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266
AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
But a date in the second Century B. C. could also not be finally accepted, and scholars like Dr. H. C. Raychau. dhari," Dr. D. C. Sircar?, followed by Dr. B. M. Barua, Prof. N. N. Ghosh and others have put forward varied arguments suggesting a date as late as the closing years of the first Century B. C. Hence two separate groups of scholars have again cropped up-one assigning an early date to Khāra vela and the other a late one. But.arguments in favour or against either of the groups are also not conclusive,
Having been faced with difficulties as above, we now proceed to determine the date of Khāravela on the basis of certain internal and circumstantial evidences come across in the Hāthigumphā inscription itself.
1. PHAI, 1950, pp. 374f. 2. SI. Vol 1, pp. 206f; AIU, 1951, pp. 216f. 3. OBI, 1929, p. 283. 4. EHI, 1918, pp. 189-94.
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