VOICE OF KALINGA
The year is 265 BCE. Kalinga has been sacked by Ashoka. As per his rock edict, 100,000 men have been slain and 150,000 deported. Daya nadi is flowing red in the blood of the people slain. Apart from the population loss, Kalinga’s assets, trade, commerce are now firmly in control of Magadha. Such was the devastation that we are told it changed the heart of Ashoka.
As a successor of Kalinga, I can’t help but think, what the point of war was. Why did my ancestors fight? Why did they get killed in these large numbers? 100,000 men back in those times must have been a significant portion of Kalinga’s population. Were the number of deaths exaggerated? What were they thinking facing Magadha, an empire that stretched from Afghanistan to Myanmar and from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu?
When Ashoka’s grandfather, Chandragupta Maurya was ruling, Megasthenes, a Greek traveler had left an account of Kalinga’s army. It had 60000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, 700 war elephants[1]. During war, it is highly likely more people were drafted in the army and quite possibly the number of dead mentioned in Ashoka edict, may be real. If these dead had the power of hindsight, would they have done something different? Why did Kalinga’s society have to deal with such a devastating blow?
The Kalinga war is the most prominent event for which Odisha is known. But so little is known of Odisha before and after this event. We are told that Kalinga was full of brave people who did not take a step back. So what happened after this war? How come they did not leave a mark on history. Is their bravery also an exaggeration? What did I miss?
A few paper readings later, here is an attempt to peer into the mind of Kalinga. About a 100 years after the Ashoka war, a king called Kharavela appears in Kalinga. He is considered a ruler of masses by the people of Kalinga. He sets of on a quest to regain Kalinga’s pride. Such is the audacity of this king, he ends up conquering Magadha herself. In his Hathigumpha inscription at Khandagiri, Bhubaneswar, Kharavela says, “He has made King Bahasatimita of Magadha bow to him and return the Jaina statues that were stolen from Kalinga”[2]. Surprisingly Kharavela’s inscription in Khandagiri stares straight at Ashoka’s rock edict in Dhauli, Bhubaneswar. Sanjeev Sanyal, India’s current chief economic advisor, points out, it is as if the 2 kings, Ashoka and Kharavela are having a conversation across time. Kharavela ends up conquering huge parts of North, West India and some portion of Deccan.
Around this time, i.e 100–200 BCE, there is an uptick of activity in the Bay of Bengal or the Mahodadhi as known to Kalinga back then. Sailors from Kalinga begin to appear on a frequent basis in various parts of South East Asia. People of Indonesia call them Klings. Over time, these “Klings” left such an impression on them that everyone from India, travelling to Indonesia came to be known as “Klings”[3].
One theory related to Kalinga war, proposes that, when Ashoka had Kalinga surrounded on 3 sides, people started sailing out of Odisha in big numbers[3]. Kalinga’s coastline was peppered with ports. The famous ones being Tamralipti (in Midnapore, WB), Khalkattapatna (11kms east of Konark), Manikpatna (northern tip of Chilika), Dosarene (along Chilika), Palur (Gopalpur), Barua (Berhampur), Sonapur (20kms from Berhampur), Kalingapatnam (in Srikakullam, AP). Periplus of Erythraean Sea, a Greek navigation document of trade routes, dated 50–100 AD describes Kalinga ports[4]. Travelers like Ptolemy(150 AD), Fa-hein(5th century AD), Hsueng Tsang(7th century AD), I-Tsing(7th century AD), Wang-Ta-Yuan(14th century) have travelled through these ports and left descriptions of these ports. In fact, shortly after the Kalinga war, Ashoka’s own daughter, Sanghamitra travelled through Tamralipti to Sri Lanka carrying a sapling from the Bodhi Tree. Like today, the purpose of ports was trade, commerce and travel.
What started as a rescue mission, turned into an opportunity for Kalinga. From around 2nd century BCE till 15th century AD, there is constant contact with Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand. We traded pearl, silver, copper, pepper, stones, pottery, beads, drugs, metal tools, ivory, silk, clothes and spices. Surely this community knew how to run businesses.
https://www.livehistoryindia.com/living-history/2020/12/02/yatra-bali
3 routes existed to Indonesia. Route 1, the most commonly used route was from Kalinga to Sri Lanka and then to Indonesia. Route 2 was from Kalinga to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand then Indonesia. This was the popular choice after 9th century AD. Route 3 was the most daring and least used, which was the direct route across Bay of Bengal to Indonesia. We know the last route existed because Ptolemy (150 AD) has mentioned it in his work[5].
