The Origin of Chedis or Chetis in Ancient Odisha

The theories and postulates of historians like Benimadhab Barua, Tribhuvandas L. Shah and Cunningham point to Avakinnayo Karakandu being the founder of the Meghavahana dynasty in Tri Kalinga sometime back to 2800 years ago. According to the derivations, Tri Kalinga meant the three kingdoms of Vams (Chatishgarh), Kalinga (most of Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh) and Anga (Parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal).

Despite being born to the royal father Dadhivahana of Anga Desha, Karakandu’s fate led him to be brought up by a Vidyadhara (mystical race of people carrying the spiritual and secret knowledge of life) as a Chandala (crematorium guard). He receives training with all kinds of secret arts and knowledge from this Vidydhara Matanga whose stateless race resided between the hinterlands of Vindhya Mountains up to the river Godavari. In the region, that lies in today's state of Chattishgarh of India. Karakandu living a miserable life as a crematorium guard was advised by Jain sramanas Yasobhadra and Virabhadra to cut the Bamboo sticks growing through the eye sockets of a dead man’s skull inside the crematorium and make his Scepter, royal umbrella and elephant goad from them. This process of cutting the Bamboo sticks or Chedan of Vams led to the naming of the dynasty as Chedan which became abrupt as Cheda or Cheta and Cheti or Chedi later. Vams became the name of the kingdom.

The process of an Elephant pouring water from a golden kalasa on to a man who would become the king started from Karakandu when after the death of the then king of Kalinga Dantavakra, an Elephant willingly did so by entering the crematorium where he resided. In Odia we still have this phrase “Gaja Jaha Munde Suna Kalasa dhale sei hue Gajapati”. 14 centuries later the Somavanshis originating from the erstwhile Vams kingdom or the then Dakshin Koshal region of Chattishgarh galvanized their position among the common people by bringing the Gaja Lakshmi symbol as the royal insignia of the state. In this symbol Goddess Lakhsmi, was poured with water on her head by two Elephants representing the flow of auspiciousness. After two Centuries, another Chandrabanshi(Lunar) Dynasty descendant Gangeswara Chodaganga Deva repeated the same process of defining auspiciousness of his rule by pouring water on lord Jagannath which was brought by 99,000 elephants in golden containers.

On becoming king, the Emperor Karakandu was compelled to a war with his father Dadhivahana of Anga. Later when the two realized they were parent and child, they embraced each other. Karakandu styled himself as Meghavahana maintaining the continuum of his father’s name. When finally he inherited the Anga kingdom from his father after ruling over Kalinga and Vamsh or the whole of Tri-Kalinga under his authority and conquests in Deccan, until Sri Lanka and Islands and kingdoms in beyond the seas, he styled himself as Mahameghavahana. Karakandu's take over of Anga desha and using Champa as a second capital of his kingdom was not a natural course of events. During the last days of his father's rule there, Satanik of Kausambhi is said to have invaded Anga repeatedly, defeated and even possibly killed his father in battle. Texts refer to statements about his step mother Dharini is said to have commited suicide due to Satanik's attempts to capture and rape her. Vasumati, his step sister and the princess of Anga became a monk due to these unfortunate and tragic happenings in her life. Here these word may not be taken literally but lets understand that there is no reference to Dadhivahana having married for the second time. These statements merely indicates that Dharini (land) was looted and vandalized by Satanik destroying any trace of the previous kingdom of Anga. Vasumati (mother goddess of auspiciousness blessing through one's own soil) was filled with Jaina sramanas trying to revive the destroyed kingdom and its ravaged people stand back on their own feet once again after the invasion by Satanik. Karakandu was probably invited by the Jain councils to takeover the kingdom of his father and guard it under his powerful supervision.

