Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Asoka

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

Page 68

42 The Häthigumphā Inscription and the Bhabru Edict of 50 years had elapsed by then since the founding of the Sātavāhana and Cedi lines. The latter was founded by the grandfather of Khāravela and that much period is not improbable for the two reigns, of his grandfather and father. If this Šātakarņi is taken to be the sixth (instead of the third) ruler of the Sātavāhana line, the beginning of whose reign is placed 18 or 36 years later, the intervening period between Khāravela's accession and the founding of the line by his grandfather would be at least 68 years or 86 years even if the 2nd year of his reign is supposed to be the very first year of that Śātakarņi's reign. The fact that Khāravela himself was coronated at the age of 24, however, lends support to the assumption that the total period of the reigns of his grandfather and father could not have been greater than 50 years.
We may conclude that the coronation of Khāravela took place 50 years after the disintegration of the Maurya Empire at the death of Asoka, that the first Śātakarni, the third ruler of the Sātavāhana dynasty, was his contemporary, and that this Śātakarņi's reign came to an end before Khāravela launched his successful campaign in the Vindhyas in his 4th regnal year. It would mean that Khāravela's reign began in c. 185 BC and the date of the instant inscription, which was recorded in the 13th regnal year of Khāravela, should be c. 172 BC or ME 355.1 Since there is no further record of Khāravela it is possible that his reign might have come to an end in that year. The palaeographic similarities of the instant inscription with the Nanaghat inscriptions of Sri Sātakarņi's queen Nāgānikā, may be cited as a further supporting evidence for the above view.
But the identification of Bahasatimitaṁ presents a more complicated problem. Twice Khāravela went to Magadha. In the 8th year he stormed the fortress of Gorathagirī, lying a few miles to the west of Rājagrha, the ancient capital of Magadha,
1.
It is significant that the obliteration at the beginning of L 17 is sufficient to contain Pânatariya-panatisata-vasa (= The year 355), (ref. p. 22 fn. 1, supra).