Jaugada

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Location of Jaugarh near Purushotampur on Map of Ganjam District

Jaugada (जौगड़ा) is a ruined fortress in Berhampur tahsil of Ganjam district in Odisha, India. Once a provincial Mauryan fortified capital of the newly conquered province of Kalinga, Jaugada is famed by its version of the monumental stone-cut edicts in Prakrit of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka.

Location

Jaugada lies 35 km north-west of Berhampur and 160 km south-west of Bhubaneshwar. Jaugada is situated at a distance of 10 km from Purushotampur, Ganjam district of Odisha.

Variants

• Jaugada (जौगड़ा) (बरहमपुर, जिला गंजम, उड़ीसा) (p.374)
• Jaugarh, ancient Samapa
• Jatudurga (Lac fort)

Jat clans

Jogda

History

Jaugada or Jatudurga (Lac fort) as it was known in classical times, is said to be associated with Mahabharata episode. Tradition ascribes that the fort of Jaugada was built by Duryodhana of Mahabharata fame. Its name jau or Lac is from a tradition that it was made of Lac and was therefore impregnable as no enemy could scale the walls as they were smooth and slippery. Jaugada stands as the symbol of all the historical heritage connected with the Rushikulya Valley civilization. From the bank of this river, silver coins of the pre-Mauryan age have been discovered. The Ashokan inscription at Jaugada is incised on a rock face some 30 feet long and 15 feet high elevated about 12 feet on a mass of granitic gneiss. Jaugada is a part of the Malati hill range.

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Despite J.D. Beglar's description during the later 19th century of the extant fortification towers and moat ("The walls had towers, also of earth, at each of the four corners, and also on each flank of each of the eight entrances"), without photos and drawings, the remains are difficult to visualize and comprehend. In 1956 Debala Mitra of the Archaeological Survey of India transected the northern glacis with a trench. The now collapsed trench of this investigation appears to lie just east of the eastern gate of the north wall. It is near the great Shiva temple Kaleswar & Rameswar (which is known as a temple where Shiva and Vishnu are seen together).

This site was first documented in 2001 by a team from the University of Heidelberg.

Edicts of Ashoka

Jaugada is the location of some of the Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka, inscribed circa 250 BCE: Major Rock Edicts 1-10 and 14 are inscribed on a central rock in the compound, as well as Separate Edicts 1&2. This configuration is similar to that of the nearby Dhauli Edicts of Ashoka (250 km to the northeast).

The inscription of this place is one of the two Kalinga edicts which are supplements to the series of fourteen rock edicts of Ashoka, the other being at Dhauli near Bhubaneswar in Puri district. These two Kalinga edicts laid down the principles on which the newly conquered province of Kalinga was to be governed.

जौगड़ा

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...जौगड़ा (जिला गंजम, उड़ीसा): (p.374) मौर्य सम्राट अशोक की 14 मुख्य धर्म लिपियों में 1 एक से 10 तक और दो कलिंगलेख जौगड़ा की एक चट्टान पर अंकित है. यह स्थान अशोक के साम्राज्य की पूर्वी सीमा पर रहा होगा क्योंकि मुख्य धर्म लिपियां अशोक ने अधिकतर अपने साम्राज्य की सीमा पर स्थित महत्वपूर्ण नगरों या कस्बों में ही अंकित करवाई थीं. (देखें: कालसी, गिरनार, धौली, मानसेहरा, शाहबाजगढ़ी, सोपोरा).