Everything about Kalinga India totally explained
Kalinga was a
republic in central-eastern
India, which comprised most of the modern state of
Orissa, as well as some northern areas of the bordering state of
Andhra Pradesh. It was a rich and fertile land that extended from the river
Damodar to
Godavari and from Bay of Bengal to Amarkantak range in the West. The 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.
R.D. Banerjee writes, "
The people of Kalinga were pioneers of Indian colonization in farther India and the Indian Archipelago. The Hindus from Kalinga may be regarded, on satisfactory grounds, to have taken the leading part in establishing Hindu culture in Java.
Kalinga is mentioned in the
Adiparva,
Bhismaparva,
Sabhaparva,
Banaprava of
Mahabharat so also is the conquest of
Karna. Kalinga King
Srutayu stated to have fought the Mahabharat war for the
Kauravas. Kalinga is also mentioned as Calingae in
Megasthenes' book on India -
Indica:
» "The
Prinas and the
Cainas (a tributary of the
Ganges) are both navigable rivers. The tribes which dwell by the Ganges are the Calingae, nearest the sea, and higher up the
Mandei, also the
Malli, among whom is
Mount Mallus, the boundary of all that region being the Ganges." (Megasthenes fragm. XX.B. in Pliny. Hist. Nat. V1. 21.9-22. 1.)
» "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.)
The
Kalinga script (
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 to
Oriya script in the beginning of the second millennium. This makes the Oriya Script as the most distinctive and least distorted script among the
Indic scripts. (
(External Link))
This region was scene of the bloody
Kalinga War fought by the
Maurya Emperor
Ashoka the Great of
Magadha circa 265 BCE.
Kharavela was a famous king of Kalinga during the
2nd century BCE, who, according to the
Hathigumpha inscription near
Bhubaneswar, Orissa, attacked
Rajagriha in Magadha, thus inducing the
Indo-Greek king
Demetrius to retreat to
Mathura.
Further Information
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