Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Asoka

SR No.: 006726
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shashi Kant
Publisher: D K Print World
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 196
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 82

56 The Hathigumpha Inscription and the Bhabru Edict known. The Arvarnoi of Ptolemy may be identical with the Ava people, or else Ava is a misreading for Ardha, meaning the Andhra kings in the context, which is not quite impossible.
The southern boundary of Kalinga appears to be the Godavari. The manner in which Khāravela marches to Pithunda, shows that it could not be very far from Kalinga and must be somewhere near the southern border across the Godavari. The way in which it was sacked, seems to indicate that the Pithunda kingdom was annexed and the southern boundary was extended as far as the Krishna. Khāravela was now face to face with the Tamila Confederacy which he set out to break for the well-being of his realm'. He claims to have broken the Confederacy, but does not mention to have marched further south and it indicates that the Confederacy was broken through diplomacy rather than warfare. The Colas? were probably the northern-most member of the Confederacy, whose territory lay between the Pithunda and the Pāņdya kingdoms. They seem to have been won over and he was thus enabled to march forth to the Pāndya kingdom the following year.
In the twelfth year he led two expeditions: one to the north and the other to the south. He marched forth into Magadha up to the Ganga’ and obtained the submission of the Magadha king Bahasatimita. Although the name of Pătaliputra is not mentioned the reference is evidently to that city which lay on the Ganga, and had continued to be the capital of Magadha at least since the days of the Nandas. The fact that he worshipped
1.
Asoka mentions the Pandyas after the Colas. The Pandyas have also been associated with Madurai on the R. Vaigai from very ancient times, while the Colas have been associated with Thanjavur on the R. Kaveri, which lies to the north of Madurai. The reading is hathasam Gamgaya pāyayati, i.e., he makes his elephants and horses (hathasaṁ =hasti +asvam) drink in the Ganga. There is no reference to the Sugängiya palace, as supposed by Jayaswal and Banerji (E.I., XX, p. 88 fn. 8). This name of the palace of Candragupta Maurya is mentioned only in a very late work of fiction, the Mudrārāksasa, and it is not mentioned in any of the traditional accounts or epigraphic records.