[Manjit Keshari Nayak this writer could be seen standing near Soholo khamba of Sisupalgarh]

Puranic Chedi Rulers related to the Kalinga Branch: - 

1. Uparichara Vasu (Puranic Alpha king)
2. Vrihadratha (Maharatha)
3. Jarasandha, Sishupal, Dantavakra

4. Sahadeva
5. Somadhi
6. Subahu
7. Sahajal

First Direct Rule of the Chedis in Kalinga and the Foundation of the Mahameghavahana Dynasty:-
1. Dadhivahana of Anga
2. Avakinnayo Karakandu (Emperor) 
3. Vasupala

A legendary king from this family who is a known figure in today’s W. Bengal by the name Suratha, ruled in the Birbhum region and is widely believed to have started the festivities related to Durga Worship. This event is mentioned in the Devi Mahatmya chapter of Markandeya puran. The same Suratha is mentioned in Odia Saptasati Chandi Puran for having fled to the south (Agra Bada to Ganga Bada) to lay the foundation of a new kingdom. A less known proto Odia inscription now in Hyderabad museum was discovered near the Mahendratanya river and was personally decoded by Padmashree S.N. Rajguru during his lifetime having mentioned the name of Suratha and the treacherous attack he faced during the night time from the enemy (Magadha) aided by Yavanas (Greek contingents).

Second Direct Rule of the Chedis:-
1. Sulochan
2. Suratha (Initiator of Durga Puja festival, May have fought Ashoka and fled to be the founder of Eastern Ganga dynasty to south of Odisha in north Andhra)
3. Sobhanraja
4. Chandraraja
5. Brhamadatta
6. Kasiraja

Third Direct Rule of the Chedis:-

1. Ksemaraja (Emperor)
2. Vriddhiraja or Vakradeva
3. Kharavela (Emperor)
4. Kudepasiri
5. Vaduka
6. Galaveya
7. Boramdev (Chattishgarh) Chedi king Abhir or Traikutak Iswaradatta ?, starts the Chedi feudal rule of Dahal kingdom and sequentially expand till Jabalpur

Fourth Rule of the Chedis as Sada Kings from Vijayawada and Godavari riverbanks of Andhra Pradesh:-

1. Mana-Sada
2. Siri-Sada
3. Maha-Sada
4. Sivamaka-Sada
5. Asaka-Sada

Some scholars believe that Karakandu was the emperor who invited Mahavira to preach in ancient Odisha and it is during this period that the Jaina terminology Jagant seems to convert to Jagannath more relevantly. Karakandu was one of the few kings according to multiple Buddhist and Jaina texts to have accepted the Chaturyama teachings of Parsavnath and is considered as a Bull among kings along with three other chakravarti kings of his time. Buddhist texts refer to him as Rajarishi and Pratekhya Buddha. The texts of Byabhara Bhasya state that the king of Tosala during this time was jealously guarding a Jina image. It is highly probable that this Jina image was later recovered by Kharavela from Magadha after it was carried away by Mahapadma Nanda to his kingdom. Karakandu was also the man who excavated some old Jaina caves and also build new ones at Terapura (Osmanabad, Maharashtra) during his conquest drive on South India and Sri Lanka.  Historian Naveen Kumar Sahu suggests that the ancient Karandaka monastery in Karanjia (Mayurbhanj) was built by him and the large Elephant structure was constructed there in honor of the Tirthankar Ajitanatha.

Uparichara Vasu, the legendary puranic king is believed to have married secretly a fisher woman residing close to the river Yamuna and produced the Matsya race who also ruled in Odisha and whose descendants might be traceable. No wonder the Eastern Gangas are related to the Mahisya race, a breed of Ksyatriyas who were born to local fisher women from divine royalties.

Some Primary References

• Ancient India History Of Acient India For 1000 Years In Four Volumes Vol-i (1940)
• Ancient India History Of Ancient India For 1000 Years In Four Volumes Vol-iv (1941)
• Karakandu Chariu by Muni Kanakmara (9th-10th Century A.D)
• SUMMARY OF KARAKANDA CARIU (Paper on https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in) 

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Manjit Keshari Nayak(The Writer)

Manjit is a young IT professional who works as a Data Analyst with India's third giant IT company i.e. WIPRO Technologies at Bangalore. But his passion is to study and research on the ancient history of Eastern India especially that of his home state Odisha.