Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Asoka

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

Page 79

1.
Khāravela
led by him. He crossed into the Vindhyas1 and defeated the Rathikas and Bhojakas. These Rathikas and Bhojakas bore all the insignia of royalty, namely, crown, caparisoned horse, umbrella and golden pitcher. In the inscriptions of Aśoka the Ristikas and Bhojas are listed among the aparātās or the people living in western India. They appear to have been autonomous tribes under the protectorate of the Maurya Empire. The Satavahanas coveted their friendship and did not interfere with them. Queen Nāgānika was the daughter of a Mahārathi. They seem to have been knit together in a loose confederation, enjoying all the rights and prerogatives of sovereignty, and in alliance with the Satavahanas. Their territories seem to be interspersed in the central and western Deccan in the hilly tracts and lay between Kalinga and Nasik. Their confederate forces appear to have been defeated by Khāravela. It is, however, not known where the battle was actually fought. The battle was decisive and his western flank was fully secured as we do not hear of any further expedition in that direction. As the context shows, it should have been fought somewhere in the Vindhyas, not very far from Kalinga, across the Wainganga and below the Narmada. There does not appear to be any exaggeration in his statement that the former kings of Kalinga did not go as far as the Vindhyas, and he also did not cross the Vindhyas into Malwa so as to come into contact with the Sungas, or go very deep into the Vindhyas westward so as to come into direct contact with the Satavahanas. No annexations are claimed; he was satisfied by making his adversaries submit to him and by seizing their jewels and fortune.
The third expedition, in the eighth year, is northward. He
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The Vindhyas have been referred to in the inscription as Vijādharādhivasam (Vidyadhara+adhivasam) poetically. In the Jain puranic lore these ranges are generally referred to as the abode of the Vidyadharas.
Jagannath's suggestion that it refers to some sacred place of the Jains and its violation by the Rathikas and Bhojakas was the immediate cause of war, (op. cit., pp. 113-14), is not acceptable in the context. It is a geographical term pure and simple.