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Khāravela
Personal History The readings and constructions leave little scope for speculation about the lineage of Khāravela, yet attempts have been made to find references to the puranic Aila, Cedi, Vena and Vasū in the inscription. It has also been said that he belonged to the third dynasty of Kalinga.
The passage tatiye-Kalimga-räjavaṁse-purisa-yuge clearly indicates that he was the third in descent in the royal family of Kalinga. Purisa-yuga = puruşa-yuga, means 'generation', and the governing tatiye settles that his was the third generation. He does not mention the names of his father and grandfather, and otherwise also we do not know anything about them, except the inference from this very passage that the grandfather founded the line in Kalinga.
The name Khāravela has been mentioned thrice in the inscription: in L 1, L 14 and L 17. At all the three places it is preceded by appropriate titles and epithets, as was the custom. The construction suggests that Airena ( = Āryena = by the high
1.
The term occurs in the Sukhabodha commentary by Devendraganin on the Uttarajhayana Sutta while describing the episode of the breaking down of nine spokes of Candragupta's chariot as the Nanda's daughter stepped into it. Cāņakya dispelled Candragupta's fear of a bad omen by saying that it signified that his dynasty would last nine generations (Nava-purisa-jugāni tujjham vamsam holi). Hemacandra also uses purusa-yugāni in the same sense in the Parisistaparvan (VIII, v. 326). Both these sources are Jain.
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