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The present work is a handy volume of all the available inscriptions so far known to us of the several minor ruling dynasties ruling in different sub-regions of early medieval Odisha roughly from the 8th to the 12th century CE. It has two sections: Section I: Introduction and Section II: Texts and Abstracts. In Section I, an analysis of the copper plate inscriptions of twenty minor ruling families have been included. The features of the copper plates and the royal seals attached to them have been narrated, and it also contained the script, language, and orthography of the inscribed texts. The genealogy and chronology of the ruling houses, the locality they held and the land grants they issued have been examined.  In Section II, the texts and abstracts of each inscription has been given. Meticulous care has been taken to red cipher the inscriptions from the original facsimiles or fresh photographs and off er our own readings at places. Some of unpublished inscriptions are incorporated in this work for the first time which adds merit to the work.

The General Introduction in the beginning of the work is an original piece of work negotiating with the corpus of epigraphically literature of the period and arguing for a spatial spread of state-society in the relatively difficult terrain. The formation of the maṇḍala states in these sub-regions and their political and economic interactions with the larger regional polities have been discussed at length to formulate a perspective on the process of state formation. Sustenance of the regional polities, it is maintained, largely rested on the material foundations than cult appropriations. The process of cult appropriation should be viewed as an afterthought and not a concomitant development.