The round trip from Mahanadi coast at Cuttack to Bali was 180 days. The timings of the trip were guided by the monsoon wind directions that changed every 6 months. The journey covered 14,000 km starting in mid-November, sailing for a couple of months, and landing in Indonesia in mid-January. After a 2–3 month stay in Indonesia for trade, the return trip lasted another couple of months with eventual arrival in Cuttack in mid-May/June[6]. The journey started on Kartika Purnima, which is still celebrated in Odisha as Bali Jatra. On their return trip, there was a festival called Akasadipa where candles are lit and allowed to float into the sky which acted as light houses. There is also a Khudurukuni Osha, which was a prayer to Maa Mangala for a safe arrival of sailors. Surely this community knew how to sail. They knew how to build boats. Sailing for such long periods would have required great precision in boat construction and navigation. They were certainly aware of the world geography and wind directions. In fact, present day Odisha still celebrates Bada Osha and Dalkhai Osha which are festivals related to boat making[7].
Not so long ago in present day Odisha, people were scared of travelling abroad. But in this same land for almost 2000 years, our people were staying away from family for 6 months in a year, travelling huge distances, taking enormous risks of long distance sailing, meeting people belonging to truly different cultures and doing business with them. And for some reason I was told, globalization is a western phenomenon that started in Europe with sailors like Columbus and Vasco da Gama finding new cultures.
Kalinga’s influence on Indonesia, especially Java is still there to be seen 500 years after the boat rides have stopped. There are stark similarities in food, names of places and items, folk dances[5,8]. Mahanadi may not be prayed to in Odisha. But it is invoked in shlokas in Java along with Ganga, Sindhu and other Indian rivers. Mahaprabhu Jagannath is invoked in shlokas prior to some rituals[8]. A 14th century inscription have been found in Bali that are written in Odia script. In fact scripts used in Bali in 10th century was also used in Kalinga. The present day Java sea around the island of Java, used to be called the Kalinga sea. Java’s local legend has it that 20,000 families from Kalinga had arrived in Java and had ruled it for 400 years. This legend has been formally inscribed by king JayaBaya of Java in 12th century AD. A canal built in Java in 600 AD by king Puruna Varman is named Chandrabagha[9]. In fact, Java also has its own version of Bali Jatra, which is called Masakapana Tukud festival[5].
This is a story of common people of Kalinga through the ages. We cannot meet them anymore, but we can try to gauge their thoughts based on actions. They could have bowed before Ashoka and laid their weapons, but they did not. They could have given up seeing the utter devastation to their population in the Kalinga war. But they did not. They turned their defeat into an opportunity and traversed the oceans. Surely they must have met with boat accidents on these long distance trips. Surely they must have felt lonely during those long voyages over Bay of Bengal, staying away from home for months together. But that did not stop them. They sustained this attitude for almost 2000 years and in the process they spread Odia and Hindu culture to faraway lands, in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand. Common people, traders were at the forefront of this cultural transmission. Such was the impact of Kalinga that in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, kings tried hard to trace their lineage to Kalinga in order to gain legitimacy in the eyes of their people.
Today, when we go to Puri beach our thoughts are limited to the beauty of the beach and the horizon. But when they went to the beach, they did not limit their imagination to the horizon. They were thinking of the lands that lied far beyond the horizons. And that, was the reason they never bowed down. Somehow, I can visualize the sadhabas (sailors) and their families at the ports in Cuttack. They must be devastated to leave their families behind. But in that act, I can see their determination to face daunting odds that would shake up even modern day well-travelled citizens.
There is a song sung during Bali Jatra, that immortalized the journey of our people:
“Aa ka ma bai
Pan gua thoi
Paana Gua Tora
Masaka Dharama Mora”
“Aa Ka Ma Bai” stand for the months of Aswina, Kartika, Marghashira, Baisakha i.e. the sailing months. It is a prayer sung to the Gods to watch over the sailors while they are at sea[6]. Deep within us, the soul of the sadhabas still exist and are they calling out to Kalinga. Rise!!
References :
1. Kalinga History Reconstruction — 600 BCE to 100 BCE — M Skinner
2. Ocean of Churn — Sanjeev Sanyal
3. Kalinga in SE Asia — B Patra
4. Ports and Port towns of Early Odisha — B Patra
5. https://tfipost.com/2017/11/kalinga-bali-yatra-01/ — Asutosh Mohanty
6. Kalinga Balijatra and Maritime Trade of Odisha — RK Nanda
7. Maritime heritage of Odisha — AK Pradhan
8. Review of Cultural Interaction — M Yamin
9. Maritime heritage of Orissa — B Ghadai
