Summary
Vishwanath Dev Gajapati was the king of Kalinga who established a kingdom in the region of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, historically known as Kalinga. He belonged to the Shankara dynasty that was installed in the region by his great-grandfather Vinayaka Dev and his wife Lilavati. The Silavamsa king Pratap Ganga Raja died without any male heir, only leaving behind his wife and daughter Lilavati. Vinayak Dev who migrated from Jammu or Kashmir after praying to Kashi Vishwanath married Lilavati. Accordingly, the dynasty was called Shankara dynasty. Vinayak Dev also claimed to belong to the legendary Solar dynasty or Suryavansh.[1]
| Vishwanath Dev Gajapati | |
|---|---|
| Kalingadhipati, Gajapati, Nauna-Gajapati | |
| Raja of Nandapura (1527), Maharajah of Kalinga (1551) | |
| Reign | 1527–1571 |
| Predecessor | Bhairava Deva |
| Successor | Balarama Deva I |
| Ministers | Mukunda Harichandana |
| Born | 1500 Nandapura, Odisha |
| Died | 1571 (aged 70–71) Rayagada, Odisha |
| Issue | Balarama Deva I |
| Dynasty | Shankara dynasty |
| Father | Bhairava Deva |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Early life edit
Vishwanath Dev was the son of Rajah Bhairav Dev of Nandapur who were a vassal state of the Gajapatis. The Suryavansh dynasty arrived in the region in mid-15th century from Kashmir with the arrival of Vinayak Dev who married Princess Lilavati the daughter of last Silavamsi ruler and ascended the small kingdom of Nandapur. Later, Vinayak conquered the southern territories up to Rajahmundry and Srikakulam in the east.[2] This kingdom however remained loyal and was annexed to the Gajapati empire. Evidently, Vishwanath is the fourth king in Vinayak's line and ascended the throne in 1527 during the reign of Prataprudra Deva. In 1509, his father Bhairav Dev along with other vassal kingdoms accompanied Prataprudra Deva in the battle of Kondapalli fort against Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar Empire. Therefore, Vishwanath remained an ally of the Gajapati emperor.
Reign edit
After the death of Prataprudra Deva in 1540 his sons Kalua Deva and Khakura Deva were made kings and later assassinated by their minister Govinda Vidyadhar. This led to the fall of the Gajapati empire and all vassal kingdoms claimed independence. The Bhoi dynasty continued to rule Puri and the region adjoining the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal.[3] Vishwanath Dev sent an arny against the Bhoi kings by sending an army under Mukunda Harichandran of Cossimkota to annex the northern region and make Govinda Vidyadhar accept the suzerainty of Vishwanath whose southern territory touched the Krishna-Godavari region of Telangana.[4] The fifth report on the affairs of the company describe him as :
...Wistna Dev (Vishwanath Dev), a powerful prince of Odisha, having united under his sceptre all the ancient domains from the confines of Bengal and Jhadkhand to those of Telangana on the south, which contained in his fold innumerable feudatories that paid homage to his royal seat...[5]
He built the city of Rayagada and Majhighariani Temple on the banks of Nagavali. A Brahmin at his court named Simha Vajapeya who wrote treatises on law and philosophy helped him perform the Vajapeya Yagna at the new town of Vishwanathpur, recorded in the genealogy of the Vajapeya family of Biranarasingh Pur near Puri.[6] He adopted the title of 'Gajapati' which meant 'owner of elephants' and in Odisha is a symbolic term for an emperor, a title was made popular by the Gajapati dynasty of Cuttack.
Aftermath and death edit
Mukunda Dev rebelled and killed the last two successors of the Bhoi dynasty and also crushed the rebellion of Raghubhanj Chottaray. He declared himself an independent ruler in 1559 but Sulaiman Khan Karrani formed a kingdom in the region of Bengal which proved a potential threat to Mukund Dev.[3] Vishwanath Deva lost his northern territories to Mukund and was later challenged by Ibrahim Qutb Shah in the banks of Godavari in southern territory. He stopped the advance of the Qutb Shahi army and later signed a peace treaty with the Sultan of Golconda in which both parties agreed to mark Godavari as the border between the two kingdoms.[7][8] However, this treaty was squashed after the death of Vishwanath Deva in 1571 as the Qutb Shahis militarily encroached the eastern parts of the kingdom lying adjacent to Bay of Bengal which made Balaram Dev accept the suzerainty of Golconda.[9]
References edit
- ^ Singh Deo, Kumar Bidyadhar (1975). Nandapur - A Forsaken Kingdom (Second ed.). Cuttack: Utkal Press. p. 14.
- ^ Vadivelu 1903, p. 69.
- ^ a b O'Malley 2007, p. 30.
- ^ Singh Deo 1939, p. 24.
- ^ Presidency, Madras (1866). The Fifth Annual Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company (First ed.). United Scottish Press, London: Graves, Cookson & Co. p. 141,217. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
- ^ Singh Deo 1939, p. 25.
- ^ Singh Deo 1939, p. 22.
- ^ Briggs 2015, pp. 362 & 364.
- ^ Taradatt 2015, p. 43.
- Singh Deo, Kumar Bidyadhar (1939). Nandapur A Forsaken Kingdom. Utkal Sahitya Press. ISBN 978-81-86772-17-1.[unreliable source?]
- Taradatt (2015). Odisha District Gazetteers: Nabarangapur (PDF). Government of Odisha. ISBN 978-81-86772-17-1.
- A Vadivelu (1903). The Aristocracy of Southern India. Vest and Co.
- O'Malley, L.S.S. (2007). Bengal District Gazetteer: Nabarangapur. Government of Odisha. ISBN 978-81-86772-17-1.
- Briggs, John (2015). History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, till the Year AD 1612. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-81-86772-17-1.