KALINGA

ancient territorial subdivision of east-central India, corresponding to northern Andhra Pradesh, most of Orissa, and a portion of Madhya Pradesh. Strictly, it stretched no farther south than the Godavari River, thus excluding Vengi (the Andhra territory between that river and the Krishna). The hinterland of Kalinga led through mountainous and thickly forested country, inhabited by semi-Hinduized tribes, to central India and the Gangetic plain. With the ports of Coringa (Kakinada), Vishakhapatnam, Chicacole, and Gajam and the important towns of Rajahmundry and Vizianagaram, Kalinga did a rich seaborne trade with Myanmar (Burma) and areas still farther south and east. It was mentioned by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder. Kalinga was conquered by Mahapadma, the founder of the Nanda dynasty (c. 343c. 321 BC) of Magadha. It seceded from the Magadhan empire sometime after the fall of the Nanda dynasty, but it was reconquered by the Maurya king Asoka in the 3rd century BC in a terrible war that was said to have helped to convert him to Buddhism. Subsequently, the Somavamsis of southern Kosala, who controlled the strategic town of Chakrakotta (in the former Bastar state), ruled parts of the coastal strip for a period of time, as did the Yayatis, Visnukundins, Bhanjas, and Bhauma Karas. The Eastern Gangas were the most famous rulers of all Kalinga. Their dynasty, which began its rule in the mid-11th century AD, sometimes competed with and sometimes allied itself with the Eastern Calukyas of Vengi. In the next century Anantavarman Codagangadeva was particularly renowned; he built the Temple of Juggernaut (Jagannatha) at Puri. This temple came under the protection of the Eastern Gangas, and the god was treated as their landlord. The famous temple of the sun-god at Konarak (Konarka) was built in the 13th century by Narasimha I. Between 1238 and 1305 the Eastern Gangas successfully withstood Muslim infiltration from the north, but the dynasty collapsed when the sultan of Delhi penetrated Kalinga from the south in 1324.