254 ON OBISSA PROPER 



PART II. 



Chronology and History. 



THE learned Natives of Cuttack maintain, that, in latter ages, upon the 

 decline of that great monarchy of upper India, whose history seems des- 

 tined to remain for ever buried in the darkness of fable and uncertain tra- 

 dition, four principal thrones or races of Hindoo Princes ruled over the 

 country, viz. the Narapati, the Aswapati, the Chatter or Chatrapati, and the 

 Gajapati. By the first they understand the Ram Rajas or Sovereigns of 

 Teligana and the Carnatic, who opposed the earlier Musselman invaders 

 of the Deccan, under Sultan Ala-ud-din ; the second throne they place 

 in the Marhatta country, and intend to designate by the epithet, no doubt, 

 the old and powerful Rajas of Deogir or Tagara, of whom frequent men- 

 tion is made in Ferishteh ; by the third* they mean apparently the cele- 

 brated line of Rajput Princes whose descendants are found at Ambher 

 and Jyepur; the fourth is the title given to the Monarchs who ruled over 

 Orissa, from the earliest times of which any authentic records are preserv- 

 ed. The origin of these thrones or sovereignties, they trace back to the 

 four great feudal vassals of an empire, which they firmly believe to 

 have extended over the whole of Hindustan, from the commencement at 

 least of the Cali yuga ; and they explain their titles by reference to the no- 

 minal offices held, or services performed by them, when in attendance on 

 the Lord Paramount or supreme Raja at the Court of Xiastina (Hastina- 

 pura) and Delhi. Thus the Narapatif is supposed by some to have been 

 the commander of the armies : the Aswapati, the lord or master of the 

 horse ; the Chatrapati, the bearer of the imperial umbrella or standard of 



* I should myself be inclined to place the Chatrapati Rajas in the Marhatta country, as Sri Cha- 

 trapati was one of the titles adopted by the Peshwahs, and it seems reasonable to suppose that they 

 may have borrowed it from an ancient local dynasty so designated. 



■\ The titles imply respectively, "Lord of Men ;" " Lord of horses;" " Lord of the Umbrella/' and 

 " Lord of Elephants," or as v/e should say, " Master of, &c." 



