Calingae

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The Calingae or Calingi, according to ancient accounts, were a race of extremely short-lived people in India. According to Pliny the Elder they had a lifespan of only eight years. This has been viewed as exaggeration, akin to Pliny's report that the Mandi people of India bear children at age seven.Pliny, Hist. Nat. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D2 VI, 2] ({{Harvnb|Pliny|Bostock|Riley (tr.)|1855|p=134 and note 98}})

The Calingae were widely diffused over a large area according to Pliny,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Pliny borrowed (or quoted) his account of India in Book VI.21–23 from Megasthenes.{{sfnp|McCrindle|1901|pp=112–113}}}}{{Sfnp|Pliny|Bostock|Riley (tr.)|1855|p=44 note 50}} and consisted of the Calingae proper, the Gangarides-Calingae and the Macco-Calingae. This may have been a reference to the Tri-kalinga ("Three Kalingas") that appeared in the Puranas.{{efn|Alexander Cunningham had made this observation.}}{{citation|last=Caldwell |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Caldwell |title=A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages |publisher=Asian Educational Services |year=1913 |page=29}} The area of diffusion is thought to roughly coincide with the Northern Circars (now spanning the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha). Their chief cities were Dandagula (Dandaguda) and Parthalis (Protalis).Pliny, Hist. Nat. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D21 VI, 21]–22 ({{Harvnb|Pliny|Bostock|Riley (tr.)|1855|pp=42–43 and note 43, 44 and note 50}}) According to political scientist Sudama Misra, the Kalinga janapada originally comprised the area covered by the Puri and Ganjam districts.{{cite book|author=Sudāmā Miśra|title=Janapada state in ancient India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dua1AAAAIAAJ|year=1973|publisher=Bhāratīya Vidyā Prakāśana}}