m ON ORISSA PROPER 



Etiobanesef. The Hara khetr, sacred to Mahadeo under the titles of the Linga Raja 

 Bhuvaneswara, and thence called by the vulgar Bhobaneser, contains seve- 

 ral very ancient and remarkable monuments of the native princes of the 

 country, and their system of religious belief. 



At Balwanta, on the new road, sixteen miles from C attack, the attention 

 of the traveller is attracted by a lofty massive tower of stone, rising from 

 amidst the thicket* which skirt the adjoining frontier of Khurda. A path 

 leads through the woods towards this object of curiosity, and conducts, at 

 the end of about six miles, to a gently swelling rocky elevation or Tangi 

 formed of beds of the iron clay, on reaching which you find yourself, with 

 astonishment, in the centre of a ruined city, consisting entirely of deserted 

 and dismantled towers and temples sacred to the worship of Mahadeo* 

 under the innumerable titles, which absurd legends or the fancy of his vo- 

 taries have assigned to that deity. From amidst the whole, the great 

 Pagoda of the Ling Raj, or Lord of the Lingam, lifts its singular form, emi- 

 nently conspicuous both for size, loftiness, and the superior style of its ar- 

 chitecture. 



Bhobaneser was the site of a capital city founded by Raja Lalat Indra 

 Kesari the third of the princes bearing that surname, who reigned from 

 A. D. 617 to A. D. 660. If we are to judge of its extent and populous- 

 ness, during the period that it formed the seat of government of the Rajas 

 of the Kesari Vansa, from the almost countless multitude of temples which 

 are crowded within the sacred limits of the Panj Kosi, we might pro- 

 nounce it to have been, in the days of its splendour, one of the greatest ci- 

 ties which India ever saw. Standing near the chief Pagoda,* one cannot 

 turn the eye, in any direction, without taking into the view upwards of forty 



* Mr, Ward mentions it in his work on the Hindus under the name of Ekamrakanuna, " a place, 

 lie says, on the borders of Orissa , containing Six Thousand temples dedicated to Shiva/' Ekanua 

 or Ekamber is the name given to the surrounding woods. 



