Gangas, Eastern

   The Gangas, who belonged to the Brahman caste, came to control the territory along the east coast in the 10th century. The first ruler of the dynasty in Orissa, Anantvarman Cholagonga (1076-1147), established his authority over the whole tract between the Ganges and Godavari. The temple of Jagannath at Puri was built under his order near the close of the 11th century. In 1244, Toghan Khan, then controlling Lakhnauti for the sultan of Delhi, was defeated in warfare with the Ganga king of Jajnagar. In 1282, Balban led a brief campaign into Orissa that reduced the Ganga ruler, Mal Deo, to submission. Until the end of the 14th cen-tury, despite occasional setbacks such as Firuz Shah Tughlaq's in-vasion of 1360, the Gangas remained firmly established in Orissa. But, during the first three decades of the 15th century, their authority tended to weaken under the pressure of neighboring powers. The last ruler of the dynasty, Bhanudeva, was ousted from the throne by one of his ministers, Kapilandra, in 1435.