last three pairs of leaves are later additions. Of these the first two pairs [A (2)] form a separate unit and give a list of the Rajas of Khurda with their ańka years and the corresponding years of the Amali era, up to the 5th anka of Virakesari Deva II corresponding with the year 1262 (A.D. 1857). The third pair [A(3)] is a separate unit and contains the list of the kings of the Kali Yuga beginning with Yudhishthira and ending with Nanguḍa Narasingha Deva. B. This manuscript consists of 15 pairs of leaves that form one single unit. It contains the annals from the beginning of the Kali Yuga to the 5th Anka of Maharaja Ramachandra Deva III corresponding with the Saka year 1743 (A.D. 1820-21). It is entitled Rajārānanka rāyya-bhoga C. This manuscript consists of 23 pairs of leaves, most of which are worm-caten. The first 17 pairs form one single unit. It is entitled Kaliyuga rajāmānañka bhoga kalā "Annals of the kings of Kaliyuga." It begins with Yudhisthira and ends with the reign of Chakra Pratapa Deva, son of Govinda Vidyadhara. 6 pairs of leaves [C(2)] contain not only the list of kings of Orissa but also that of the Patsas (Muhammadan kinge). D. This manuscript consists in all of 23 pairs of leaves including no less than 15 different units that are referred to as D(1), D(2), D(3), etc. Ten of these units have each a single pair of leaves and contain either lists of kings or short résumés. The longest unit, D(10), has 11 pairs of leaves and gives the history from the beginning of time (Yuga) to the reign of Ramachandra Deva II. Another unit, D(14), has 5 pairs of leaves and gives the history from the beginning of the Kaliyuga to the reign of Telinga Mukunda Deva. E. The first pair of leaves in this manuscript gives the anka years with the equivalent Śaka years of kings beginning with Pratapa Rudra who began reign in Sakāvda 1418 (A.D. 1496) and ending with the 7th anka of Gopinatha Deva of Khurda corresponding to Śakāvda 1614 (A.D. 1722).1 The anka years of the Orissan kings denote their regnal years omitting the 1st, 6th, 16th, 20th, 26th, 30th, 36th, etc. years so that anka 2 means the 1st regnal year, anka 7 the 5th regnal year, and so on. From the language of the concluding portion of manuscript B it appears that it was completed in the 5th anka of Ramachandra Deva III. The other versions of the annals, A(1), C(1), D(10) and D (14) appear to be earlier compilations, though they may not be as old as the reign of the kings with whose history they conclude. One legend narrated in all these versions enables us to determine the time when the compilation of these annals was initiated. It is said that in the beginning of the Kaliyuga 18 kings of the Somavamsa or the lunar dynasty beginning with Yudhisht hira ruled for 3,781 years. In the reign of Sobhana Deva, the 17th king of this dynasty, Raktabāhu, the Amir (amură) of the Mughal Padshah (Patisha) of Delhi, invaded Orissa and ravaged the kingdom. According to one manuscript, C, Raktabāhu, the Mughal from Delhi, came across the sea in a ship (jāhāja). Sobhana Deva fled to the Jhaḍakhaṇḍa where he was succeeded by Chandrakara Deva. The Mughals held the kingdom for 35 years. Yajāti Kesari then seized the kingdom and is said to have reigned for 52 years up to Sakāvda 448 (A.D. 526). Stirling and Bhavani Charan call this Raktabāhu a Yavana, but the latter refers, to a Mughal invasion in the reign of Nirmala Deva, the grandfather of Sobhana Deva. I have not yet been able to trace the manuscript of the Rajacharitra used by Stirling. As stated above, none of the manuscripts I have hitherto examined are so called. As in all these and in the one used by Bhabani Charan, the foreigners who invaded Orissa in the fifth century A.D. are called Mughals, it may be safel concluded that the 1 Since the above was sent to the press we have discovered an old copy of the annals in a regular palm leaf Oriya manuscript in the collection of Kumar Sarat Kumar Ray of Dighapatiya. It is referred to below as F. sections relating to the pre-Mughal period of these texts were first compiled in the Mughal period. A strong evidence in regard to the late origin of the pre-Mughal sections of the Madala Pañji is their general unreliability. To say nothing of the earlier dynasties, no independent evidence has yet been discovered relating to the 42 kings of the Kesari dynasty who are supposed to have reigned from the fifth to the end of the eleventh century A.D. Even the history of the Ganga kings is hopelessly muddled. In the Choda Ganga of the i uri anuals, we can hardly recognise Anantavarman Choda's Ganga whose lineage and history are well known from contemporary epigraphic records. Gangesvara, the hero of a cycle of nasty legends unknown to history, is sandwiched between Choda Ganga ard his immediate successor Kāmārṇava who is called Kāmadeva In place of the last seven or eight kings of the Ganga dynasty who are alternately named Narasimha Deva and Bhanu Deva