Indian Antiquary Vol 49

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 51

MARCH, 1920]
THE HÂTHIGUMPHẢ CAVE INSCRIPTION OF KHARAVELA
LDA LUGO "--Silap. 5. 101-2). As regards the site of Simhapura, Mr. Jayaswal has already shown that the capital city of Kalinga could not have been far from the Udayagiri hill and this is confirmed by the Oriya MS. already referred to which says that the Aira kings of Kalinga had their capital city near Khanủagiri (Udayagiri) (4
). In the eighth year, having with a large army stormed the Gorathagiri barrier (Barabar hills), Khåravela besieged Rajagļiha, which had again become the capital of Magadha apparently after Aboka's death, and caused its king to retreat in haste to Mathura, abandoning his army to its fate, but, owing to a gap in the inscription, the result is unknown (11. 7-8). The fact that the then Magadhan king, Pushyamitra (as we learn in 1. 12) retreated to Mathura shows that he was not merely, as is usually supposed, a local ruler, but an emperor whose power extended in the west not merely as far as Mathurâ, but, if Kalidasa who refers to Vasumitra's victory over the Yavanas, in defence of his grandfather Pushyamitra's sacrificial horse, on the banks of the Indus (fer (Malavikågnimitra, Act 5. Pushyamitra's letter to Agnimitra'), and Pata ijali, the contemporary of Pushyamitra (Smith : EHI., 214), who refers to the expulsion of Yavanas and Sakas beyond the borders of India (Mahabhashya on Tamafarafearai. 2. 4. 10) are to be believed, as far as even the Indus.
In the ninth year, Khâravela grants gifts of golden Kalpa trees with sprouts, horses, elephants, and houses with fire-altars, and, to make them accepted, he gives lands to the caste assembly of the Brahmans (1.9). This shows the unwillingness in his time of Brahmans to accept gifts at the hands of non-Brahmans, although they were kings, and also the esteem in which they were held. In the tenth year, after performing Vedic sacrifices, he sends a successful expedition to Bharatavarsha which must, in his time, have been restricted in its application to the Gangetic valley (1. 10). In the eleventh year, he leads out in procession, in a wooden car, the nim-wood statue of
tarquard (1. 11). As before, Mr. Jayaswal takes this term to mean 'Ketubhadra who lived 1300 years before and identifies Ketubhadra with Ketumân, the eldest son of the Kalinga king, who, as the commander of the Kalióga foroes in the Bharata war, died on the field of battle (Mahabharata. Bhishma Par., chs. 17 and 54). But, for reasons already given, this passage also should mean 'Ketubhadra wbo lived in the Mauryan year 113', and the epithet Bhadra indicates that Ketu was a king of Kalinga. It is more probable that the people of Kalinga honoured the statue of a king who lived 164-14+11-113-48 years only before their time, than that they honoured a prince who died 1300 years before and that his statue came down to them intact through all that long period, even if the art of making statues was known as early as the time of the Bhârata war.
In the twelfth year, frightening the Northern kings ( 77704) and the people of Magadha, Khâravela crossed the Ganges from its northern side on his elephants standing end to end across the river, and made the Magadhan king Bahasatimitra bow at his feet (11. 11-2). 'Bahasati' is Prakrita for Brihaspati', the deity presiding over the Pushya Nakshatra (Sankhyd yana Gyihya-Sutra, 1.26-6). Therefore, Mr. Jayaswal argues, Bahasatimitra' is identical with Pushyamitra, the first Sunga king, and he establishes the identity convincingly by citing the Mitra coins of Oudh, Gorakhpur, etc. (JASB., 1880., pt 1., pp. 21-8, 87-90 ; Cunningham: Coins of Anc. Ind., 69, 74, 79, 93: Catalogue of Coins in the Indian Museum., vol. 1. 184) which refer to Pushyamitra by that name. The twelfth year of Khâravela corresponds to the Mauryan year It=14+ 12-162 Pushyamitra was therefore living in that year. Since the Purâ as place him in the Mauryan years 137-173 (Pargiter: Purana Text, 70), this inscription confirms the Purinio chronology for the Mauryan and Surga kings of Magadha.