1883.] 
J. Beames —Notes on the History of Orissa. 
233 
under this king’s rule is clearly fabulous, and arises from the fact that 
the Godavery is called by Oriyas the “ San Ganga” or little Ganges, so 
that it became a natural phrase in native adulatory language to say a king 
reigned from the great to the little Ganges. The area of this tract is 
said to have been measured at 124 million bighas, which is unintelligible, 
even with the small bighas of those days. 
In 1450 we are briefly told that the Mughals came into the 
country, but it is not said from what quarter, and a prior invasion in 1243 
is evidently a mistake.* The expedition was really to Jajnagar in 
Bengal, a place whose name has been confounded with Jajpore in Orissa. 
In 1457 we find the Muhammadans attacking Orissa from the south in 
conjunction with the Telingas, and the invasion of 1450 was probably from 
the same quarter. The Bhunyans of Garpadda, 15 miles north of 
Balasore, have in their possession a copper-plate grant of the estate which 
they still hold, made to their ancestor Potesar Bhatt by the Raja Pursot- 
tam Deb in 1503. The amount of land granted, 1,408 batis (= 28,160 
acres), is so large that it is evident land was not of much value in northern 
Orissa in those days. 
The road to Orissa must, however, have been practicable in 1516, 
for in that year, as we know from his life in Bengali, the great reformer 
Chaitanya travelled’from Nadiya to Puri and took up his abode there for 
the rest of his days. Probably the district began to be cleared and settled 
about this time under the “ Purshethi” system. Still we have no detailed 
accounts of it. About this time the Afghans from Bengal, however, 
marched right down to Cuttack itself, and the road which they made or 
used on this and their subsequent expeditions is still to be traced, and is 
known to the villagers as the “ Pathan sarak.” It runs parallel to the 
present Cuttack Trunk Road hut nearer to the hills, and apparently from 
superstitious motives is left uncultivated to this day. 
In 1550 Mukund Deo the last indigenous kinsr of Orissa ascend- 
ed the throne, and we are told of him that his sway extended to Tribeni 
Ghat on the Hugli. He it was in all probability who erected the strong 
chain of forts still standing at Raibanian in the extreme northern corner 
of the district, just opposite the place where the old Pathan road crosses 
the Subanrekha. In 1568 this fort was taken by the terrible Kala Pahar, 
general of the Afghan forces who overran all Orissa, defeated and deposed 
Mukund and obtained possession of the whole province.f 
* See Blochmann in J. A. S. B. Yol. XIII, p. 237. 
t There is some controversy about this date. Dr. Hunter (Orissa, Vol. II, p. 10,) 
gives a note founded on materials supplied by my friend, the late Mr. Blochmann, from 
which he derives the conclusion that the date 1568 given by the Muhammadan histo¬ 
rian is correct. This view has received signal confirmation from a discovery of my 
