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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
NOTES
247
Asoka had at least two queens of whom Kāluvāki was the second in rank. The old Brahmi inscription No. II, containing a reference to Kbāravela's chief queen, leaves the question as to the number of his queens entirely open.
Some of the caves on the Kumāri hill were excavated by Khāravela's sons in the thirteenth year of his reign, and King Kharavela became thirty-seven years old in his thirteenth regnal year. If he had married in the sixteenth year of his life and a son was born in that very year, his eldest son could not be older than twenty-one years when the caves were excavated. He had sons more than one, but altogether how many sons he then bad, and how many by each of his queens we cannot say. In the Mañcapuri group of three caves, the cave in the upper storey was an excavation of Khāravela's chief queen, the corresponding cave in the lower storey was an excavation of King Kadampa-kudepa, and the side cave in the lower storey is said to have been an excavation of Prince VadukhaVarikha. In the inscriptions of King Kadampa-Kudepa (No. III) and Prince Vadukha-Varikha (No. IV) their personal relationship with King Khāravela is not at all indicated. But the grouping of the three caves in the manner just described seems to indicate that even in the works of art and architecture the mother has sought to be combined with her two sons, of whom King Kadampa-Kudepa was the elder and Prince VaqukhaVarikha the younger.
The brothers of King Khāravela have been referred to as excavators of some of the caves in the record of his thirteenth regnal year. No caves have, as yet, been discovered with inscriptions recording their names. Had there been found out any such inscriptions, as princes of the same royal house, their names would have been recorded each as a “KumāraPrince," precisely as in the case of Prince Vaukha-Varikha.
As regards Khāravela's kinsfolk among the excavators of the caves we have no definite information from the old Brāhmi inscriptions. Two of these inscriptions (Nos. VI-VII) record the name of one Cūlakamma (Ksudrakarma, Junior Karma) as the excavator of two separate caves. The inscription No. VIII records the name of Kamma (Karma) as the gentleman who donated the chambers of one of the caves, and the name of Khiņā (Kșivā) as the lady who donated the frontal building construction.
1. R. D.'Banerji observes : "A minor inscription mentions a king of Kalinga named Kūdepa-siri who may be a descendant or a successor of Khāravela as he bears the same titles as Kbäravela" (JBORS, Vol. III, Pt. IV, p. 605).
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