By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: An inscribed stone panel from the ruling period of Eastern Ganga Monarch Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva is rediscovered in a very neglected state in the bank of Champabati River near Dwarapureddy Palem village in Denkada mandalam of Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh.
The inscription is rediscovered by two members team of ‘Kalinga Epigraphical Research Group’ that included Deepak Kumar Nayak & Bikram Kumar Nayak. The team was assisted by local heritage enthusiasts D. Santosh & Bijaya Kumar Korada. Deepak Kumar Nayak, a heritage researcher is currently listing and documenting the Kalingan heritage sites and archaeological remains scattered around different parts of South India. His documentation will soon be published in a book form.
Sharing more details on this finding Deepak Nayak had stated that the vast region of ancient Kalinga kingdom was not confined to present day political border of Odisha. From different mythological and historic accounts it is known that Kalinga’s southern region was spanned upto Godavari River atleast. We are listing & documenting the archaeological and cultural sites having Kalingan connection outside present day Odisha’s southern border. Many of these sites are lost, forgotten or in a state of negligence with course of time and thats why their listing and documentation is now very important. Some decades ago, Late Padmashri Satyanarayana Rajaguru had shared details on this inscription slab in his book ‘Inscriptions of Orissa Volume-3’.
The inscription inscribed in Telugu script & Language was assigned to a date Shaka year 1072 that equals year 1150 CE. This inscription mentions about the gifting of land and a perceptual lamp to the Temple of Chodagangeswara at Dharmapura. During our documentation we found that there is a village named ‘Dharmapuri’ still exists near Vizianagaram town and remnants of an old Shiva Temple are found scattered. Hence, it indicates that there used to be a Shiva Temple at Dharmapuri that was most probably built by Chodaganga Deva and addressed as Chodagangeswar Temple, Sri Nayak had added.
Bishnu Mohan Adhikari, a member of ‘Kalinga Epigraphical Research Group’ has said that the Eastern Ganga era inscription slab has got significant historical values. It is now in a state of negligence and needs to be protected at the earliest. There is serious threat to its survival as it is found in a flood zone and lying open to weathering. Many letters from stone slabs are now eroded and getting damaged. It should be shifted to a museum and conserved.
Sanjib Chandra Hota, a senior retired administrator has expressed his concerns over the negligence of such archaeological remains in different parts of ancient Kalinga empire. He said the finding spot Vizianagaram was actually a part of Kalinga Kingdom. Earlier it was called ‘Bijaya Nagara’ and also served as an important fort of Kalinga.
This is the reason for which we are now getting so many historical and archaeological remains from different parts of Vizianagaram district having strong connections with Kalingan history. It is now very necessary that the Culture department of Odisha should contact the Andhra Pradesh State Archaeology department for the safekeeping and shifting of such ancient inscriptions to museums. Otherwise, such invaluable historical remains will be lost forever with the course of time, said Sri Hota.
