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(SECTION V;
LINEAGE OF KHĀRAVELA AILA (AIRA)
The very opening sentence in the Hāthigumphā inscription of Emperor Khāravela, after necessary innovations, begins thus: “Airena mahārājena mahāmeghavāhanena chetirāja-varsa vadhanena... Another inscription of Vakradeva (or Kudepa-siri ?)' probably a son and successor of Khāravela, engraved in the Mañchapuri cave, too opens with the same word "airasa'.
The word “Aira', occuring as a royal epithet, has been a source of much controversy. Baruas reads the word as "Vera', which is equivalent to vīra, meaning 'hero or heroic'. Yet, accepting the reading 'Aira’, he renders it as 'lordly'. He says that in the Jātaka Commentary, a royal title 'Ayira' has been explained as meaning 'svāmi-master or lord, a master as distinguished from a slave,' that is to say, an
Arya' whose condition, according to the Arthaśāstra, is not servitude.
Dr. Sukumar Sen of the Calcutta University has suggested quite a different interpretation." He says that •Aira' is the same as the later Vedic 'aira'--a derivative of Vedic 'ira', which denotes 'water, refreshment, food, comfort, enjoyment and hence, is equivalent to Vedic irya'
1. Reading offered by Dr. Barua (OBI, pp. 59-64). 2. Luder's List No. 1347. 3. OBI, p. 266. 4. Ibid.
5. Vide a paper 'Airena in the Häthigumphä Inscription' read at the Waltair Session of the Indian History Congress, 1953,
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