282 ON ORISSA PROPER 



captured and conducted in triumph to Puri. A famous image of Gopal, call- 

 ed the Satbadi (Satya Vadin) Thakiir, that is, the " truth- speaking god," 

 was brought off at the same time and set up in a temple ten miles north 

 of Pursottem, where it may still be seen, a monument of the Conjeveram ex- 

 pedition. 



I suspect that the tradition mentioned by Orme, vol. ii. book viii. con- 

 founds the conquest of Conjeveram above related, with some former expe- 

 dition into the Carnatic of the more ancient Rajas of Orissa. " The tra- 

 " dition of these countries says, that many centuries before Mahommedan- 

 " ism, a king of Jagannath, in Orissa, marched to the south with a great 

 " army, which subdued not only these provinces, but, crossing the Kistna, 

 " conquered in the Carnatic, as far as Conjeveram : these conquests he dis- 

 " tributed in many portions to his relations, officers, and menial servants, 

 " from whom several of the present northern polygars pretend to be line- 

 " ally descended, and to govern at this very time the very districts which 

 " were then given to their ancestor. All who claim this genealogy, esteem 

 " themselves the highest blood of native Indians next to the brahmins, equal 

 " to the Rajputs, and support this pre-eminence by the haughtiest obser- 

 tf vances, insomuch that the breath of a different religion, and even of the 

 " meaner Indians, requires ablution," &c. &c. 



Conformably with his oath, Raja Pursottem Deo made over the fair Pad- 

 mavati or Padmini to his chief minister, desiring him to wed her to a 

 sweeper. Both the minister, however, and all the people of Puri commise- 

 rated her misfortunes, and at thlNa,ext Rath Jatra, when the Maharaja began 

 to perform his office of Chandal (s\Veeper), the individual entrusted with 

 charge of the lady brought her forth and presented her to him, saying, " You 

 ordered me to give the Princess to a sweeper ; you are the sweeper upon 

 whom I bestow her." Moved by the intercession of his subjects, the Raja 

 at last consented to marry Padmavati, and carried her to the palace at Cut- 

 tack. The end of this lady's history is as romantic as the preceding por- 



