Chapter KITTYSOL to KLING of K by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Wijayo, the civilizer of Ceylon and the founder of its ancient royal race.

Kalingapatam, a port of the Ganjam district, still preserves the ancient name of Kalinga, though its identity with the Kalinganagara of the inscriptions is not to be assumed. The name in later, but still ancient, inscriptions appears occasionally as Tri-Kalinga, “the Three Kalingas”; and this probably, in a Telugu version Mudu-Kalinga, having that meaning, is the original of the Modogalinga of Pliny in one of the passages quoted from him. (The possible connection which obviously suggests itself of this name Trikalinga with the names Tilinga and Tilingana, applied, at least since the Middle Ages, to the same region, will be noticed under TELINGA).

The coast of Kalinga appears to be that part of the continent whence commerce with the Archipelago at an early date, and emigration thither, was most rife; and the name appears to have been in great measure adopted in the Archipelago as the designation of India in general, or of the whole of the Peninsular part of it. Throughout the book of Malay historical legends called the Sijara Malayu the word Kaling or Kling is used for India in general, but more particularly for the southern parts (see Journ. Ind. Archip. v. 133). And the statement of Forrest (Voyage to Mergui Archip. 1792, p. 82) that Macassar “Indostan” was called “Neegree Telinga” (i.e. Nagara Telinga) illustrates the same thing and also the substantial identity of the names Telinga, Kalinga.

The name Kling, applied to settlers of Indian origin, makes its appearance in the Portuguese narratives immediately after the conquest of Malacca (1511). At the present day most, if not all of the Klings of Singapore come, not from the “Northern Circars,” but from Tanjore, a purely Tamil district. And thus it is that so good an authority as Roorda van Eijsinga translates Kaling by ‘Coromandel people.’ They are either Hindus or Labbais (see LUBBYE). The latter class in British India never take domestic service with Europeans, whilst they seem to succeed well in that capacity in Singapore. “In 1876,” writes Dr. Burnell, “the he ad-servant at Bekker’s great hotel there was a very good specimen of the Nagur Labbais; and to my surprise he recollected me as the head assistant-collector of Tanjore, which I had been some ten years before.” The Hindu Klings appear to be chiefly drivers of hackney carriages and keepers of eating-houses. There is a Siva temple in Singapore, which is served by Pandarams (q.v.). The only Brahmans there in 1876 were certain convicts. It may be noticed that Calingas is the name of a heathen tribe of (alleged) Malay origin in the east of N. Luzon (Philippine Islands).

B.C. c. 250.—“Great is Kaliñga conquered by the King Piyadasi, beloved of the Devas. There have been hundreds of thousands of creatures carried off. … On learning it the King … has immediately after the acquisition of Kaliñga, turned to religion, he has occupied himself with religion, he has conceived a zeal for religion, he applies himself to the spread of religion.

…”—Edict XIII. of Piyadasi (i.e. Asoka), after M. Senart, in Ind. Antiq. x. 271. [And see V. A. Smith, Asoka, 129 seq.] A.D. 60-70.—“… multarumque gentium cognomen Bragmanae, quorum Macco (or Macto) Calingae … gentes Calingae mari proximi, et supra Mandaei, Malli quorum Mons Mallus, finisque tractus ejus Ganges … novissima gente Gangaridum Calingarum. Regia Pertalis vocatur … Insula in Gange est magnae amplitudinis gentem continens unam, nomine Modogalingam.

“Ab ostio Gangis ad promontorium Calingon et oppidum Dandaguda DCXXV. mil. passuum.”—Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi. 18, 19, 20.

“In Calingis ejusdem Indiae gente quinquennes concipere feminas, octavum vitae annum non excedere.”—Ibid. vii. 2.

c. 460.—“In the land of Wango, in the capital of Wango, there was formerly a certain Wango King. The daughter of the King of Kalinga was the principal queen of that monarch.

“That sovereign had a daughter (named Suppadewi) by his queen. Fortune- tellers predicted that she would connect herself with the king of animals (the lion), &c.”—Mahawanso, ch. vi. (Turnour, p. 43).

c. 550.—In the “Brhat-Sanhitâ” of Varahamihira, as translated by Prof. Kern in the J. R. As. Soc., Kalinga appears as the name of a country in iv. 82, 86, 231, and “the Kalingas” as an ethnic name in iv. 461, 468, v. 65, 239.

c. 640.—“After having travelled from 1400 to 1500 li, he (Hwen Thsang) arrived at the Kingdom of Kielingkia (Kaliñga). Continuous forests and jungles extend for many hundreds of li. The kingdom produces wild elephants of a black colour, which are much valued in the neighbouring realms.¹ In ancient times the kingdom of Kalinga possessed a dense population, insomuch that in the streets shoulders rubbed, and the naves of waggon-wheels jostled; if the passengers but lifted their sleeves an awning of immense extent was formed …”—Pèlerins Bouddh. iii. 92-93.

c. 1045.—“Bhíshma said to the prince: ‘There formerly came, on a visit to me, a Brahman, from the Kalinga country. …’ ”—Vishnu Purana, in H. H. Wilson’s Works, viii. 75.

(Trikalinga).

A.D. c. 150.—“… [Greek Text] Triglupton, to kai Triliggon, Basileion en tauth alektruoneV legontai einai pwgwniai, kai korakeV kai Yittakoi leukoi.