shal → Mahamanas → Titiksh → Rushadratha → Hom → Sutapas → Bali
Bali had six sons Ang, Banga, Kaling, Sambhu, Pundra and Odhra.
Kaling
in Mahabharat :
Karna Parv / Mahabharat Book VIII Chapter 30 mentions this tribe in derogatory sense and advises to avoid this country.
Mahabharat
Shalya Parv mentions names of combatants armed with diverse weapons
and clad in diverse kinds of robes and ornaments, All of them came
to the ceremony for investing Kartikeya with the status of generalissimo.
Shalya Parv in Sanskrit mentions in shloka 59 Burdak along with
Kalings.
Visit
by Xuanzang in 639 AD :
[p.516]: west of Ganjam. Both bearing and distance point either to Rajamahendri on the Godavari river, or to Koringa on the sea coast, the first being 251 miles to the south-west of Ganjam, and the other 246 miles in the same direction. But as the former is known to have been the capital of the country for a long period, I presume that it must be the place that was visited by the Chinese pilgrim. The original capital of Kaling is said to have been Srikakola, or Chikakol, 20 miles to the south-west of Kaling-patam. The kingdom was 5000 li, or 833 miles, in circuit. Its boundaries are not stated ; but as it was united to the west by Andhra, and to the south by Dhanakakata, its frontier line cannot have extended beyond the Godavari river, on the south-west, and the Gaoliya branch of the Indravati river on the north-west. Within these limits, the circuit of Kaling would be about 800 miles. The principal feature in this large tract of country is the Mahendra range of mountains, which has preserved its name unchanged from the time of the composition of the Mahabharat to the present day. This range is mentioned also in the Vishnu Purana, as the source of the Rishikulya river, and as this is the well-known name of the river of Ganjam, the Mahendra mountains can at once be identified with the Mahendra Male range, which divides Ganjam from the valley of the Mahanadi.
Rajamahendri was the capital of the junior, or eastern branch of the Chalukya princes of Vengi, whose authority extended to the frontiers of Orissa. The kingdom of Vengi was established about A.D. 540, by the capture of the old capital of Vengipura, the remains of
[p.517]: which still exist at Vegi, 5 miles to the north of Ellur, and 50 miles to the west-south-west of Rajamahendri. About A.D.750, Kaling was conquered by the Raja of Vengi, who shortly afterwards moved the seat of government to Rajamahendri.
The Calingae are mentioned by Pliny, as occupying the eastern coast of India below the Mandei and Malli, and the famous Mount Maleus. This mountain may perhaps be identified with the high range at the head of the Rishikulya river, in Ganjam, which is still called Mahendra Male, or the " Mahendra mountain." To the south, the territory of the Calingae extended as far as the promontory of Calingon and the town of Dandaguda, or Dandagula, which is said to be 625 Roman miles, or 574 British miles, from the mouth of the Ganges. Both the distance and the name point to the great port-town of Coringa, as the promontory of Coringon, which is situated on a projecting point of land, at the mouth of the Godavari river. The town of Dandaguda, or Dandagula, I take to be the Dantapura of the Buddhist chronicles, which, as the capital of Kaling, may with much probability be identified with Raja Mahendri, which is only 30 miles to the north-east of Coringa. From the great similarity of the Greek G and ?, I think it not improbable that the Greek name may have been Dandapula, which is almost the same as Dantapura. But in this case, the Danta, or "tooth relic," of Buddha must have been enshrined in Kaling as early as the time of Pliny,
[p.518]: which is confirmed by the statement of the Buddist chronicles, that the "left canine tooth" of Buddha was brought to Kaling immediately after his death, where it was enshrined by the reigning sovereign, Brahmadatta. Dantapura, also, is said to have been situated on the northern bank of a great river, which can only be the Godavari, as the Kistna was not in Kaling. This fact alone would be sufficient to fix the position of Dantapura at the old capital of Rajamahendri, which is situated on the north-eastern bank of the Godavari. The name of Mahendri is perhaps preserved in the Pitundra Metropolis of Ptolemy, which he places close to the Maisolos, or Godavari, that is, to the river of Masuli-patam.
