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26 Translating Medieval Orissaproclaim himself as Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava at the same timewhile he worshipped Lord Jagannath.This spirit of religious assimilation could have been thebasis of the Gangas’ hold over power for so long and the ability ofKapilendra to build an empire. It was evident that the Gangas usedtheir religious tolerance and language policy of issuingproclamations in three languages viz. Telugu, Sanskrit and Oriya asa tactical ploy to appease their Oriya subjects, for, outside the Oriyaspeakingdomains, they were neither devotees of Lord Jagannath norstaunch followers of Vaishnavism (Satyanarayana:1982). KapilendraDev also buttressed his empire-building enterprise with religiouseclecticism and language loyalty. However, this strong languageloyalty, which was an asset for Kapilendra when he organized theOriyas for empire building, ultimately became a liability once theempire became expansive. The non-Oriya speaking areas of theempire could not be welded together culturally with the center ofpower. Thus, the vast empire had already been riven with internalcontradictions during Kapilendra’s lifetime. By the timePurushottama Dev ascended the throne, these contradictions hadbrought about a crisis for the state. This crisis was accentuated by aprotracted economic mismanagement. Kapilendra spent the betterpart of his life raising an army and supporting it through the staterevenue. During Purushottama’s time, the state became unable togenerate enough resources to maintain a huge army and administerthe far-flung provinces of the empire. When Prataparudra ascendedthe throne, Orissa was a crumbling state. However, the central partof the empire was held together merely by religious, linguistic andcultural sentiments.Thus, when Chaitanya came, Orissa was a failed state but aculturally vibrant linguistic unit. For the next three hundred yearsthis phenomenon continued defying conventional logic that ascribesthe cause of cultural vibrancy to the prosperity and growth of the