Title: Gajapati Kapilendra Deva – The History of the Greatest Hindu Conqueror of 15th Century India
Author: Nihar Ranjan Nanda
Publisher: Subbu, 2023 (First)
ISBN: Nil
Pages: 244
Odisha is a land gifted with vast natural resources and scenic beauty of varying nature such as the sea, lakes, forests and hills. Its fame in history is sealed by one of the oldest battles in India fought by Ashoka against Kalingas. However, after this episode, Odisha undergoes a long eclipse in history which lasts for several centuries. This is caused in a large measure by the cabal of liberal historians who believe that medieval India rose with the Delhi sultanate and ended with the Mughals with nothing in between. Numerous Indian monarchs ruled many parts of India, often humbling the sultans, but they are much too frequently relegated to the footnotes and appendices of mainstream history. A sustained effort to cast light on these dark pages of Indian history is the need of the hour and it is heartening to take note of this contribution of a young author to this great cause. This book brings to life Gajapati Kapilendra Deva who ruled Odisha in the fifteenth century and conquered a large territory by incessant wars which helped to check the relentless onslaught of Islamic imperialism. The idea behind the book is to depict Kapilendra Deva in a dispassionate way and make an unflustered assessment of the man which is accessible to ordinary readers. Nihar Ranjan Nanda is a software engineer by profession and is working in an MNC. He is a history enthusiast and writes on it regularly on various platforms. That he is an avid reader is proved by the extensive list of references used in preparing this book.
Kapilendra Deva did not belong to the royal lineage. He rose to become the minister of Ganga king Bhanudeva IV and usurped power with the help of nobles utilizing the discontent of the people on the king’s weak response to external aggression. Kapilendra faced unrest from vassals in the initial stages. He quickly overrode them and sent his sword of conquest in all directions. As per the book, his empire extended from Jharkhand in the north to Andhra in the south with a clear incursion into Tamil Nadu up to Rameswaram. The Suryavamsi Gajapati dynasty founded by him lasted for a century and ruled from Kataka (modern Cuttack). On military strength and extent of territory, Gajapati empire is on a par with Vijayanagar and Bahmanis. There are literary references of his conquest of Hampi and Bidar, their capital cities respectively. Nanda claims that the geographical area ruled by Kapilendra was the largest under a Hindu king. Only the Marathas would excel him on this count a few centuries later.
The author depends on many sources for this pioneering effort of historiography such as records of donatives, literary texts in various languages, epigraphic records and travelogues of Portuguese and Muslim travelers and tradesmen. Exaggerations found in these sources are denoted as such which leads to a balanced presentation. To provide context to the narrative, the author begins with an introduction of the neighbouring kingdoms and the reign of the last three rulers of the Ganga dynasty of Odisha. Nanda is a proud Odia, but in variance with the practice of local historians who always try to paint a glorious picture of their protagonists, takes a very professional approach in pruning out the impossible and maintaining the remaining as plausible. A clear advantage of the book is that it has examined many sources which were contemporary or immediately after the reign of Kapilendra Deva.
The book exposes a trait of Odia kings to use religion as a device of statecraft to gain legitimacy to their rule. Cleverness has always been an inalienable part of a politician’s survival toolkit. The Ganga ruler Anangabhima Deva III (1211-36 CE) made Puri Jagannatha the overlord of his kingdom and named it Purushottama Samrajya. He styled himself as the deputy (rauta) of the Lord. Later kings of other regions have also continued this custom. This bears a striking resemblance to Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma of Travancore, Kerala who ruled in the eighteenth century. He usurped his uncle’s throne and had to face stiff opposition from his cousins and the nobility. After assuming power, he surrendered the kingdom to the tutelary deity Sri Padmanabha, a manifestation of Lord Vishnu. He and his successors thereafter used the title of Sri Padmanabha Dasa (servants of Lord Padmanabha) to denote themselves. Kapilendra Deva also had to meet revolts from vassals. In fact, he was crowned at Bhubaneshwar as Cuttack was not deemed safe. He then declared that he became king at the Adesa (advice) of the Mahaprabhu Jagannath of Puri.
