DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0123
Chap. II.
HISTORY.
95
before the commencement of the 12th century, when we find
Anantavarman Chodagangadeva (1078-1142) of the Eastern
Ganga dynasty recording that he replaced the fallen lord of
Orissa in his kingdom.1 About this period the Ganga-van^a
dynasty succeeded, the second of whom was the builder of the
great Puri temple—or at least completed it—for its erection is
ascribed to his father, Chodaganga, thirty years earlier. They
were nominally Aaivas, but patronised also the Vaishnavas,
whilst the preceding dynasty seem to have been devoted
Aaivas.
Owing to its remoteness from the seats of Muhammadan
power, Orissa almost entirely escaped the ravages which
devastated the principal Hindu cities in the earlier and more
intolerant age of their power. The first serious invasion of
Orissa was only made about 1510 by ’Alau-d-Din Hasain Shah,
King of Bengal, whose army sacked Katak and plundered Puri,
but was driven back ; and it was not till 1567-1568 that Sulaiman
Khan Kararani, the Afghan Viceroy of Bengal, finally defeated
the Orissa king at Jajpur. Soon after it was annexed by Akbar,
and after four more years of contests it became a province of
his empire in 1578, after which further outrages were hardly to
be feared.
At Jajpur the Muhammadans had already wreaked their
vengeance on all that was Hindu; but elsewhere the monuments
were left more nearly intact than any other group in the north
of India. Neither at Bhuvaneswar nor at Puri or Kanarak are
marked traces of their violence. In later times the Orissa
remains have suffered from the sordid proceedings of the Public
Works Department, which destroyed the fort at Barbati and
other public buildings, to mend roads or to save some money in
erecting a lighthouse at False Point. Further injury has been
done by the antiquarian zeal of the officers who removed some
of the best statues of the Rajarani temple,2 and ..by the vandals
who pulled down the Navagraha sculpture from the Kanarak
temple. Fastly, and worst of all, by the Archseological Survey,
a few years ago, which caused the interior of the mandap of
this famous monument to be completely filled up with stones
and sand and so “shut up for ever.”3
Besides their immunity from the ordinary causes of destruc-
tion of Hindu buildings, the Orissa group forms in itself one of
the most complete and interesting in all India. The Khajuraho
1 ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. xviii. p. 171;
‘Jour. Asiat. Soc. Bengal,’ vol. lxxii.
pp. ioiff.
2 Rajendralal Mitra’s ‘Antiquities of
Orissa,’ vol. ii. p. 90.
3 This was conceived to be the only
way of preventing the roof from falling
in.—Mr. Marshall’s ‘Annual Report/
1903-1904,’ p. 48.
HISTORY.
95
before the commencement of the 12th century, when we find
Anantavarman Chodagangadeva (1078-1142) of the Eastern
Ganga dynasty recording that he replaced the fallen lord of
Orissa in his kingdom.1 About this period the Ganga-van^a
dynasty succeeded, the second of whom was the builder of the
great Puri temple—or at least completed it—for its erection is
ascribed to his father, Chodaganga, thirty years earlier. They
were nominally Aaivas, but patronised also the Vaishnavas,
whilst the preceding dynasty seem to have been devoted
Aaivas.
Owing to its remoteness from the seats of Muhammadan
power, Orissa almost entirely escaped the ravages which
devastated the principal Hindu cities in the earlier and more
intolerant age of their power. The first serious invasion of
Orissa was only made about 1510 by ’Alau-d-Din Hasain Shah,
King of Bengal, whose army sacked Katak and plundered Puri,
but was driven back ; and it was not till 1567-1568 that Sulaiman
Khan Kararani, the Afghan Viceroy of Bengal, finally defeated
the Orissa king at Jajpur. Soon after it was annexed by Akbar,
and after four more years of contests it became a province of
his empire in 1578, after which further outrages were hardly to
be feared.
At Jajpur the Muhammadans had already wreaked their
vengeance on all that was Hindu; but elsewhere the monuments
were left more nearly intact than any other group in the north
of India. Neither at Bhuvaneswar nor at Puri or Kanarak are
marked traces of their violence. In later times the Orissa
remains have suffered from the sordid proceedings of the Public
Works Department, which destroyed the fort at Barbati and
other public buildings, to mend roads or to save some money in
erecting a lighthouse at False Point. Further injury has been
done by the antiquarian zeal of the officers who removed some
of the best statues of the Rajarani temple,2 and ..by the vandals
who pulled down the Navagraha sculpture from the Kanarak
temple. Fastly, and worst of all, by the Archseological Survey,
a few years ago, which caused the interior of the mandap of
this famous monument to be completely filled up with stones
and sand and so “shut up for ever.”3
Besides their immunity from the ordinary causes of destruc-
tion of Hindu buildings, the Orissa group forms in itself one of
the most complete and interesting in all India. The Khajuraho
1 ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. xviii. p. 171;
‘Jour. Asiat. Soc. Bengal,’ vol. lxxii.
pp. ioiff.
2 Rajendralal Mitra’s ‘Antiquities of
Orissa,’ vol. ii. p. 90.
3 This was conceived to be the only
way of preventing the roof from falling
in.—Mr. Marshall’s ‘Annual Report/
1903-1904,’ p. 48.