2 - Charters of the Somavamsi Kings. [January, 1905. 
to us the names of four successive kings, viz., (1) Sivagupta, 
(2) Maha-Bhavagupta I al/as Janamejaya, (3) Maha-Siva- 
gupta alias Yayati, and (4) Maha-Bhayvagupta IT alias Bhima- 
ratha. Hach of the first three was the father of his successor. 
They call themselves as members of the Somakula (lunar race) 
and as the ‘lords of the three Kalingas. They grant lands 
in the different districts of the Kogala country. In the orants 
B, C and D, issued in the thirty-first year of his reign, Maha- 
Bhavacupta i is referred to by the title Kogalendra (lord of Koégala). 
Charter J is said to have been written by a clerk of the office of the 
‘minister for peace and war® of the Kosala country. These facts 
prove beyond doubt that these kings ruled over the Kogala country, 
or at least a part of it. About five of the copper-plate charters were 
found in the Native State of Patna in the Central Provinces, and 
the remaining five in the neighbourhood of Kataka (or Cuttuk). 
The charters of Maha-Sivagupta and his son are issued from 
Vinitapura and Yayatinagara, towns or a town on the Mahanadi 
river. The village granted by the charter EH is said to be situated 
in Daksina-Tosala* which may bea mistake for Daksina- 
Kosala or Southern Kogala. These facts show that-it was Dak- 
shina-Kogala (or southern Kosala), identifiable with the south- 
eastern parts of the Central Provinces, which was included i in 
the kingdom of these kings. ; 
Mr. Fleet thinks that these kings ruled over- Orissa also and 
had their capital at Katak (Cuttack), and that both Vinitapura and 
-Yayatinagara, the issuing places of the charters of Maha-Sivagupta 
and his son, were identical with it. His view is based upon the 
word ‘ Vijaya-kataka,’ which is applied to the issuing places of 
Maha-Bhayagupta I’s charters. He considers it to be a proper 
name denoting the modern town Cuttuk. The collocation of words 
in which the term occurs would suggest another meaning. The ex- 
pressions qralaearatfaasian fasaazatq and ereravaratfad- 
* The word Tosali as the name of some country in or near Orissa is as 
-old at least as the third century B.C. The two separate edicts of Asoka 
found in the version of Dhauli in Orissa are addressed to the officials at 
-Tosali.-. The expressions “Ubhaya Tosalyam” (i.e., in both divisions of 
Tosali) and “ Daksina Tosalyam Franea (doubtful) visaye ” (7.e., in the Franga 
visaya or district in Southern Tosali) occur in an old copper-plate grant found 
-in some Native State in Orissa. It is written in the old Gupta characters 
-and cannot be of a date later than the 5th Century A.D. It is clear from the 
-above that Tosali was a country very near to, if not comprised in, the posses- 
sions of the SomavamSi kings under notice.. So we cannot be free from doubt 
_when we take Daksina Tosala as a mistake for Daksina Kosala (Southern 
Kosala). Only two small fragments of the plate mentioned above were found. 
‘The inscription was very sadly damaged. The name of any king could 
‘not be found. The few words that could be satisfactorily deciphered convinced 
me that it was certainly a land-grant charter. A seal was received with the 
above fragments. It was circular in shape and had a diameter of two-and-a- 
half inches. One face of it contained in its upper half a female figure, seated 
-on a lotus, with two elephants (one on each side) having their trunks up- 
“lifted over her head. This emblem is similar to that found on the seals of 
-the: Somavamfi kings under notice. There was a line of writing below the 
emblem, but it was too much damaged to be diciphered. 