This book also analyses the role played by the Suryavamsi dynasty established by Kapilendra Deva in providing a bulwark against Islamic aggression from all sides and hence preventing the Odia culture from collapse. Even today, the Odia language has very little Persian or Arabic influence because of its lesser exposure to the conquerors’ tongues. However, some inscriptions in Tamil Nadu show that festivals in some temples could not be held during the Odia invasion. This has led some historians to surmise that they were also iconoclasts of the same genre as Muslim sultans. Nanda refutes this argument with convincing proof from other inscriptions. The temple festivals could not be held probably due to the unsettled condition of the local polity while a battle was in full swing in the neighbourhood to determine the destiny of the land. Even then, there is nothing to substantiate that worship was interrupted in these temples. On the other hand, several inscriptions from other temples in Tamil Nadu itself speak about the donation of cows, village grants and new offerings made to these temples by Odia king’s local governors. The author then considers the question of why Hindu kings did not ally with each other to fight Islamic invaders. The reason may be that the sense of brotherhood and oneness was not deep in Indian rulers at that time. Even Muslim sultans fought with each other even though the call of religion was much more powerful among them. The author suggests that even if the Hindu kings had cobbled up an alliance, the Muslims would have made a grander alliance to protect their religion. We have heard about the Shah of Persia offering help to Aurangzeb to track and hunt down Shivaji even though the Persians and Mughals were locked in combat over the province of Kandahar
The book claims that Kapilendra had campaigned against the very powerful kingdoms of Vijayanagar and Bahmani and conquered their capitals of Hampi and Bidar. A detailed justification for reaching this conclusion is cited from the sources. But still it sounds doubtful. At the same time, campaigns against the sultans of Malwa and Delhi are pure conjecture. In the case of Bengal, there is proof of construction of a temple signifying Kapilendra’s victory there. The book also includes an anecdote about the Bengal sultans and the reasons for their bitter resentment against Hindu kings. Raja Ganesh had ruled over Bengal in the fifteenth century. As he was very able and powerful, the Muslim nobles invited the sultan of neighboring Jaunpur to invade Bengal and get them rid of Ganesh. The raja was defeated in the battle which ensued. The victors allowed Ganesh to remain in his religion but insisted the crown prince Jadu to convert to Islam as a condition for ceasefire. After the Muslims left, Ganesh reconverted his son back to Hinduism with many rituals and paying huge sums to Brahmins. However, the Hindu nobles did not accept Jadu as one of their own. He became furious at this humiliation, became Muslim again and named himself Jalaluddin. He was the cruelest persecutor of Hindus. The lack of accommodating spirit and inclusiveness among Hindus also contributed to their downfall in the medieval period.
The author is not professionally trained in history, but this book is a great effort at creating history to fill up the missing links left behind by agenda-driven historians. The methods used by the author in narrating history are sturdy and scientific though the conclusions drawn may be open to question in some parts. Conjectures are also used to supply some deficiencies, but he explicitly mentions it as such. The author hopes that readers will learn something new about Kapilendra Deva in this book. This humble objective is more than achieved by this little piece of history which can be read easily. On the negative side, it must be indicated that it focuses only on political and military conquests in lieu of social, cultural or economic aspects. Scarcity of sources might be the reason behind this omission. The author consistently use the outdated acronym ‘AD’ to denote years instead of the more professional and secular usage of ‘CE’. The cover could have been a little more imaginative. It contains a graphic image of a king on top of a caparisoned elephant which makes the book look like an episode of ‘Amar Chitra Katha’. This is somewhat compensated by the silhouetted spire of the majestic Puri Jagannath temple and the stone sculpture of Kapilendra Deva.
The book is recommended.
Rating: 4 Star
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