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Mahendragiri

Mountain in the Eastern Ghats in southern Odisha. It is the Mahendra mountain of the Eastern Ganga grants, and on its summit the kings worshipped the god Gokarnasvamin. Old temples of large granite blocks stand on the top, and an inscription there records a Chola pillar of victory.

A small square stone shrine built of large grey granite blocks with a round stone top, standing among boulders and bushes on a hilltop.
A small square stone shrine built of large grey granite blocks with a round stone top, standing among boulders and bushes on a hilltop. · Vsvlss (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

The Ganga kings of Kalinganagara issued copper-plate grants that describe the king as bowing to the god Gokarnasvamin.12 The grants say that the god “is established on the sinless peak of the Mahendra mountain”.12

The mountain and its temples

E. Hultzsch edited the Alamanda plates in 1895.1 He noted that Cunningham had identified the Mahendra mountain with the Mahendramala range, “which divides Ganjam from the valley of the Mahanadi”.1 Hultzsch concluded that this Gokarnasvamin must be distinct from the famous shrine of Gokarna in North Canara.1

Hultzsch quoted Robert Sewell’s Lists of Antiquities.1 It says that Mahendragiri lay in the Mandasa zamindari (landholder’s estate), and that its summit, 4,923 feet above the sea, bore four temples.1 The highest was built “of very large granite blocks and dedicated to Siva”.1 Sewell added: “This is perhaps the Gokarnasvamin of the Ganga grants.”1

In 1919 V. Rangacharya described the Gokarnesvara temple at the top of the hill as “sacred to the early Ganga kings of Kalinga”.3 He named two other temples there, of Yudhishthira and Bhima.3

The Nadagam plates of Vajrahasta trace the Ganga kings’ emblems to the favour of “the worshipful Gokarnasvamin, who is established on the top of the high mountain Mahendra”.4 These emblems were the bull crest and the insignia (symbols) of sovereignty.4 The Vizagapatam district gazetteer (1907) mentions “the ruins of cyclopean shrines” (shrines of huge stones) on Mahendragiri.5

The Chola pillar of victory

The sources differ over the Chola pillar of victory on the hill. The Vizagapatam gazetteer says that an inscription on Mahendragiri records a victory of the Chola king Rajaraja I.5 It says that he overthrew the Eastern Chalukya Vimaladitya in 999–1000 and set up a pillar of victory there.5

The Imperial Gazetteer (1908) gives two accounts. In one place it says that at the beginning of the eleventh century the Cholas overran Kalinga and set up a pillar of victory on Mahendragiri.6 In another it says that “the great king Rajendra Chola has left a record of his victories on Mahendragiri hill”.7 See the Eastern Gangas.

Footnotes

  1. E. Hultzsch, “Alamanda Plates of Anantavarman”, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 20, translation and note 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. E. Hultzsch, “Chicacole Plates of Gunarnava’s Son Devendravarman; the Year 183”, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 133, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 709, Mahendragiri (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. G. V. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta; Saka-Samvat 979”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 192, translation, line 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (1907), p. 26 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 191 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Imperial Gazetteer: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 197 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

People

Rajaraja I (Chola)

c. 985–1014 CE

Chola king of Tanjore (Thanjavur) from 985, the founder of the Chola empire, whose inscriptions claim the conquest of Vengai-nadu, the Eastern Chalukya country of Vengi. About 999 he helped the Eastern Chalukya prince Saktivarman I back to the throne of Vengi, and he married his daughter Kundavadevi to Saktivarman's brother Vimaladitya. This began the alliance that made the Eastern Chalukyas Chola vassals and, two generations later, Chola emperors. Inscriptions of his reign are found at Kalahasti, and a Vaidumba chief ruled under him in the Nellore country.

Rajendra I (Chola)

c. 1012–1043 CE

Chola king from 1012, son of Rajaraja I and founder of Gangaikondacholapuram. As a prince he defeated the Eastern Chalukya Vimaladitya, his sister's husband, and set up a pillar of victory on Mahendragiri. As king he fought the Western Chalukya Jayasimha II and claimed Kollippakkai (Kolanupaka). His general marched to the Ganges while he himself waited on the Godavari, in a campaign that Krishna Sastri dated to 1028. His daughter Ammangadevi married the Eastern Chalukya Rajaraja Narendra and was the mother of Kulottunga I.

Inscriptions

Mahendragiri inscriptions of Rajendra I

A Sanskrit inscription at the entrance of the Yudhishthira temple on the Mahendragiri hill, in the old Ganjam district, with a Tamil version on stones near the Kunti shrine, recording that a general of the Chola Rajendra I defeated Vimaladitya and set up a pillar of victory on the mountain. The Chola tiger and the two fish of the Pandya are carved below the Sanskrit record. Most writers take Vimaladitya to be the Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi; H. Krishna Sastri called him a chief of Kuluta.

References

Sources (5)
  1. E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III (1894–95) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1895, pp. 20, 133. E. Hultzsch, Alamanda (No. 3) and Chicacole (No. 21) plates. [Public domain]
  2. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 26. [Public domain]
  3. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 191, 197. [Public domain]
  4. 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. 709. [Public domain]
  5. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 192. G. V. Ramamurti, Nadagam plates of Vajrahasta (No. 24). [Public domain]

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