Kalinga

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Kalinga

Its territory formed a part of the ancient Kalinga of Mahabharat fame. Ashok the Mauryan King of Magadh, invaded Kalinga in 261 BC and this event has gone down in history as the Great Kalinga war. Then the people of Kalinga offered a relentless & dauntless resistance, but they lost at last. How desperate was the battle, how bitterly was it fought, and how terrible were the results, are known from Ashok’s own descriptions. This is what he wrote about the Kalinga war in his thirteenth Rock Edict. The country of Kalinga was conquered when King Priyadarshan, beloved of the Gods had been anointed eight years. One hundred and fifty thousand were there from captured, one hundred thousand were there slain, and many times as many died.

But what was the result? The conquered Kalinga conquered her conqueror. This was the last war fought by him after which he became the great champion of Buddhism and upheld the values of peace and non-violence.

The ancient state rose to prominence as a Kingdom under Kharavela , a great conquerer and patron of Jainism, in the second half of the Ist century B.C. Other great rulers belonged to the Keshari dynasty and the Eastern Ganga dynasty who were also great builders.

At one time the vast kingdom spanned from Ganga to Godavari. The flourishing maritime trade with South-East Asian countries i.e. Java, Bornio had brought in a golden era of affluence and opulence.

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