A still earlier name for the capital of Kaling was Sinhapura, which was so called after its founder, Sinha-bahu, the father of Vijaya, the first recorded sovereign of Ceylon. Its position is not indicated, but there still exists a large town of this name on the Lalgla river, 115 miles to the west of Ganjam, which is very probably the same place.
In the inscriptions of the Kalachuri, or Haihaya dynasty of Chedi, the Rajas assume the titles of "Lords of Kalanjjarapura and of Tri-Kaling. Kalanjar is the well-known hill-fort in Bundelkhand; and Tri-Kaling, or the " Three Kalings," must be the three kingdoms of Dhanaka, or Amaravati, on the Kistna, Andhra or Warangol, and Kaling, or Raja Mahendri.
[p.519]: The name of Tri-Kaling is probably old, as Pliny mentions the Macco-Calingae and the Gangarides-Calingae as separate peoples from the Calingae while the Mahabharat names the Kaliagas three separate times, and each time in conjunction with different peoples. As Tri-Kaling thus corresponds with the great province of Telingana, it seems probable that the name of Telingana may be only a slightly contracted form of Tri-Kalingna, or the " Three Kalings." I am aware that the name is usually derived from Tri-Lingga, or the "Three Phalli", of Mahadeva. But the mention of Macco-Calingae and Gangarides-Calinga by Pliny, would seem to show that the " Three Kalings" were known as early as the time of Megasthenes, from whom Pliny has chiefly copied his Indian Geography. The name must therefore be older than the Phallic worship of Mahadeva in southern India. Kaling is three times mentioned in the Khandagiri inscription of Aira Raja, which cannot be later than the second century B.C., and at a still earlier date, during the lifetime of Sakya-Muni, it was noted for its manufacture of fine muslins, and at his death, the king of Kaling is said to have obtained one of the teeth of Buddha, over which he built a magnificent stup.
The
Kaling script :
This region was scene of the bloody Kaling War fought by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka the Great of Magadha circa 265 BCE.
Jat
rulers in Kaling :
Other
Jat clans associated with Kaling :
Asiagh
and Kaswan Jats :
An
article about Raja Kharavela in Orissa mentions about the rule of
Kaswan in 2nd century of Vikram samvat. It has been mentioned in
‘Hathi Gumpha and three other inscriptions’ (page 24)
in Sanskrit as under :
According to Sadanand Agrawal interpretation of the city as Masikanagar is not well-supported. Kanhavem?a is commonly equated with the river Krishna coastal flowing in Andhra Pradesh. However, Krishna lies much to the south of Kaling, and not west as averred in the epigraph. But there is another stream flowing to the west of Kaling in Vidarbha and known locally at present as Kanhan which flows about 17 km northwest of Nagpur and joins the river Vena (Wainganga), and it is the combined flow of these two streams that is spoken as Kanhavem?a in our records. [Sadananda Agrawal: Sri Kharavel, Published by Sri Digambar Jain Samaj, Cuttack, 2000]
The recent find of a sealing belonging to the Asikajanpad in course of intensive archaeological excavations at Adam (Nagpur district) has solved also the problem of locating Asikanagara whose king or and people became frightful at the arrival of Kharavela's army at Kanhavem?a. In view of the evidence of a highly prosperous city unearthed at Adam, Prof AM Shastri is of the opinion that Adam itself represents the Asikanagara of Hathigumpha inscription. It is worth noting in the present context that a terracotta sealing having a legend, has been discovered from Adam, situated on the right bank of the river Wainganga, which reads Asakajanpads. [Sadanand Agrawal: Sri Kharavela, Published by Sri Digambar Jain Samaj, Cuttack, 2000]
The township of Asikanagara to the west of Nagpur indicates the township of Asiagh or Siyak jats. This is also supported by Thakur Deshraj that Asiagh Jats moved from Asirgarh in Malwa to Rajasthan. This must have been migration to Rajasthan of these people when their rule came to an end. After this period their rule is recorded in Jangladesh by the Historians James Tod and Thakur Deshraj.
From the above description we can interpret that Kaswan Jat was a chieftain who helped Kharavela in his war expedition. Kaswan Jats must also have moved along with Kharavela to Kaling.
Source :
https://www.jatland.com/ |