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N.B.-The letters within [ ] are more or less broken. The letters within ( ) are corrections, and those within (*) are additions.

On examining the 34 inscriptions with regnal years, they are found to fall mostly in two groups:—

First year.

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.. According to this group, Çaka 998 = 1st year.

Besides these, there are three inscriptions according to which the first year would fall in Çaka 999, and one inscription, probably a mistake, according to which the first year would fall in Çaka 996.

The difference of one year between the regnal years of Group I and Group II, may be due to the fact that like aŋka years those in Group No. I omitted number one. This omission of number one is found also in the inscriptions of the next king Kāmārṇava. Coraganga was crowned in Çaka 999; and he is more likely to have come to the throne in Çaka 998, than Çaka 997, as kings naturally would prefer to be crowned on the earliest auspicious day possible. Inscription No. 271 of Dirghasi [Ep. Rep., p. 18 and Ep. Ind., IV, p. 316, v. 7] shows that in Çaka 997 Rājarāja was living. Calculations from the preceding kings corroborate the conclusion of Group No. II. [see infra, p. 109]. For these reasons Çaka 998 would preferably appear to be the first year of Cōraganga. The last year is given in No. 172 of Mukhaliŋgam, 73rd year Çaka 1069. In Çaka 1070, Kāmārṇava's year 3 Last year. began. Consequently taking Çaka 998 as the first year, Coraganga actually ruled till his 72nd year. In Puri and Kōndupāṭnā plates he is credited with a rule of seventy years. In these plates Kāmārṇava is said to have been crowned in Çaka 1064, month Pausa. This cannot literally be correct; as several inscriptions exist with Cōraganga's regnal years from Çaka 1065 to 1069, while Kāmārṇava's inscriptions with regnal years begin with Çaka 1070 as his 3rd year. The coronation of Kāmārṇava in Çaka 1064 might possibly have been as a regent; for in that year Cōṛaganga would have been very old, probably more than eighty, and might have arranged to transfer the active duties of a kingship to his the then eldest son Kāmārṇava.

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Cōraganga's father was Rājarāja II of the Eastern Ganga family; and his mother was Rajasundarī, the His family. daughter of the Cōla king, "Cōḍa-mahibhuj-ātmajāṁ” (Vizagapatam plates). This Cōla king was Vira Rājēndra Dēva I, surnamed Parakēçarivarman (A.D. 1052-1070); and thus Cōraganga became related to the great Cōla king Kulōttunga Cōļa I, as his sister's son. The Cōraganga of the Ganga family is apparently a different person from the Cōraganga of the Tēki plates, described as the son (priy-ātmjam) of Kulottunga Cōla I [verse 25, 1. 50, Ep. Ind., VI, p. 340], who bore the surname Rājarāja and was, deputed by his father (in Çaka 1006) to rule the Vengi territory.

Puri and Kōndupāṭna copperplates name only three ancestors of Cōraganga; but the three Vizagapatam plates trace out his genealogy to the reputed founder of the family, including the above three. Consequently the account of the Ganga family will be incomplete if these ancestors are omitted. A full genealogical table from the reputed founder Virasimha to the last known Ganga king Nrsimha Dēva IV is annexed at the end of this article. The list of Cōraganga's ancestors has been compiled from the Vizagapatam plates, and the Nadagam plates of Vajrahasta edited with two tables by Mr. G. V. Ramamurti in Ep. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 183 ff.

The calculation of dates from Vajrahasta seem to corroborate the conclusion that Çaka 998 was the first year of Cōraganga. Vajrahasta was crowned in Çaka 960 [v. 8, 11. 34-7, Nadagam plates, pp. 190-1]. He is given 33 years in the Vizagapatam plate dated Çaka 1003, and 30 years in the V. plate dated Çaka 1040. The first figure may be the regnal year, and the second one actual years of rule minus months. Rājarāja is given eight years in all the V. plates, and this figure I take to be the actual year. If in the regnal years, the number one used to be omitted, as appears from the subsequent aŋka years and from the regnal years of Kāmārṇava VII, then

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.. Cōraganga could not have then succeeded to the throne before Çaka 998.

Several queens of Coraganga are named in the inscriptions,Kastūrikāmōdini, Indira and Candralekha (Puri and Kōndupāṭnā Plates); Somala Mahādēvi (No. 146), Lakṣmi Dēvi (Nos. 210, 392, and 393), and Prithvi Mahādēvi (No. 211), (in the stone inscriptions); Nos. 203 and 215 of Mukhalingam record grants of certain unnamed queens of his.

He had several sons. The copperplates mention Kāmārṇava, Raghava, Rajaraja and Aniyankabhima; in No. 239, one Umāvallabha is said to have been his son.

He had apparently a brother (or brothers), for No. 153 records a grant of his younger brother's wife.

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Cōraganga had the family surnames Ananta-Varmman, and
Calukya-ganga, and the special surnames.
Gangēçvara and probably Vikrama-Ganga.

His titles.

His virudas are given in nearly the same words in No. 149 of Mukhalingam and No. 392 of Rōņāŋki. They run as follows in Rōņāņki:

"Samara-mukh-aneka-ripu-darppa-marddana-bhuja-bala-parakrama

parama-māhēs(ç)vara parama-bhaṭṭāraka mahā-rāj-ādhirāja paramēs(f) vara nava-navati-sahasra-kumjar-adhis(ç)vara tri-Kalimg-adhipati [these two omitted in Mukhalingam] Gamgg-anvay-āvalambana-stambha. The inscriptions show him to be the most famous and powerful king of this dynasty. According to all the copperplates he conquered the king of Utkala. According to Vizagapatam plates, after conquering the Utkala king he replaced him as a feudatory; and he conquered also Vēngi.

Historical facts.

According to Puri and Kēndupāṭnā plates, Gangēçvara first destroyed the fortified town of Aramyā or Ānamya and then defeating on the banks of the Ganges the king of Mandāra, pursued him in his flight. Is the tract Mandā1a identifiable with Sirkar Mandāran of Ain-i Akbari [Vol. II., p. 141], whose headquarters, Garh Mandāran (now known as Bhitargarh, eight miles west of Ārām-bagh) is about fifty miles from the Ganges on the map, and which place was a well-known frontier town in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries ?.

By these conquests, Cõraganga extended his kingdom from the Ganges on the north to the river Gautami (Godavari) on the south. On the west the frontier was ill-defined. But from inscriptions of the Cedi kings of Dakṣina-Kōsala he appears to have fought with them, and Ratnadēva is said to have defeated him [Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 40, v. 4; Do., p. 47, v. 5]. Ratnadova flourished about A.D. 1114-1145.

He was evidently in good terms with the Sēna kings of Bengal; in p. of the vallala-caritam of Ananda Bhaṭṭa, edited by Pandit Haraprasad Castri, Vijaya Sena is specially described as Cōraganga-sakhaḥ, a friend of Cōraganga.

He was a good patron of religious works and charities. Under his orders was built the great temple of Jagannatha at Puri. Numerous grants of him, his relatives and his officers have been recorded in the temple of Mukhalingēçvara (Madhukēçvara ?) at Mukhalingam, Ganjam District.

Science and letters, were cultivated during his rule. No poem of his time has yet come to hand; but the inscriptions show a fair knowledge of Sanskrit literature. Compositions in Telugu were also not neglected.

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