OR CUTTACK. 189 



rest of the Cuttack Mouzahs are mere hamlets, if we except the villages of 

 the Sasan Brahmins. The country of Rajwara does not, 1 believe, con- 

 tain a single respectable village. 



The extent, appearance and population of the Town of Cuttack, are not 

 unsuitable to its rank as the capital of a large province. Its situation on 

 a tongue of land or peninsula, near the bifurcation of the Mahanadi, is 

 commanding both in a political and commercial point of view, though these 

 advantages have been in some degree counterbalanced, by the outlay in- 

 curred in defending it by stone revetments, from the encroachment of the 

 rivers which wash two of its sides._ The hilly country of Rajwara seen 

 from its environs furnishes a pleasing and picturesque prospect. 



The real etymology of the word Cuttack is Katak signifying in Sanscrit a 

 royal residence, or seat of empire. It was one of the five Kataks, or Capitals 

 of Gangeswara Deo, the second prince of the Gang Bans line, and is still 

 distinguished by the natives as K atak Biranasi or Benares, by which name 

 also it is mentioned in Ferishteh's History of Bengal, and in the Ayin Ac- 

 beri. The denomination Biranasi, however, has been in latter times confined 

 mostly to a village, or Patna, which stands near the point of separation of the 

 Mahanadi and Cajori rivers, about four miles distant from the town. 

 Authorities vary m to the date of the foundation of Katak Biranasi, but 

 there seems good reason to think that it became a capital city as early as 

 the end of the tenth century, during the reign of the Kesari princes. Chow- 

 dwar, Jajpur, and Pipley, divided with it at different periods, the honor 

 and advantage of accommodating the Hindu court of Orissa. 



The only monument of the Gajpati Rajas which their ancient capi- 

 tal exhibits, is the fortress of Barabati, built probably in the 14th cen- 

 tury by Raja Anang Bhim Deo. Some ascribe its erection to Telinga 

 Mukund Deo, the last of the independant sovereigns of Orissa, and others 

 refer it back to a period as early as the times of the Kesari dynasty. 

 However that point may stand, its square sloping towers or bastions, and 



