Kalinga

Kalinga, or Calinga, one of the nine kingdoms of southern India in ancient times. Its exact limits varied, but included the eastern Madras coast from Pulicat to Chicacole, running inland from the Bay of Bengal to the Eastern Ghats. The name at one time had a wider and vaguer meaning, comprehending Orissa, and possibly extending to the Ganges valley. The Kalinga of Pliny certainly included Orissa, but latterly it seems to have been confined to the Telugu-speaking country; and in the time of Hsüan Tsang (630 A.D.) it was distinguished on the south and west from Andhra, and on the north from Odra or Orissa. Taranatha, the Tibetan historian, speaks of Kalinga as one division of the country of Telinga. Hsüan Tsang speaks of Kalinga (“Kie-ling-kia”) having its capital at what has been identified with the site either of Rajahmundry or Coringa. Both these towns, as well as Singapur, Calingapatam and Chicacole, share the honour of having been the chief cities of Kalinga at different periods; but inscriptions recently deciphered seem to prove that the capital of the Ganga dynasty of Kalinga was at Mukhalingam in the Ganjam district.