OR CUTTACK. W7 



Connected with the temples of Jagannath and Bhuvaneswara. A few 

 particulars worth noticing however may be gleaned from the accounts, such 

 as that the rate at which the ryots were taxed by the sovereign was five 

 kahans of cowris per batti, or about one anna per biga. One of the 

 Rajas named Bariya Kesari, in a time of emergency, raised the demand 

 for revenue as high as one kahan of cowris per biga, or four times the 

 former amount, but his successor Siiraj Kesari reduced it to the old rate. 

 Raja Nirftpa Kesari, a martial and ambitious prince, who was always fight- 

 ing with his neighbours, is said to have first planted a city on the site 

 of the modern Cuttack, about A. D. 989. The reign of Markat Kesari 

 was distinguished for the construction of a stone revetment, or embankment 

 faced with that materia!, (probably the ancient one of which the remains 

 are yet to be seen), to protect the new capital from inundation A. D. 1006'; 

 and Madhava Kesari has the credit of building a fortress of vast dimensions 

 at Sarangher. 



Different stories are related of the extinction of the Kesari family. The 

 Raj Gharitra says, that the last of the line died childless, when at the sug- 

 gestion of the deity, another family were brought from the Carnatic by 

 Basudeb Banpati and placed on the throne. The Vynsavali ascribes the 

 change of dynasty to a dispute between the Raja and this same Basudeb 

 Banpati, a brahmin and powerful officer of the court, who having been driv- 

 en with indignity from the royal presence, went to the Carnatic and insti- 

 gated a person named Churang or Chor Ganga to invade Orissa. He 

 conquered Cuttack, on Friday, the 13th of Assin, A. S. 1054 or A. I>. 1131, 

 and thus acquired the sovereignty of the country. Both accounts agree 

 in giving the above as the date of the accession of Raja Churang Deo. 

 This personage, whatever his real origin, is fabled to have been the off- 

 spring of the goddess Ganga Sana or the lesser Ganges (Godaveri) by a 

 form of Mahadeo. With him began the race of princes called the Ganga 

 ^ansa, or Gangbans line, who ruled the country for about four centuries, a 



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