76 



JOURNAL, E.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Yol. X. 



Ganga-vansa dynasty was established there in 1132 a.d., by Chor- 

 ganga (who "certainly came from the south"), and continued to rule 

 Orissa till the last of that Ganga-vansa line (Kutharuya Deva) was 

 assassinated in 1534 a.d. And — bearing even more strongly on the pre- 

 sent question — there was yet another line of the Ganga-vansa which, 

 governed Kdlinga, south of Orissa and north of the G-odavery , apparently 

 from an unknown antiquity, and which after a long eclipse reflourished 

 towards the end of the 10th century. 



The foregoing particulars as to dates, &c, are taken from Sewell's 

 " Sketch of the Dynasties of Southern India," under the titles " Kongu 

 or G-ariga Kings," " Orissa Kings," " Kalinga," and " Kadumbas." 



Now, Nissanka Malla tells us in inscription No. 2 that he was 

 himself born at Sinhapura in the Kdlinga country, of illustrious 

 parents, whom he names ; and it is therefore not surprising that one 

 of his queens should have been a lady of the ancient and illustrious 

 Ganga-vansa : nor that both of them should have been proud of her 

 descent. 



This race has links of association with Ceylon of more importance 

 than the mere fact of having given a queen to one of its sovereigns. 

 It was the third (or an early) king of that line in Orissa who, in 

 1174 a.d. (almost synchronous with the erection of the chief works at 

 Polonnaruwa), built the great temple of Juganat in Puri, the sacred 

 Dantapura, the city in which till 319 a.d. was treasured the great relic 

 which has been so bound up with the history and fortunes of Ceylon, 

 and a temple which derives the origin and sanctity from a Brahmanical 

 and Vishnuvite distortion of the story of the Tooth. Had the Burmese 

 or Arracanese invaders of Orissa been as successful in their attempt 

 to capture the relic as they were in supplanting a dynasty and in 

 holding the country for one hundred and fifty years, Ceylon itself 

 would have had a very different history and fame. Anyhow, it was to 

 consecrate and perpetuate a gross distortion of the story of the palla- 

 dium of Ceylon that a Ganga-vansa prince built at Jaganat one of the 

 most famous temples in the world. 



Perhaps, too, it is owing to the connection of its sovereigns with the 

 race of the Ganga-vansa — those devoted followers of Yishnu, who in 

 Orissa, superseded the Kesari-vansi and the worship of Siva — that 

 Mr. Burrows has to tell us that he finds the Hinduism of Polonnaruwa 

 to show little or no indication of Sivaism. It was just when the 

 Ganga-vansa and Yishnavism were dominant in the native land of 

 the sovereigns of Ceylon, and when Juganat was being built, to 



