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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
NOTES
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as may be inferred from the Mahābhārata account, coincided with that of the Kalinga kingdom of Khāravela. Apparently, as we have sought to show, Khāravela's Kalinga kingdom with its three divisions comprised the Epic Kalinga as well as the modern Orissa with its Tributary States.
The countries of Anga and Magadha are too well-known to need any elaborate comments. The Hāthi-Gumphā inscription clearly indicates that both Anga and Magadha were situated side by side with each other on the south bank of the Ganges, which is to say, that the Ganges formed the natural northern boundary of both the countries. Anga lost her independence and became a dependency of the kingdom of Magadha as early as the reign of King Bimbisāra, who is said to have been one of the elder contemporaries of the Buddha. The Hãtbi-Gumpha inscription indicates that Anga continued to be the same old dependency of the kingdom of Magadha as during the reign of King Bahasatimita as during that of King Nanda.
The Vāsukis referred to were not fabulous beings. There would be no reason for mentioning them in a serious document if they were fabulous. The Vāsukis were the Nāga kings who had established principalities in all parts of India. "The prevalence of Nāga rule over a considerable portion of Northern and Central India in the third and fourth centuries A. D., is amply attested by epigraphic evidence." 1 The name of the Chota-Nagpur District situated between Bihar in the north and Orissa in the south may be taken as a reminiscence of the Nāga principalities that existed at one time between Anga-Mayadha, on one side, and Khāravela's Kalinga kingdom, on the other. There are inscriptional records to show that Mathurā and the countries around it were occupied in circa 300 A. D. by the Nāgas. The statement that the Vāsukis sent precious jewels to King Khāra vela, procured for bim the elephants, horses and other animals capable of exciting curiosity, clearly indicates that their principalities comprised those jungle tracts which abounded in the wealth of precious stones, and wild elephants, horses and other animals.
The statement that the king of Pāņdya supplied King Khāravela with many valuable presents of pearls, gems and jewels and various kinds of apparels, requires a word of explanation. One might say this could be explained without having to assume that the kingdom of Pandya was at any time invaded by King Kbāravela; the statement might be justified
1. H. C. Raychaudhuri's Political History of Ancient India, 2nd edition, pp. 809-304.
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