Hindu Military System of Orissa

About the Book

Hindu Military System of Orissa from the ancient times until it lost its independence in 1568 A.D. with particular emphasis on the imperial Gangas and the Suryavamsi Gajapatis who had built up a prosperous empire in southeastern India. The traditional military system under the two famous and illustrious royal dynasties reached the highest watermark of glory and fame.

Particularly under the Gajapati Kapilendradeva, the empire was turned practically into a military state.

Besides the four-fold army, people irrespective of castes, creed, sects, and sex participated in the war operations directly or indirectly for the safety and prosperity of their motherland.

Despite the military strength, well-established monarchy headed by great monarchs of such celebrated dynasties met ignominious fall in the hands of more powerful enemies repeating the historical process of rise and fall. The Gajapati empire, the last ever known in the annals of Orissa was disintegrated. The last Gajapati emperor Prataprudardeva was no match to the emperor Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagar empire.
In dealing with the military system of the Gangas and the Gajapatis author has attempted to refer, directly or indirectly to the contemporary Hindu kingdoms which subsequently supplemented the knowledge on the subject. Structurally the system was similar in almost all the Hindu kingdoms except the gigantic elephant force and the regional differences.
However, the presentation is exhaustive and comprehensive, as far as possible, may not be construed to be conclusive. The work will be useful to the students of history, historians, archaeologists, and art historians.

About the Author

Dr (Mrs) Sujata Oas was born in 1966 in the temple city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha. She successfully passed M.A. in History from the Utkal University Bhubaneswar in the year 1988, B.Ed. in 1989 and Ph.D. in 2002. She has been studious and meritorious all through her career. She was very much interested in the Military history of Odisha, known in the past as Odra- Utkal and Kalinga. In ancient and medieval times Kalinga was a vast empire extending its suzerainty from the Ganga in the north to the Godavari in the south and particularly during the time of Kapilendra Dev the southern boundary of the empire was extended as far as Kaveri.

Her research activities continued unceasingly on the aspects like art and architecture, forts and strongholds, religion and inscriptional studies, etc. She participated as a delegate in several National seminars like Indian ·Art History Congress, Kharavela, and Jainism in Odisha organized by the Rishavdev Foundation, New Delhi, and many State seminars on various facets of history and culture resulting in the publication of the research papers in books and journals.