A new site, built from published sources. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us
Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Mukhalingam

Village on the left bank of the Vamsadhara in the Srikakulam district. Since 1897 it has been identified with Kalinganagara, the capital named in the copper-plate grants of the Eastern Ganga kings. Its three Orissan-style Siva temples, the Madhukesvara, Bhimesvara and Somesvara, stand among ruins that stretch south to Nagarakatakam. They carry scores of Ganga inscriptions in Telugu and Sanskrit.

Colour photograph of a small stone temple with a curved tower over the shrine and a flat-roofed hall in front, standing in a garden of grass and shrubs.
Colour photograph of a small stone temple with a curved tower over the shrine and a flat-roofed hall in front, standing in a garden of grass and shrubs. · G.N. Subrahmanyam (opens in a new tab) · CC0 (opens in a new tab)

The Imperial Gazetteer (1908) describes Mukhalingam as a village in the Parlakimedi tahsil of the Ganjam district.1 It lies “on the left bank of the Vamsadhara, 18 miles from Parlakimedi”, and is famous for its Siva temple.1 The gazetteer says that “the inscriptions show that Mukhalingam was formerly inhabited by Buddhists”.1 They also show “that it, and not Calingapatam or Chicacole, as was once supposed, was the site of the capital of the old Ganga kings of Kalinga”.1

The Vizagapatam district gazetteer of 1907 likewise says that the Ganga kings ruled “from Kalinganagara, which has been identified with Mukhalingam on the bank of the Vamsadhara in Ganjam, where notable temples and inscriptions yet survive”.2 See the temples of Mukhalingam.

Ramamurti’s identification

The identification was made by G. V. Ramamurti in 1897. E. Hultzsch had thought Kalinganagara “probably the modern Calingapatam”.3 But Ramamurti found no antiquities at Kalingapatnam that could suggest a capital.4 He pointed instead to the ruins that run for about two miles from Mukhalingam to the village of Nagarakatakam.5 He took the name Nagarakatakam to mean “a royal residence in Nagara”.5

Inscriptions in the temples call the place Nagara, or “the Nagara of the Kalinga (country)”.5 A local Kshetramahatmya (account of a holy place) gives it four names at different periods: Govinda-kanana, Jayantapura, Madhukesvara and Mukhalingam.5

Following a suggestion made to him, Ramamurti derived the present name from Mohalingam.345 This is an Oriya form of Madhuka-linga, the linga (stone emblem of Siva) of the madhuka tree.345 Telugu Brahmins had reinterpreted it as mukha-linga, “a linga with a face”.345

Ramamurti added that a stone inscription of Anantavarmadeva had just been found in the Madhukesvara temple.5 It records a grant issued “from Kalinganagara”, and Ramamurti wrote that this “confirms my identification”.5 See Kalingapatnam and the Eastern Gangas.

The Achyutapuram plates of the Ganga king Indravarman were found at Achyutapuram near Mukhalingam.6 Ramamurti reported that they, and a set of plates published by J. F. Fleet, had been discovered near the site of the ruins.5

Footnotes

  1. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 228 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

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

  3. E. Hultzsch, “Alamanda Plates of Anantavarman”, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 18, note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. G. V. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta; Saka-Samvat 979”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 187 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Ramamurti, “Nadagam Plates of Vajrahasta” (1897), p. 188 and note 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  6. E. Hultzsch, “Achyutapuram Plates of Indravarman; the Year 87”, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 127 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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.

People

Vajrahasta III (Eastern Ganga)

c. 1038–1070 CE

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.

Rajaraja I (Eastern Ganga)

c. 1070–1078 CE

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga, also called Devendravarman. He reigned for eight years between his father Vajrahasta III and his son Anantavarman Chodaganga (1070–1078 in Sewell's chronology, 1068–1076 in Ramamurti's). His wife Rajasundari was probably a daughter of the Chola-Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I. His general Vanapati claimed victories over the Cholas and the kings of Vengi and Orissa. The grants of his son say that he sheltered the Eastern Chalukya Vijayaditya VII against the Cholas.

Anantavarman Chodaganga

c. 1078–1146 CE

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga, crowned in 1078 and still reigning in his 72nd regnal year (1146–47). He was a son of the Ganga king Rajaraja and of Rajasundari, a daughter of Kulottunga I, so he was a grandson of the Chola-Chalukya emperor whose armies invaded Kalinga in his reign. Dozens of his Telugu and Sanskrit inscriptions survive at Mukhalingam, Srikurmam, Simhachalam, Draksharama and other places in the north of the Telugu country. His grants trace the Ganga family back to Brahma.

Monuments

Temples of Mukhalingam

Three Siva temples at Mukhalingam on the Vamsadhara: the Madhukesvara (Mukhalingesvara), Bhimesvara (Aniyankabhimesvara) and Somesvara. They are in the Orissan style and stand among the ruins of Kalinganagara, the capital of the Eastern Ganga kings. A grant of Anantavarman Chodaganga credits the Madhukesvara temple to an early king Kamarnava, and the Bhimesvara is thought to be named after the king Vajrahasta Aniyankabhima. Their walls and pillars carry scores of Telugu and Sanskrit inscriptions of the Gangas.

Inscriptions

Achyutapuram plates of Indravarman

c. 585 CE

Three small copper plates, found near Mukhalingam in the Srikakulam country. They record a gift of land made at Kalinganagara by the Ganga king Indravarman, alias Rajasimha, at the consecration of a tank in honour of his mother. The grant is dated in the 87th year of a reckoning that most later scholars took to be the Ganga era. The plates are among the best-preserved early Ganga grants and show the box-headed Kalinga script.

References

Sources (4)
  1. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 228. [Public domain]
  2. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 187–189. G. V. Ramamurti, Nadagam plates of Vajrahasta (No. 24). [Public domain]
  3. E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III (1894–95) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1895, pp. 18, 127. E. Hultzsch, Alamanda plates (No. 3) and Achyutapuram plates (No. 20). [Public domain]
  4. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 26. [Public domain]

Spotted an error on this page? Tell us

Last updated: