Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Asoka

Author(s): Shashi Kant
Publisher: D K Print World

Page 30

The Häthigumphā Inscription and the Bhabru Edict consciousness among the Indians more than two thousand years ago.
To use the terminology of Kautilya, it is a Prajñāpana Lekha (Public Notification) engraved for the purpose of narrating (ākhyānam) the principal events of the life and reign of King Khāravela, and is endowed with all the six qualities of arthakrama (proper arrangement), sambandha (relevancy), paripūrņatā (completeness), mādhuryam (sweetness), audāryam (dignity) and spastatvam (lucidity), that make a good composition.
Decipherment No wonder therefore that this inscription has been engaging the attention of the Indologists and claiming their best labours for the last nearly one-and-a-half century. The story of its decipherment is on that account no less fascinating. It was first noticed by Stirling in AD 1825 who gave an account of it in the Asiatic Researches, XV (pp. 313ff.), and was first published by Prinsep from an eye-copy prepared by Kittoe in 1837, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, VI (pp. 1075-91, plate LVIII). A tracing of the inscription was published by Cunningham in the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, I (pl. XVIII, pp. 27f, 98-101, 132ff.), in 1877, and a version of it, by Raja Rajendra Lala Mitra in the Antiquities of Orissa, II (pp. 16 ff.), in 1880. The same year a cast was also taken to the Indian Museum, Calcutta.
It was, however, only in 1885 that the first reliable version was given by Dr. Bhagwan Lal Indraji in the Actes du Sixième Congrès International des Orientalistes (pt. III, sec. 2, pp. 15277). He also made out the name as Khāravela. Bühler suggested certain corrections in 1895 and 1898. The first inked impression was taken in 1906 by Dr. T. Bloch and was sent to Prof. Keilhorn
1. Arthasāstra, X (trans. R. Shamasastry, fourth edn., pp. 71-75). 2. "Origin of Indian Brāhmi Alphabet, Indian Studies, No. III, p. 13.