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(SECTION II)
CHILDHOOD OF KHĀRAVELA In lines first and second of the Hāthigumphā inscription, Khāravela has been represented as “pasıthasubbha lakhanena chaturanta luthana guna upitena...pandarusa vasāni siri-kadāra-sarīravatā kīļitā kumāra kīdikā.” The phrase 'pusatha subha lakhanena' means 'one who is endowed with noble and auspicious bodily marks and also features. The second phrase viz., 'chaturanta luțhana guna upitena' has been translated by Jayaswal and Banerjis as 'possessed of virtues which have reached the end of the four quarters. Dr. Barua, however, puts it as 'one who is endowed with the qualities of a warrior capable of undertaking expeditions over the whole of the earth bounded by the four seas.' The expression “chaturantu 5 was the current old Indian idiom to denote indefinitely the whole extension of the earth; conceived as an island
1. Barua (OBI, p. 40. fn. 6) puts it as 'the marks and features that are of importance to astrologers, diviner3, palmists or physignomists.' Cf. Nistāna-Kathā (Faugboll's Jātaka. I, p. 56) where the LakkhanaPatiggähaka Brahmin astrologers and diviners are said to have declared with regard to the future of princo Siddhartha as `Imehi lakkhanehi samannūgato agiram ajjhi vasam ino riji hoti chakkavatti pabbufjuming Buddho'ti", viz., 'If one endowed with these marks choose to keep to household life, one is destined to be a king overlord and choosing to renounce worldly life ona is destined to be an Enlightened Master.'
2. E.I. Vol XX, pp. 711, as suggested by Jayaswal & Banerji. Rev. Pt. Sukhlalji says that these bodily marks (arira-lakshana) went on to increase in number, in later descriptions of the Jaina Tirthankaras and have been enumarated in the Samudrika Sastra. (Author).
3. E. I. Vol. XX, pp. 71f. 4. OBI, pp. 40 and 231.
5. Here chaturaita is the same expression as chaturaita-mahi in the Arthaśāstra (III, 2, 50) and a samudra-kshiti.
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