Puri (Purushottama-kshetra): the city of Jagannatha

Who holds it

Name

Rajaraja III

Title

The Ganga king and the temple servitors

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia, Jagannath Temple, Puri.

Lord in 1200

Rajaraja III as patron.

What the town holds

• The temple and its sasana villages
• The Narendra tank and the Gundicha ghara
• The beach landing (Swargadwara)

How things stand that morning

A temple city and the legitimacy of the dynasty; Rajaraja III patronises it.

Wealth

Pilgrim offerings and temple endowments.

Military

A temple guard; the king's troops garrison the coast.

Threats

• Raids after 1205 (the Madala Panji speaks of invasions without dates)

Council

The servitors' orders (Jagannath servitors); no town council recorded.

Communities

Brahman priests, tribal-descended servitors, pilgrims from all India, fishers.

Fairs and markets

Snana Yatra and Ratha Yatra (their dating in 1200 is not proved).

Walls and castle

The temple enclosure; no city wall is recorded.

Trade and crafts

Pilgrim trade and the coastal rice and salt.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1238Anangabhima III dedicates the kingdom to Purushottama and takes the title Rauta.Depends on: The dynasty holds. Stopped by: A defeat or a collapse.

Places of note

• Puri: Temple city.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry puri-purushottama-kshetra: the campaign board says the main mass stands by the mid-century; English Wikipedia's infobox says completed in 1161.

Evidence: Plate of 1134-35 and the dynastic page fix the temple and its patron; the city's life in 1200 is inferred.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

Primary sources for Eastern Gangas

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
• Inscriptions of Bengal, vol. 3, Various (the Sena kings' chanceries), edited by N. G. Majumdar (copper plates of the 10th to early 13th centuries; edited 1929). The one-volume edition of the Sena copper plates, the main documentary evidence for Bengal around 1200. Read online
• Epigraphia Indica: inscriptions of the Chandelas, Paramaras, Gahadavalas, Chaulukyas, Senas and Eastern Gangas, Various (edited for the Archaeological Survey of India by J. Burgess, E. Hultzsch, F. Kielhorn, Sten Konow, F. W. Thomas and successors) (inscriptions of the 1180s to 1210s; the series ran from 1892). The main record series for the Hindu kingdoms of northern India around 1200. Read online
• Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
• The Song of Govinda, Jayadeva (late 12th century, by tradition at the court of Lakshmanasena of Bengal). A literary witness, not a chronicle. Read online