Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Asoka

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

Page 65

The Date of the Inscription and its Author
39 inscriptions of Asoka Maurya it can be assumed that the Magadha empire had extended as far south as the Godavari and the Krishna rivers. This region appears to have been brought under the Magadha empire by the Nandas, most probably Mahāpadma whose depredations led the Tamilas to form a confederacy. Reference to the Nandas in the early Sangam literature, the oldest Tamil literature, lends support to this assumption.
In Rock Edicts II and XIII Asoka lists the Colas, the Pāndyas, the Satiyaputras, the Keralaputras and the Tāmraparniyas (Sri Lankanese) as living to the south of his empire. They seem to represent the members of the Tamila Confederacy. The Confederacy not only held its own against the Magadha imperialism under the Nandas and Mauryas, but in course of time itself became a danger to its neighbours. This is suggested by Khāravela's motive in breaking it in his eleventh regnal year. He did it ‘for the well-being of his realm'. And he could think of marching against the Pandya king in the twelfth year only after he had broken the Confederacy in the previous year, probably through diplomatic means.
The above discussion strongly suggests that the dates mentioned in the instant inscription are in M.E.
Unfortunately the date of the epigraph itself is missing. It has already been suggested in fn. 1 on p. 22 ante that the mutilation at the beginning of L 17 should have, in all probability, contained it. Under the existing circumstances, however, we have to ascertain it on the basis of the contemporary data available in the inscription.
Names of two contemporaries are mentioned: Sātakaṁnim in the western direction, and Bahasatimitam, the king of Magadha; the former with reference to an event in the second year of his reign, and the latter, to that in the twelfth year. Added to this is the fact that Khāravela was the third ruler of his dynasty, the Cedi-rāja-vamsa.
1. Sastri, K.A.N., A History of South India, (2nd edn., 1958), pp. 85-86.