86 
THE ANTIQUITIES Or MUKHALINGAM. 
that Parlakimedi was included. It is said that there is an 
insci-iption on a wall of the central shrine of the temple, 
which speaks of him as one that repaired the temple and 
built a prakdra or compound wall round it. But what 
perplexes one in the account of the Kshetramdhdtmya, is the 
statement that Madhukarna is a descendant of Vishnuvar- 
dhana, " Vishnuvai'dhana-purvakah.^' Can it be that the 
founder of the Eastei'n Chalukya dynasty is the person 
that is meant hei'e ? Even if the Kshetramdhdtmya be 
supposed to be a Brahmanical manufacture of the period 
of Madhuharnadeva, on account of the prophetic references 
made to him, it is to be noted that, about 500 years ago, there 
was a tradition current in these parts, connecting the Orissa 
Qangas with some Vislmuvardhana, most probably of the 
Chalukya dynasty. It may be, on the other hand, that 
the poet who composed the MdJidtmya, ignorant of the true 
lineage of his hero, thoug'ht fit to glorify his descent by 
tracing it from the first Vishnuvardhana of the Chalukya 
dynasty, of whose fame the vanity of Madliuliania may 
have, by this means, led him to partake. 
22. Summing up my foregoing observations, I note 
with pleasure that the village Mukhalingam has been in 
existence from the eighth century with a unique history of 
its own. It is a Ganga prince, Kdmdrnava, that built a 
town there in the 8tli century; it is a Ganga prince, another 
Kdvidrnava, that erected the principal temple there in the 
9th century; it is a Ganga prince, Anantavarman, that saw 
the temples there in a flourishing condition in the 12th 
century; it is again a Ganga prince, ifadhnl-ama, that 
repaired them in the 14th century; it is a Ganga prince 
too, Gourachendro, that owns the place and the temples 
there at the present moment. For about eleven centuries 
Mukhalingam has been in the uninterrupted possession of 
the Gangas, a dynasty whose kings once extended their 
