Madhu-Kamarnava (Eastern Ganga)

Madhu-Kamarnava was a king of the Eastern Gangas of Kalinga, the coast north of the Godavari.¹² He was the first of four sons of Anantavarman Chodaganga who ruled one after another.¹ His records are found only in the Telugu north, at Srikurmam and Mukhalingam in today’s Srikakulam district.³

Family

Anantavarman Chodaganga had many queens.¹ R. D. Banerji, in his History of Orissa (1930), named Kasturikamodini as Madhu-Kamarnava’s mother.¹ His brothers Raghava, Rajaraja II and Aniyanka-Bhima ruled after him.¹ Banerji thought that the sons were already old men when they came to the throne.⁴

Crowned in his father’s lifetime

Madhu-Kamarnava was anointed king in Saka 1064, about 1142 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).⁴ But a votive record at Mukhalingam shows his father still alive and ruling in Saka 1069, about 1148.⁴ So Banerji concluded that the anointing did not mean that Madhu-Kamarnava really took power.⁴ He accepted an earlier suggestion that the old king was by then unable to govern.⁴

Names and records

His votive inscriptions call him Anantavarman, like his father.³ In one or two of them he is called Anantavarman Madhu-Kamarnava, to mark him off from his father.³ One record at Mukhalingam calls him Jatesvaradeva.³ Robert Sewell’s table (1932) also gives him the names Kumara and Jatesvara.²

V. Rangacharya’s list of inscriptions shows two of these records:

• a Telugu record at Srikurmam of the Ganga king Anantavarma-Madhukamarnavadeva, in Saka 1071 and his fourth year, now badly damaged⁵
• a record of Jatesvaradeva at Mukhalingam, in Saka 1070 and his third year, about the gift of a lamp⁶

Rangacharya took Jatesvara to be a title of the Anantavarman who followed Chodaganga.⁶ See the temples of Mukhalingam and the Srikurmam temple.

End of the reign

Later grants of the family say that Madhu-Kamarnava ruled for ten years.⁴ Banerji noted that it is not known from when these years were counted.⁴ His latest known date, Saka 1077, is called his tenth year.⁴ Banerji thought that he died, probably without a son, in Saka 1078, about 1156.⁴³ His half-brother Raghava followed him.⁴

Where the sources disagree

• When did he begin to rule? F. Kielhorn placed his accession in 1142, the year of his anointing.¹ Banerji showed that his father was still ruling in 1148.⁴ Rangacharya took 1146 as the year he succeeded Chodaganga.⁶ Sewell gives both 1142 and 1146.²
• When did he die? Sewell’s table ends his reign in 1152.² Banerji placed his death in 1156.⁴

Footnotes

1. R. D. Banerji, History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period, Vol. I (1930), p. 252 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

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. 254 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Banerji, History of Orissa, Vol. I (1930), p. 253 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

5. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 695, Ganjam No. 261 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 702, Ganjam No. 329 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³