Kalinganagari or Tosali?

Event 1: After the Kalinga war, Asoka issued two edicts prescribing principles on which both the settled inhabitants and the wild jungle tribes should be treated. These edicts were issued in Kalinga only and the conquered territory formed a separate unit of administration under a Prince of the royal family. The prince was stationed at Tosali, the capital of the Kalinga province.

Event 2: 60 years after the Kalinga war, Kharavela restores power back to Kalinga. After defeating an Indo-Greek king, identified as Demetrius I of Bactria, Kharavela constructed the great victory palace in Kalinganagari at a cost of thirty eight hundred thousand coins.

A 2500 year old city unearthed in Orissa is now suspected to be either Tosali or Kalinganagari or both. The remenants inlcude eighteen stone pillars (see video) and archaeologists believe that this was a city of about 25, 000 people.

There are some possibilities of Sisupalgarh representing the site of Kalinganagar. According to the inscriptions, Kalinganagara, was provided with some sort of fortifications and king Kharavela repaired the gateway and fortification wall which had been damaged by a storm. No fortified town of comparable date except Sisupalgarh is known to exist near about Khandagiri and Udayagiri hills. Secondly the excavation did reveal a collapse and subsequent repair of the southern gateway flank of the fortification. Thus, historical and archaeological sources suggest that Sisupalgarh represents Kalinganagara.

An assemblage of 16 monolithic pillars, locally called Shola Khamba in an area of some 30 m x 30 m near the centre of the fortress were of special interest. Built up of laterite, some pillars are
bearing medallions like those found in Bharhut, Sanchi, Udayagiri and Khanadagiri caves. The columns measure over 4.9 m in height and have a maximal diameter of about 70 cm. This could be the remains of a pillared hall since the pillars have horizontal sockets, seemingly intended to hold
superimposed beams or rafters. However only few pillars are standing intact while others are missing their upper portion. The ground level inside the fort is 4.5 meter higher than outside. The fort while being too large for a mere citadel enclosing perhaps the king’s palace and attached
residence or quarters, did not seem to accommodate common people, most of whom lived outside its confines as it appears from the pottery remains towards the north and the west.[Sisupalgarh: Fortified Urban Center of Early Historic India ]

The reports says that this city had about 25,000 residents and such numbers come from guess work and field work.

Estimations based on residential density are also common practice—the more homes you find, the more people lived there. Soil analysis, pottery shards, old foundation walls, and hearth remains help researchers differentiate buildings from gardens or farmland. Architectural features distinguish residential from civic structures (the latter are larger, and more ornate) and make it possible for archaeologists to establish a density estimate across a sample area—25 homes per hectare, for example. Then they guess how many people lived in each household, on average. If no records are available to illuminate domestic arrangements, researchers study modern village populations in the same area to arrive at a rough estimate—perhaps four people per domicile. Then the archaeologists multiply the number of individuals per household by the households per hectare, and again by the total settlement area.[25,000 Inhabitants, 2,500 Years Ago]

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