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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
194
OLD BRĀHMÍ INSCRIPTIONS
faith to be the correct and only spelling, and identifies Parthalis with the Ekaprastara tract which, according to the story of the Sanskrit verses quoted from an old Oriyā MS., was the site of the new capital of King Aira of Utkala, around Khaqdagiri. Because Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador at the court of Chandragupta Maurya, happened to mention Parthalis as the royal city of the Calinge, he safely assumes that Parthalis was the capital of Kalinga in the time of Chandragupta Maurya, nay, also during the reign of King Nanda who is mentioned in the Hathi-Gumphã inscription, and who, according to him, was no other than Nanda referred to in the Sanskrit verses as the king of Magadha defeated by King Aira of Utkala in a battle fought between them. The implication of this is that Pithudaga or Pithuda became abandoned to its fate 102 years (113-11) previous to the consecration of Khāravela.
In the same inscription (I. 6), we read that His Majesty brought into his capital, from the Tanasuliya or Tanasuli road, the canal which was opened out by King Nanda 103 years back (Nandarāja-tivasasata-oghātitam panādim). This canal must have been opened out 98 years (103.5) previous to the consecration of Khāravela.
In the same inscription (I. 18), we also read that His Majesty brought back to Kalinga, from Anga-Magadha, the throne of Jina which had been carried off from Kalinga by King Nanda (Nandarāja-nītam KālimgaJināsanam).
Now squaring up these three statements, it becomes easy to understand (1) that Kalinga was under the sway of King Nanda of Arga-Magadha, at least, from the 102nd to the 98th year previous to the reign of Khāravela ; (2) that Pithudaga or Pithuda, founded by the former kings of Kalinga, became abandoned to its fate with the advent of King Nanda in Kalinga ; (3) that here by the former kings of Kalinga Khāravela wanted to mean those kings of Kalinga who had reigned before Kalinga was conquered by King Nanda ; and (4) that the rule of King Nanda in Kalinga ended when the dynasty of Kalinga kings to which Khāravela himself belonged came into power.
It cannot be confidently maintained that Parthalis or Partualis, mentioned in the Indika of Megasthenes as the royal city of the Calinga, was a Greek pronunciation of the name of the tract called Eka-prastara or Prastaru which, according to the Sanskrit verses in Mr. Jayaswal's Old Oriyā MS., became the site of the new capital of King Aira of Utkala, whose former capital was the Kosalā-city, and that in other words, Parthalis or Partualis was the capital of Kalinga in the days of King Nanda of
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