Kāliṅga untranslated

Kāliṅga 01. Kaliṅga. An inhabitant of Ñātika. While staying in Ñātika, at the Giñjakāvasatha, the Buddha tells Ānanda that Kāliṅga was reborn after death in the Suddhāvāsā, and that there he would attain to Nibbāna. DN.ii.92; SN.v.358f.

Kāliṅga 02. A country: the Kāliṅgaraṭṭha. It is one of the seven political divisions mentioned in the time of the mythical king Reṇu and is given first in the list, its capital being Dantapura and its king Sattabhū (DN.ii.235f; see also Mhv.iii.208; the Mahā Vastu also mentions a king Uggata of Dantapura, iii.364f).

It is not, however, included in the list of sixteen Janapadas appearing in the Aṅguttaranikāya (AN.i.213, etc.), but is found in the extended list of the Niddesa (CNid.ii.37). A later tradition (Bv.xviii.6) states that after the Buddha’s death, a Tooth was taken from among his relics and placed at Kāliṅga, where it was worshipped. From Kāliṅga the Tooth was brought to Ceylon, in the time of King Sirimeghavaṇṇa, by Hemamālā, daughter of Guhasīva, king of Kāliṅga, and her husband Dantakumāra, a prince of the Ujjenī royal family. In Ceylon the Tooth became the “Palladium” of the Sinhalese kings (Cv.xxxvii.92; see also Cv.Trs.i.7, n.4; the Dāṭhādhātuvaṁsa gives details, JPTS 1884, pp.108ff).

The Jātakas contain various references to Kāliṅga. There was once a great drought in Dantapura, and the king, acting on the advice of his ministers, sent Brahmins to the king of Kuru to beg the loan of his state elephant, Añjanavasabha, credited with the power of producing rain. On this occasion, however, the elephant failed and the Kāliṅga king, hearing of the virtues practised by the king and people of Dantapura, offered them himself, upon which rain fell. See the Kurudhammajātaka (Ja 276), Ja.ii.367ff, also Dhp­a.iv.88f. A similar story is related in the Vessantarajātaka, vi.487, where the Kāliṅga Brahmins ask for and obtain Vessantara’s white elephant that he may stay the drought in Kāliṅga.

Another king of Kāliṅga was a contemporary of Aruṇa, the Assaka king of Potali. The Kāliṅga king, in his eagerness for a fight, picked a quarrel with Aruṇa, but was worsted in battle, and had to surrender his four daughters with their dowries to Aruṇa (Ja.iii.3f).

The Kāliṅgabodhijātaka (Ja 479) relates the story of another ruler of Kāliṅga while, according to the Sarabhaṅgajātaka (Ja 522), a certain king of Kāliṅga (Ja.v.135f) went with two other kings, Aṭṭhaka and Bhīmaratta, to ask Sarabhaṅga questions referring to the fate of Daṇḍakī. There they heard the sage preach, and all three kings became ascetics. Another king of Kāliṅga was Nāḷikīra, who, having ill-treated a holy man, was swallowed up in the Sunakhaniraya, while his country was laid waste by the gods and turned into a wilderness (Kāliṅgārañña). The Kāliṅgārañña is referred to in the Upālisutta (MN.i.378); the story is related in Ja.v.144 and, in greater detail, in MN­a.ii.602ff. In the Kumbhakārajātaka (Ja 408, Ja.iii.376) the Kāliṅga king’s name is Karaṇḍu.

From early times there seems to have been political intercourse between the peoples of Kāliṅga and Vaṅga; Susīmā, grandmother of Vijaya, founder of the Sinhalese race, was a Kāliṅga princess, married to the king of Vaṅga (Mhv.vi.1; Dpv.ix.2ff). Friendly relations between Ceylon and Kāliṅga were evidently of long standing, for we find in the reign of Aggabodhi II. (601-11 CE.) the king of Kāliṅga, together with his queen and his minister, coming over to Ceylon intent on leading the life of a recluse and joining the Saṅgha under Jotipāla. Aggabodhi and his queen treated them with great honour (Cv.xlii.44ff). Later, the queen consort of Mahinda IV. came from Kāliṅga and Vijayabāhu I. married a Kāliṅga princess, Tilokasundarī (Cv.lix.30). We are told that scions of the Kāliṅga dynasty had many times attained to the sovereignty of Ceylon and that there were many ties of relationship between the royal families of the two countries (Cv.lxiii.7, 12f). But it was Māgha, an offspring of the Kāliṅga kings, who did incomparable damage to Ceylon and to its religion and literature (Cv.lxxx.58ff).

According to the inscriptions, Asoka, in the thirteenth year of his reign, conquered Kāliṅga and this was the turning-point in his career, causing him to abhor war (Mookerji: Asoka, pp.16, 37, 214). Among the retinue sent by him to accompany the branch of the Sacred Bodhi Tree on its journey to Ceylon, were eight families of Kāliṅga (Vin-a.i.96).

Asoka’s brother Tissa, later known as Ekavihāriya, spent his retirement in the Kāliṅga country with his instructor Dhammarakkhita, and there Asoka built for him the Bhojakagirivihāra (Thag­a.i.506).

According to the Vessantarajātaka (Ja 547, Ja.vi.521), the Brahmin village Dunniviṭṭha, residence of Jūjaka, was in Kāliṅga.

Kāliṅga is generally identified with the modern Orissa. (CAGI.590ff; Law: Geography of Early Buddhism, 64; see also Bhaṇḍarkar: Ancient History of Deccan, p.12).

Kāliṅga 03. Various kings of Kāliṅga are mentioned either as Kāliṅgarājā or simply as Kāliṅga. For these see Kāliṅga (2). We also hear of Cūḷa Kāliṅga and Mahā Kāliṅga. Cūḷa Kāliṅga is sometimes called Kāliṅgakumāra (Ja.iv.230).

Kāliṅga 04. Son of Cūḷa Kāliṅga. See the Kāliṅgabodhijātaka (Ja 479).

Kāliṅga 05. A Damiḷa chief, ally of Kulasekhara (Cv.lxxvi.174, 214, 217, 222). He was a brother of the wife of Toṇḍamāna. Cv.lxxvii.40.

Kāliṅga 06. Another Damiḷa chief, conquered by Bhuvenakabāhu I. Cv.xc.32.

Kāliṅga 07. See Kāliṅga Bhāradvāja.