KALINGA, or CALINGA  , one of the nine kingdoms of southern India in ancient times . Its exact limits varied, but included the eastern Madras coast from Pulicat to Chicacole, running inland from the Bay of Bengal to the Eastern Ghats . The name at one time had a wider and vaguer meaning, comprehending Orissa, and possibly extending to the Ganges valley . The Kalinga of Pliny certainly included Orissa, but latterly it seems to have been confined to the Telugu-speaking country; and in the time of Hsuan Tsang (63o A.D.) it was distinguished on the south and west from Andhra, and on the north from Odra or Orissa . Taranatha, the Tibetan historian, speaks of Kalinga as one division of the country of Telinga . Hsuan Tsang speaks of Kalinga (" Kie-ling-kia ") having its capital at what has been identified with the site either of Rajahmundry or Coringa . Both these towns, as well as Singapur, Calingapatam and Chicacole, share the honour of having been the chief cities of Kalinga at different periods; but inscriptions recently deciphered seem to prove that the capital of the Ganga dynasty of Kalinga was at Mukhalingam in the Ganjam district .