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AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
Uparichara. Hence Kharavela belonged to the (Cheta or) Chedi dynasty. R. P. Chanda points out that Cheta princes are mentioned in the Vessantara Jātaka. The Milindapanha contains a statement which seems to indicate that the Chetas were connected with the Chetis or Chedis. The particulars given in that work regarding the Cheta king Suraparichara agrees with what we know about the Chedi king Uparichara.3
The Chedi people are Veda.4 Their king Kasu Danastuti-'Praise of Gift'. powerful king. E. J. Rapson with 'Vasu' of the Epics.
mentioned as early as the Rig Chaidya is praised in a He is said to have been a very proposes to identify him
Vasu, the fourth successor of Sudharman, conquered the Chedi kingdom from the Yadavas and founded a dynasty there, whence he obtained the epithet 'Chaidyoparichara' viz, the Conqueror of the Chaidyas. His capital was Šuktimati, which lay on a river of the same name. Vasu was a Samrat and a Chakravartin and extended his sway over adjoining He Magadha and possibly over the Matsya country also. had five sons, amongst whom he divided his kingdom. Brihadratha got Magadha, Kaśu was given Kosambi, Yadu had Karusha and Pratyagraha got Chedi. The last got Matsya which adjoined Chedi in the north-west."
1. Rajasi Vasu-kula-vinisrito (Skt: Rajarshi Vasu (Chedirajoparichara Vasu)-kula-viniḥsritaḥ-Select Inss, p. 213.
2. Fausboll, No. 547.
3. Rhys Davids-Milinda, SBE, Vol. XXXV, p. 287; Mbh, I, 63, 14. According to Sten Konow (Acta Orientalia, I, 1923, p. 38) Cheti (not Cheta) is the designation of the dynasty of Kharavela occuring in the Hathigumpha inscription.
4. VIII, 5, 37-39.
5. CHI, Vol. I, p. 309.
6.
A. D. Pusalkar in the Vedic Age, edited by R. C. Majumdar,
p. 296.
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