INTRODUCTION.
XVlll
ulus to the growth of Oriya literature, happened in the time of Raja Purusottaina Deva and his son, Raja Pratapa Rudra Deva, who is the last king of the Solar dynasty of Orissa. The heroic deeds of Purusottama Deva and the religious reform in his son's time are the incidents in question. In 1505 Chaitanya, the great religious reformer of Bengal, came to preach Vaisnavism in Orissa. We may mention another fact which excited the literary imagination of the Oriyas the people found during the time of the later Ganga Rajas that the Telegu songs and literature were very much honoured and appreciated by the Rajas, while nothing but Sanskrit literature was being read and commented upon by the learned Brahmans of Orissa. Let me only mention in connection with the political history of the country that the Bhoi rulers, who usurped the throne of Pratapa Rudra Deva, did not rule very long and the Muhammadans became supreme in the sea-board tract of Orissa at the death of the last independent king of the country in 15G8.
II
The Early Poets
Their Characteristics and Time. Oriya as a distinct provincial language had no doubt come into existence long before the Ganga rulers of the Andhra country established their sway over Orissa, but we do not get any literary composition of a time prior to the fifteenth century A.D. Dr. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar read out to me of late the Oriya text of a copper -plate grant of the thirteenth century, the philological value of which will be considered in a subsequent section of these introductory essays the language of this document of the time of the early Ganga kings does not appear to be fit for literary composition. It is doubtful if any Oriya literary work could come into existence during the time of the early Ganga rulers in whose hands Telegu language and literature received preferential consideration. Looking again to the finished form of the poem Kesava Koili, with which the first volume of the Typical Selections begins, and which is certainly of a date not later than 1450 A.D., we rndbj unhesitatingly remark that literary culture in the vernacular must have commenced in the time of the later Ganga Rajas
who made
Orissa their home.
Kapilendra Deva, the first ruler of the Oriya Solar dynasty (1435-1469 A.D), is really speaking the first Oriya king of a thoroughly' independent Orissa. It was no doubt a short-lived dynasty of three generations of kings, but it was during the rule of this Solar dynasty (1435-1540 A.D.) that Orissa attained in all directions its highest glory. It will be seen that those who have been grouped under the early poets, flourished during the time of the Solar kings. From the time of the mighty Kapilendra to the loss of Orissa's independence in 1568 we count only 133 years, but during this short time the provincial I should repeat that
