Dirghasi

G. V. Ramamurti described Dirghasi in 1897 as “a small village four miles north of Kalingapatam in the Ganjam district”.¹ At one end of the village is a rocky hill, which the villagers call “Durga-metta”.¹

Remains of a temple lay scattered over the place, with stone images of Durga, Nandi and the linga (stone emblem of Shiva).¹ An image of Durga was still worshipped in a small cave.¹ No one could tell Ramamurti how the temple had been destroyed.¹ The ruins lay among rocks that seemed to have fallen from the hill onto the temple.¹

The inscription

The inscription is on a large slab near the hill.¹² It calls the town Dirgharasi or Dirghasi.¹² It records that Vanapati, general of the Ganga king Rajaraja I, built a dancing hall in front of the temple of Durga in Saka 997 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).¹² See the Dirghasi inscription and Kalingapatnam.

Footnotes

1. G. V. Ramamurti, “Dirghasi Inscription of Vanapati; Saka-Samvat 997”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 314 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Ramamurti, “Dirghasi Inscription of Vanapati” (1897), p. 315 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³