- Kalinga (India)
Kalinga was a
kingdom in central-easternIndia , which comprised most of the modern state ofOrissa , as well as some northern areas of the bordering state ofAndhra Pradesh . It was a rich and fertile land that extended from the riverDamodar to Godavari and from Bay of Bengal to Amarkantak range in the West.This region was scene of the bloody
Kalinga War fought by the Maurya EmperorAshoka the Great ofMagadha "circa" 265 BCE.Kharavela (
IAST : Khāravela,Devanagari : खारवेल) (?209 - after 170 BCE), was greatest warriorJain king of Kalinga, inOrissa state ofIndia . He was responsible for the propagation ofJainism in EastIndia but his importance in neglected in many accounts of Indian History. According to theHathigumpha inscription nearBhubaneswar , Orissa, he attacked Rajagriha in Magadha, thus inducing theIndo-Greek king Demetrius to retreat toMathura .The Kharavelan
Jain kingdom had a formidable maritime empire with trading routes linking it to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Bali, Sumatra and Java. Colonists from Kalinga settled in Sri Lanka, Burma, and the Indonesia archipelago. Even today Indians are referred to as Keling in Malaysia because of this. Many Sri Lankan kings, both Sinhalese and Tamil, claimed decent from Kalinga dynasties.Kalinga is mentioned in the
Adiparva ,Bhismaparva ,Sabhaparva ,Banaprava ofMahabharata so also is the conquest ofKarna . Kalinga KingSrutayu stated to have fought the Mahabharat war for theKauravas . Kalinga is also mentioned as Calingae inMegasthenes ' book on India - "Indica " & Megasthenes states that Magadha & Kalinga were Jain Dominant Kingdoms::"The
Prinas and theCainas (a tributary of theGanges ) are both navigable rivers. The tribes which dwell by the Ganges are the Calingae, nearest the sea, and higher up theMandei , also theMalli , among whom isMount Mallus , the boundary of all that region being the Ganges." (Megasthenes fragm. XX.B. in Pliny. Hist. Nat. V1. 21.9-22. 1. [ [http://www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/history/primarydocs/Foreign_Views/GreekRoman/Megasthenes-Indika.htm Megasthenes Indica] ] ):"The royal city of the Calingae is called
Parthalis . Over their king 60,000 foot-soldiers, 1,000 horsemen, 700 elephants keep watch and ward in "procinct of war." (Megasthenes fragm. LVI. in Plin. Hist. Nat. VI. 21. 8-23. 11. [ [http://www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/history/primarydocs/Foreign_Views/GreekRoman/Megasthenes-Indika.htm Megasthenes Indica] ] )The
Kalinga script ( [http://www.ontopia.net/omnigator/models/topic_complete.jsp?tm=i18n.ltm&id=kalinga ref] ), derived from Brahmi, was used for writing. Among the offshoots, Kalinga script had the maximum resemblance with the parent script, Brāhmī and later modified toOriya script in the beginning of the second millennium. This makes the Oriya Script as the most distinctive and least distorted script among theIndic scripts . ( [http://www.ontopia.net/i18n/ftree.jsp?id=1576] )Notes
ee also
*
Kalinga War
*Kalinga Magha
*Jaffna Kingdom
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.