हिंदीOn this day
Photo: Manjit Keshari Nayak · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ruler

Kapilendra Deva

Founder of the Gajapati dynasty of Odisha

reigned 1434–1467 CE

Kapilendra Deva took the throne of Odisha from the last Eastern Ganga king in 1434 and founded the Suryavamsi Gajapati line, carrying his armies from the Ganga to the Kaveri and declaring himself the servant of Shri Jagannath.

01From general to Gajapati

Kapilendra was a commander under Bhanudeva IV, the last of the Eastern Gangas who had built Konark and the Puri temple. When the old line weakened he took the throne in 1434, with the backing of the nobles and the temple at Puri, and took the title Gajapati, lord of elephants. His inscriptions call him Gajapati Gaudeshvara Navakoti Karnata Kalavargeshvara, lord of Gauda, of the nine crores of Karnata and of Kalaburagi, naming the kingdoms he fought: Bengal, Vijayanagara and the Bahmanis.

02Ganga to Kaveri

He pushed back the Sultan of Bengal in the north and fought the Bahmanis in Telangana. Taking advantage of Vijayanagara’s troubles after 1446, his son Hamvira led the Gajapati army south through Rajahmundry, Kondavidu and Udayagiri, and for a time Odia power reached Kanchi and the Kaveri. At the Jagannath temple in Puri Kapilendra had an order cut on the wall, and he gave land and gifts to Shri Jagannath. Madala Panji, the temple chronicle of Puri, records his reign. After his death in 1467 his son Purushottama Deva took the throne.

Shri Jagannath Temple, Puri
Place · 12th century CE, begun under Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva (r. 1078–1147) of the Eastern GangasShri Jagannath Temple, PuriPurushottama Kshetra, the eastern dham of the Char Dham, where Bhagwan Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra sit in wooden forms renewed in the Navakalevara rite. The present temple rose under the Eastern Gangas and survived repeated raids because the priests carried the deities away and brought them back.Read →

Places

Shri Jagannath Temple, PuriStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Shri Jagannath Temple, Puri

Purushottama Kshetra, the eastern dham of the Char Dham, where Bhagwan Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra sit in wooden forms renewed in the Navakalevara rite. The present temple rose under the Eastern Gangas and survived repeated raids because the priests carried the deities away and brought them back.

Cuttack and Barabati FortStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Cuttack and Barabati Fort

For about seven hundred years the capital of Odisha, under the Ganga and Gajapati kings, the Afghans, Mughals, Marathas and British, until the seat moved to Bhubaneswar in 1948. Its fort, Barabati, is now a mound and a gateway, and its Bali Jatra still remembers the ships that sailed to the islands.

Kondavidu FortRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Kondavidu Fort

The hill capital of the Reddi kings, who rose after the fall of Warangal and kept coastal Andhra Hindu for a century. Krishnadevaraya took it from the Gajapatis in 1515.

Udayagiri Fort (Nellore)Ruined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Udayagiri Fort (Nellore)

A great hill fort in the Eastern Ghats that the Gajapatis of Odisha won under Kapilendra Deva’s armies and Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara took back in 1514 after a long siege. From here he carried the image of Balakrishna to Hampi.

On the timeline

  • 1434 CE

    Kapilendra Deva founds the Gajapati linePolity

    Kapilendra Deva takes the throne of Odisha and founds the Suryavamsi Gajapati dynasty, which at its height held land from the Ganga to the Kaveri. The Gajapatis ruled as servants of Jagannath.