The ancient kingdom of Orissa (Odra-deśa, whence Oṛeśá), strictly speaking, extended from the Kánsbáns river in the north to the Rasákuliá river near Ganjám in the south; and from the Bay of Bengal on the east far into the tangled mass of low hills in the west, in which latter direction its limits seem never to have been clearly defined. But the kings of Orissa were not satisfied with these boundaries. It is a common boast both in literature and on monuments that their kingdom stretched from the great to the little Ganges; that is to say, from the Bhágirathí (called by Europeans the Hugli or “Hooghly”) to the Godávarí. At various times different kings made good this boast by victorious campaigns, followed by temporary occupation of territory both to the north and south.