Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Asoka

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

Page 69

The Date of the Inscription and its Author
but did not go further north or east. The term Rājagrha-nrpa used in this context appears to be synonymous with the 'King of Magadha', whose name was not mentioned here since no direct contact took place with him at that time. This time Khāravela perhaps had no intention of waging a war against Magadha, and the fortress was stormed most probably as a part of strategy for securing his communications in his onward march to Mathura. But the next time, in his twelfth year, he marched into Magadha and then he came into direct contact with its king, Bahasatimitam, whom he made to bow down at his feet.
Literary traditions are silent about any Bahasatimita (Bphaspatimitra). Numismatic evidence shows that there was a king of this name about that time. Cast coins bearing the legend 'Bahasatimitasa' have been discovered at Kosam, the site of Kaušāmbi." The script is Asokan Brāhmi and is supposed to be of the same style as that of an inscription found at Mora in the Mathura district which also mentions ‘Brhasvātimitra'.? On stratigraphic grounds these coins are assigned to circa 185115 BC.Struck coins of Bahasatimita have also been found at Kosam and they are also assigned to second century BC.4 Their palaeography is said to be similar to that of the Pabhosa Cave inscriptions which also mention ‘Bahasatimitra”.5
This evidence put together indicates that there was a king named Bahasatimita in eastern India in the first quarter of the second century BC, his dominions extended as far as the Vatsa region, his mother Gopālī was the daughter of King Tevaniputra
1. Jagannath in A Comprehensive History of India, II, p. 107. 2. J.R.A.S., 1912, p. 120. 3. Sharma, G. R., The Excavations at Kausāmbi (1957-59), pp. 19, 80-85. 4. Jagannath, op. cit.; also, Allan, J., British Museum Catalogue of Coins
of Ancient India, p. xcviii. 5. E.I., II, pp. 240-43.
The problem of dismemberment of the Maurya Empire has been discussed in detail in my Political and Cultural History of Mid-North India.