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Bhanudeva III (Eastern Ganga)

Bhanudeva III was an Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga and Orissa in the third quarter of the 14th century, the son of Narasimha III. R. D. Banerji wrote that in his reign Orissa was raided from all sides: by the sultan of Bengal in 1353, by a Vijayanagara prince in 1356, and by the Delhi sultan Firoz Tughluq in 1361, to whom he gave elephants. His records stand at Srikurmam and Simhachalam, and Banerji dated his death to 1378.

Bhanudeva III was a king of the Eastern Gangas, who ruled Kalinga and Orissa in the third quarter of the 14th century.12 He was the son of Narasimha III.1 R. D. Banerji saw his reign as a time of decline, when the neighbouring kings raided Orissa from all sides.1

Family

Banerji, in his History of Orissa (1930), made Bhanudeva III the son of Narasimha III by Kamaladevi.1 Robert Sewell’s table (1932) names his queens as Tara and Hira.2 Banerji wrote that his son Narasimha IV was born of Hiradevi, of the Chalukya family.3

At Simhachalam, a record of Saka 1305, about 1383, names Taradevi as the queen of Vira-Bhanudeva (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).4 In it she and Birujadevi, queen of the Gajapati Pedanarasimhadeva, gave two chamaras (fly-whisks) to the temple.4 V. Rangacharya thought that this Vira-Bhanudeva was perhaps the king of the record described below, and Pedanarasimha his successor.4

Raids from all sides

Banerji listed the enemies who attacked Orissa in these years:13

  • in 1353 Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah, the independent sultan of Bengal, raided Orissa1
  • in 1356 Prince Sangama, a nephew of the Vijayanagara king Bukka I, defeated the Gajapati king1
  • in 1361 the Delhi sultan Firoz Tughluq, on his second campaign in Bengal, entered Bhanudeva’s kingdom13

Banerji called the war of 1356 the earliest known war between Vijayanagara and Orissa.1 He added that the Portuguese writer Nuniz says that Bukka “took the Kingdom of Orya”.1 When Firoz Tughluq came, Bhanudeva sent him some elephants, and the sultan went back.3

Records in the Telugu north

Banerji knew of only three votive records of the early part of the reign, all at Srikurmam.3 V. Rangacharya listed two of them:

  • in Saka 1275, the third year of Virabhanudeva, a man of Koduru gave a lamp5
  • in Saka 1276, the third year of Pratapavira-Bhanudeva, a lamp was given6

At Simhachalam, a gift of land by Sishtukavu Mahasenapati is dated in the 31st year of Vira-Bhanudeva, Saka 1298, about 1376.4 Rangacharya concluded that this king came to the throne in 1345 and ruled until at least 1376.4

Death

The third year of his son Narasimha IV fell in Saka 1301, about 1379.3 So Banerji concluded that Bhanudeva III died in 1378.3

Where the sources disagree

  • When did he come to the throne? Sewell’s table gives 1346 or 1350.2 Rangacharya worked out 1345 from the Simhachalam record of his 31st year.4 Banerji put his accession in Saka 1275 or 1276, about 1353–54, the years of the Srikurmam records of his third year.7
  • His number. Banerji and Sewell call him Bhanudeva III.12 E. Hultzsch, writing in 1896, counted the Bhanudeva of these Srikurmam records as the fourth of that name.8

Footnotes

  1. Banerji, History of Orissa, Vol. I (1930), p. 282 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 358, genealogical table of the Eastern Gangas (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Banerji, History of Orissa, Vol. I (1930), p. 283 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. III (1919), p. 1677, Vizagapatam Nos. 96–97 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 691, Ganjam No. 214 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 689, Ganjam No. 193 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. R. D. Banerji, History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period, Vol. I (1930), p. 281 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 685, introduction to Srikurmam, quoting the Madras epigraphical report for 1896 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Eastern Gangas of Kalinga

c. 498–1434 CE

The Eastern Gangas ruled Kalinga from about the 6th century until 1434. Their capital was Kalinganagara, now Mukhalingam in the Srikakulam district; later they ruled from Orissa. Their early grants use a Ganga era whose starting point is still disputed. The north of the Telugu country, the old Ganjam and Vizagapatam districts, was the heart of the kingdom. Their copper plates come from Chicacole, Achyutapuram, Jirjingi, Nadagam and Alamanda, and hundreds of their inscriptions in Telugu and Sanskrit survive at Mukhalingam, Srikurmam and Simhachalam. Anantavarman Chodaganga, a grandson of Kulottunga I, reigned from 1078 for about seventy years. The later kings fought the Kakatiyas across the Godavari, and their minister Kapilesvara founded the Gajapati dynasty in 1434.

References

Sources (4)
  1. R. D. Banerji, History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), R. Chatterjee, Calcutta, 1930, pp. 281–283, 288. [Public domain]
  2. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 685, 689, 691. [Public domain]
  3. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. III (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 1677. [Public domain]
  4. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 358. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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