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PREDECESSORS OF KHĀRAVELA
253
king after the death of his father in the 11th year
of his reign.
The tradition in the Purāņas unanimously assert that among the different Indian kings who reigned in various parts of India as contemporaries of the Andhra-Sātavāhana rulers, were kings who reigned in Kosala and south Kosala, who were just nine in number, very powerful, intelligent and well-known as “Meghas'.' And, it is expressely stated in the Bhavishya Purāņa that seven Kosala kings of the Mahāmeghavāhana dynasty and seven Anthra kings reigned as contemporaries.s
Thus, the tradition in the Purāņas, leads us to understand that altogether nine kings of the Mahāmeghavāhan family reigned in south Kosala, which formed one of the three principal divisions of Khāravela's Kalinga kingdom.' And, if it can be elicited from the Hāthigumphā and other records in the Udayagiri-Khaņdagiri caves that Khāravela reigned as the sixth and Vakradeva as the seventh kings of the Meghavāhana dynasty, we can say that just two other kings of this family reigned after their death, which is to say, the rule of this family came to an end within thirty or forty years of Khāravela's death.
1. If the cave standing in the name of Vakradeva was one of the caves excavated in the 13th year of Khāravelo's reign, it is evident from the epithets Aira, Mahirija, Mahimeghavahana and Kalingadhipati, adorning tbe name of Vakradeva in his inscriptioa in the Mañchapuri Cave (Luder's List No. 1347) that he, as the son of Kbāravela. was then joined with him as a king of Kalinga in the fullest sense of the term. (OBI, p. 239). 2, Pargiter, DKA, 51 :
"Rofalayam tu rājano bhavishyanti mahābalah
Meghā iti samākhyāta buddhimaito navaiva tu." 3. Eka kālāh ime bhūpah sapta andhrál sapta kausalāh'-Qtd. Pargiber, DKA, P. 51, fn. 16.
4. OBI, p. 272. 5. Ibid.
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