Early History of Orissa

SR No.: 006922
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Amarchand Mittal
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 506
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 249

(SECTION B) KALINGA DURING THE PERIOD FROM THE SUCCESSORS OF ASOKA TO THE END OF
THE KĀŅVA RULE ABOUT 30 B. C.
Very little is known about the historicity of Asoka's successors. However, whatever little details are forthcoming from various sources of this dark period, but Kalinga does not at all figure therein. During the time of Samprati, a grandson of Asoka and a staunch believer in the Jaina faith, there is a casual mention of Kalinga in the Jaina literature, being included in the list of 25} countries suitable for wandering by Jaina monks on preaching tours. It is, however, very much doubtful if that country formed a part of the Maurya dominions at that time. It is, hence, more or less safe to assume that the country of Kalinga had declared itself independent, probably, immediately after Asoka's death.
A king named Kubiraka (Kubera ?) has been mentioned in two inscriptions discovered at Bhattiprolu-Stúpa in the Repalle Taluka of the Guntur district, in Andhra Pradeśa.' According to Buhler, these inscriptions belong to the period immediately following that of Asoka or say to about 200 B. C. It is, therefore, possible that King Kubiraka fought successfully with the weak successors of Asoka and liberated the Andhra country from the Maurya yoke." The Andhra country lay to the south of
1. Jambudivapaņņatti, XX, p. 207. See also p. 119 of the present work.
2. Luder's List Nos. 1335 and 1338 ; E. I. Vol. II, pp. 323f; Select Ings, Vol. I, pp. 215-18.
3. JRAS, 1892, p. 602; Select Inss, Vol. I, p. 215. fn. 1. 4. D. C. Sircar, Successors of the Sātavābanas, 1939, p. 2.