the Puri annals substitute a succession of six Narasimhas followed by six Bhanudevas. But with the accession of Kapilendra we are on firmer historical ground. In A, B, D(6), D(8), D(10) and D(14), the last king of the Ganga dynasty is named Matta Bhanu or the mad Bhanu.1 It is said that Matta Bhanu had no male issue or no brother who could succeed him. So be prayed to Jagannath to nominate a successor. In the night Jagannath appeared before him in a dream and said that in the following morning, near the temple of Vimala, he would meet his heir in the person of a young man picking food from a potsherd who would run away at his approach. In the following morning the king actually met a young man near the temple of Vimala behaving exactly in the same manner. The young man turned out to be Kapili (Kapila), a Raut or Rajput of the Solar line, who after serving as a cowherd of a Brahmana and then associating with a gang of thieves for some time was then leading the life of a beggar. King Matta Bhanu adopted Kapili as his heir-apparent and on his death was succeeded by 1 In C and D(3) the last Ganga king is named Akaṭā Abaṭā Bhanu, son of Matta Bhanu. him in the Śaka year 1374 (A.D. 1452) according to E, which gives the most reliable dates. On his accession to the throne Kapili came to be known as Kapilendra and Kapilesa vara. The tales that have gathered round the early life of this king read more like legends invented by popular fancy than sober history. But in a stone inscription found at Gopinathpur in the Cuttack district which records the erection of a temple of Jagannath by Gopinatha Mahāpātra, a minister of Kapilendra Deva, we are told bhāsvad-vam savatamsa-tri-jagad-adhipati-nila-sail ādhinathasya. ādeśad-Odra-dese samajani Kapilendra abhidhāno Narendraḥ.1 "By order of the Lord of Nila-giri (blue hill) (who is) the Lord of the three worlds (Jagannatha), there was born in the Odra-desa a king named Kapilendra, the ornament of the solar line." The reference to the "order" of Jagannatha in connection with Kapilendra in this stanza clearly indicates that his contemporaries believed in some such stories relating to his accession as those preserved in the Puri annals. What was the reason for that belief, what is the substratum of fact underlying the stories, it is now difficult to determine. But after the story of the order of Jagannatha relating to Kapili's succession communicated to Matta Bhanu Deva and his adoption of the former as heir, we are treated to an anachronism in the annals. It is said that Matta Bhanu sent Kapili to the Subadar or Nawab of Orissa to settle the amount of tribute (peshkash) and the Nawab conferred on him the title of Bhramaravara. In the fifteenth century Orissa was an independent kingdom and the titles Subadar and Nawab were unknown in India before the establishment of the Mughal empire more than a century after. 1 M. M. Chakravarti, Inscription of Kapilendra Deva, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXIX, 1901, Part I, p. 175. From the middle of the sixteenth century onward it is possible to check the accuracy of the narrative of the Puri annals with the help of the historians of the Mughal empire. By saying so I do not mean that the Mughal histories are necessarily more trustworthy than the corresponding sections of the Puri annals. But we know more about the antecedents, the opportunities and the prejudices of the Mughal historians than those of the anonymous compilers of the Puri annals, and are therefore in a better position to subject the statements of the former to criticism. Abul Fazl in his Akbarnama furnishes us with some details relating to the history of the last independent kings in Orissa. The dynasty founded by Kapilendra was overthrown by Govinda Vidyadhara, the powerful minister of his famous grandson Prataparudra. Govinda Vidyadhara, known as Vira Govinda Deva after his usurpation, who died in Śakāvda 1467 (A.D. 1545), was succeeded by his son Chakra or (Ci akā) Pratapa Deva. The story of the death of Chaka l'ratapa Deva is thus told in A :-- অনেক অন্যায় সে রাযা কলে। ব্রাহ্মণকু বারু ঘাস কটাঙ্গলে৷ রাযরে সমস্ত লোক আরত হোঈলে । এ রযা থিলে ভল নোহিব বোঈলে ৷ ১৫ অঙ্ক মেস মাস কৃষ্ণ ত্রেছশী দিন ঐ পুঋসোতম রযা বাড়ী মাটী আবাহান হোঈলে। এ রাযা ভোগ কলে ১২।৬ ৷ এহাঙ্ক পুঅ নরসিংহ রায় যেনা হোঈ রাজা হেলে । "The king did many wrong things. He made Brahmans gather fodder for horses. All people were afraid of the king. They said, 'If this king continue to reign, no good will be done.' In the 15th Anka on the 13th day of the dark half of the month of Vaisakha, the king died within the compound of the temple of Jagannatha at Puri. This king reigned for 12 years and 6 months." His son Narasimha who was the hair-apparent became king. Manuscript B, which like A, belongs to the collection of the Deul Karan, gives a somewhat different account of the death of king Chaka Pratāpa. In this manuscript it is stated, "After this his son Chaka Pratāpa |