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(SECTION IV)
MARRIAGE OF KHĀRAVELA Like many other problems regarding the historicity of Khāravela, the question of his marriage too is a complicated one. That Khāravela did marry is beyond any dispute. The very fact that the Mañchapuri cave on the UdayagiriChaņdagiri was dedicated by the Chief Queen (agra-mahīshi) of Khāravela for the use of Jaina monks in Kalinga,' goes to prove that Khāravela had more than one Queen. Again, in the seventh year's record in the Hāthigumphā text, there appears a fragmentary reference to Khāravela's wife. It has been read by Dr. Sircara as 'satumai chi vasam pasāšato vajiraghara.. sa matuka pada.. kramu,' and has been translated by Jayaswal and Banerjį, as according to their own reading -- 'In the seventh year of his reign, (Khāravela's) famous wife of the Vajiraghara obtained the dignity of auspicious motherhood'.
1. Luder's List No. 1846 ; SI, Vol. I, No. 92, pp. 213-14, 2. SI, Vol. I, p. 208. 3. EI, Vol. XX, pp. 71f.
4. The record of the seventh year is almost completely gone. But it could not have boen a large one. In any way, due to a great many lacunae, reading of this line is so doubtful and complicated that Dr. Barua once suggested 'satamain cha vasam pasisato vajiraghara-khatiya sata-ghatâni-sonntaka padashana santipada' (Qtd. Sircar, SI. p. 209. fn. 5). But in the OBI (pp. 16, 31, 34, 38). Barua mentions the lines as 'satame cha vase asi chhata dhaja radha rakhi turanga sata ghatāni savata sadan sanavn sava-maigalūni kūryati...sata-sahasehi', and translates it as (p. 43); 'And, in the seventh year (His Majesty) caused a hundred kinds of pompous parade of swords, umbrellas, flags, chariots, guard and horses and all ceremonies of victory to be performed at the cost of some hundred thousand (coins).'
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