'280 ON ORISSA PROPER 



fullest account of the expedition is to be found in the poem before noticed, 

 called the KanjikaVeri Pot'hi, though as the author has had recourse to 

 the embellishment of a regular epic machinery, the narrative is encumbered 

 t>y fictitious characters and incidents. It is also much dwelt upon in all 

 the Native histories, which agree in the main points of the relation, with 

 some discrepancies as to the details. 



The story runs nearly as follows: " In the country ofDakhin Kanouj 

 Kernat Sasan, there lived a powerful Raja who had avast fortress and pa- 

 lace built of a fine black stone, called Kanjinagar or Kanjikaveri (Con- 

 jeveram) and a daughter so beauteous and accomplished, that she was 

 surnamed Pudmavati or Padmini.* The fame of her charms having 



reached to the ears of Maharaja Pursottem Deo, he became anxious to es- 

 pouse her, and sent a messenger accordingly to the Chief of Conjeveram 

 to solicit the hand of his fair daughter. That Raja was well pleased with 

 the prospect of having - for his son-in-law so great and powerful a prince 

 as the Gajapati of Orissa, but considered it advisable to make some en- 

 quiries regarding the customs and manners of that Court, before consent- 

 ing- to the alliance. He soon found that the Maharajas were in the habit 

 of performing- the duties of a sweeper (Chandal) before the image of Ja- 

 gannath, on its being brought forth from the temple annually at the Rat'h 

 Jatra. Now the Kanjinagar Raja was a devoted and exclusive worshipper 

 of Sri Ganesh (Ganesa), and had very little respect for Sri Jeo, the divinity 

 of Orissa; and conceiving the above humiliation to be quite unworthy of, 

 and indeed utterly disgraceful to a Khetri of such high rank, he declined 

 the alliance in consequence. The Gajapati monarch became very wroth 

 at the refusal, and swore, that to revenge the slight cast on him, he would 

 obtain the damsel by force and marry her to a real sweeper. He accord- 

 ingly marched with a large army to attack Conjeveram, but was defeated 



* This was the name of a Princess, whose amours with Kfiosra Perviz, are celebrated in several In- 

 dian and Persian Rom ances, and is in Sanscrit indeed the general name of a particular class of beauties. 



