1916.] The Geography of Orissa. 35 



session on account of the continuous fight between the Afghans 

 and the Mughals for the possession of Bengal. By the treaty 

 of peace concluded between the Mughal viceroy Munim 

 Khan and the Afghan chief Daud at Katak town on 12th 

 April, 1575 a.d., Sarkar Katak was left to baud. After that 

 the Mughals never came to this sarkar until Manasimha re- 

 conquered Orissa in 1000 h. (1592 a.d.). So Katak could have 

 been known to the Mughals mostly by hearsay, and was only 

 nominally subject to the emperor at the time of the compila- 

 tion of the Ain. 



I now pass on to identify the mahals. 1 They are arranged 

 in the Ain according to Persian alphabet. 



(1) Al. The Ali Dandapata of the Temple chronicles, of 

 which no Bisis are named. It has survived in modern times as 

 Killa Ali, a pargana in the Kendrapara subdivision of Katak 

 district, lying between the Kharsua'on the north and the 

 Brahmani on the south. From the large revenue assessed 

 CRs. 1,60,728J) the eastern sea-board of Kanika would seem to 

 have been attached to it at the time. 



The present zamindar of the killah is a lineal descendant 

 of Mukunda Haricandanadeva, the last Hindu king of Orissa. 

 On the reconquest of Orissa, Manasimha recognised three chiefs 

 in the Mughalbandi, Ramchandradeva in Killah Khurda, and 

 the two sons of Mukunda in Killahs Ali and Patiya. These 

 two sons are probably Adwand and Sundar, zamindars of 

 Orisa, whose names appear in the list of Ain's grandees as 

 Mansabdars of 200 (Nos. 413 and 414).* From some Persian 

 documents Stirling got the information that the Raja of Al had 

 the rank of 500 with 24 zamindaris and 42 killahs under him. 



(2) Asakah. The Asika Dandapata of the T. chronicles. 

 The mahal has survived in a zamindari and in a town of that 

 name on the north bank of the Rsikulya river, in Ganjam 

 district. The temple of Gokarnesvara in Mahendra-mala (the 

 Mahendra hills) lay in this division. The Dandapata spread 

 therefore from the Mahendra hills on the west to the sea on the 

 east, and from the Rsikulya on the south to the Cilka Lake on 

 the north. Drained by the Rsikulya the land must have been 

 fairly fertile, as the revenue of Rs. 79,009J indicates. The 

 quota of men, 15,000 infantry, indicates that a considerable 

 hilly tract of the west with its militia of paiks was included. 

 Aska town, 25 miles N.-N.-W. of Berhampur, is noted at pre- 

 sent for the manufacture of sugar and rum. 



1 In making the various identification- I have drawn largelv from the 

 notes taken by me during my service in Orissa for thirteen vears (1886-97 

 and 1902-3). Mr. J. Beanies' Notes on Akbari Soubahs No. II ; Orissa, in 

 J.R.A.S., 1890. pp. 743-764, are, on account of his personal knowledge' of 

 Orissa, useful. Dr. R. Mittra's footnotes on this sarkar in the Antiquities 

 of Orissa, vol. I, p, 2, are unsatisfactory. 



5 Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari, vol. I, p. 526. 



