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Vajrahasta III (Eastern Ganga)

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga, crowned on 3 May 1038. His Nadagam plates of 1058 give the earliest exactly dated event in the history of the later Gangas, and a family tree of his predecessors. He styled himself lord of the Three Kalingas and issued his grants from Kalinganagara. He was the grandfather of Anantavarman Chodaganga. Historians number him Vajrahasta III or Vajrahasta V.

Photograph of a copper-plate seal seen obliquely from the side: a seated bull in relief standing up from a flat, round base.
Photograph of a copper-plate seal seen obliquely from the side: a seated bull in relief standing up from a flat, round base. · G. S. Gai (article), Epigraphia Indica (Government of India) (opens in a new tab) · Public domain in India

Vajrahasta III was a Ganga king of Kalinga who was anointed, by G. V. Ramamurti’s calculation, on 3 May 1038.12 He called himself “lord of the Three Kalingas”.12 Ramamurti made him the grandfather of Anantavarman Chodaganga.34

Family

Vajrahasta III was born, according to his Nadagam plates, to Kamarnava, “the eldest son of the excellent king Vajrahasta”.2 His mother was Vinayamahadevi, “who was born in the Vaidumba family”.2 The plates list his predecessors with the length of their reigns. His grandfather Vajrahasta, who bore the second name Aniyankabhima, ruled for thirty-five years.56 Then his sons ruled in turn:56

  • the eldest, Kamarnava, for half a year56
  • Gundama for three years56
  • their half-brother Madhu-Kamarnava for nineteen years56

G. V. Ramamurti, who edited the plates in 1897, set this list beside the longer family tree in a grant of Anantavarman Chodaganga of Saka 1040 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).7 He found so many differences that he preferred the Nadagam list.7 See the Nadagam plates.

The numbering of the kings named Vajrahasta differs between editors. V. Rangacharya pointed out that the donor of the Nadagam plates is “Vajrahasta III according to one and Vajrahasta V according to the other”.4 He added that his parentage is also given differently.4 Robert Sewell called him Vajrahasta V.8 His son was Rajaraja I, and Ramamurti made him the grandfather of Anantavarman Chodaganga.34

Coronation and reign

The Nadagam plates give the moment of his anointing as Saka 960, on Sunday, the third tithi (lunar day) of the bright fortnight. The sun was then in Vrishabha, the moon in Rohini, and the lagna (rising sign) in Dhanus. Ramamurti calculated this as 3 May 1038, “8h 27m P.M.”.12 Like the coronation date of Anantavarman Chodaganga, he called it “a certain, reliable land-mark in the chronology of the Gangas”.12 He also called it “the earliest known date of this dynasty”.12

Ramamurti allowed him a reign of thirty years.3 Sewell’s genealogy dates it from 1038 to 1070, when his son was crowned.8

In the plates he is called Paramamahesvara, Paramabhattaraka, Maharajadhiraja and “lord of the Three Kalingas”.12 He issues his order “from Kalinganagara” to his subjects, headed by his ministers.12

The grant itself is dated in Saka 979, on Sunday, the twelfth tithi of the bright fortnight of Phalguna.1 Ramamurti equated this with 4 March 1058.1 The grant formed twelve villages of the Erada district into a new district named after Velpura, and gave them to Pangu-Samaya.1 Three half-erased lines below the text call Samaya “my son-in-law, the Dandanayaka S[a]maya”.1

Sewell put the date a month earlier, on 8 February 1058, and rejected the equation with 4 March.9

Other records

  • The Parlakimedi plates of the time of a king Vajrahasta were edited by F. Kielhorn.10 From the style of the script he assigned them to “Vajrahasta V (Circa 1035–70)”, the grandfather of Anantavarman Chodaganga.10
  • At Mukhalingam a Sanskrit record of Saka 990 (1068–69) records a gift by the queen of Vajrahasta, “who was the daughter of a Haihaya king”.11
  • Sewell noted a grant of about 1045 made from his capital Dantapura.1213 He also noted a copper-plate grant of 20 June 1061 of the village of Tamaracheruvu, which he attributed to the same king under the name Anantavarman-Vajrahasta.1213

Footnotes

  1. G. V. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta; Saka-Samvat 979”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 185 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta” (1897), p. 193, translation, line 30 to line 57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  3. G. V. Ramamurti, “Dirghasi Inscription of Vanapati; Saka-Samvat 997”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 315 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 684, Ganjam No. 143-A (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta” (1897), p. 192, translation, verses 1–6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta” (1897), p. 186 and genealogical table (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  7. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta” (1897), p. 187 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 358, genealogical table of the Eastern Gangas (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  9. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 75 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  10. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 709, Ganjam No. 422 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 707, Ganjam No. 399 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 71 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  13. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 76 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

Photos

Dynasties

Eastern Gangas of Kalinga

c. 498–1434 CE

Dynasty of Kalinga that ruled from Kalinganagara, now Mukhalingam in the Srikakulam district, and later from Orissa, from about the 6th century until 1434. Its early grants are dated in 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 (3)
  1. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 183–193, 315. G. V. Ramamurti, Nadagam plates of Vajrahasta (No. 24); Dirghasi inscription (No. 45). [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. 684, 707, 709. [Public domain]
  3. 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. 71–72, 75–76, 82, 358. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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