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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
286
OLD BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS
with octagonal shafts and Asokan capitals as typified by the pillars of the Barhut E. Gateway represent the final stage in the development of the Sunga style of architecture. The old stone-railing at Buddha-Gaya, mostly donated by the queens of the later Mitra dynasty, bear sculptural representations of the typical Sunga pillars at Barhut, while the typical Buddha-Gaya pillars go to show a considerably modified form of the Sunga pillars at Barhut.2 The shrine-posts on the hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri, ornamented according to their description in the HathiGumpha text (I. 15), alternately with two different flower-designs, indicate a wide departure from the Sunga style established at Barhut.
Thus we dispose of the vexed question of Kharavela's date, remembering all the while that Indian chronology is a house of cards, which may break down at any moment. But it cannot be doubted that the sun of the royal power of Kalinga reached the zenith during the reign of King Kharavela, though the light which dazzled the eyes was destined to set for ever. The warrior-like spirit of Kharavela and his bold undertaking of military campaigns all over India clearly prove that militarism was in full vigour in the country in spite of Aśoka's advocacy of the ideal of conquest by the dhamma. But what has been the final result of the wars and warfares that served to keep Kharavela ever busy and the people of Kalinga always in excitement? The final result has been this that Mahāvijaya Kharavela disappeared completely out of sight after the 14th year of his reign and the Meghavahana dynasty came to an end within a few years of his death. The fateful career of Kharavela is enough to prove that the arms that hurl missiles may strike terror, but the arms that embrace that conquer for good. It is Asoka who set up the ideal of conquest by the dhamma. Kharavela upset this ideal only to be forgotten even in the literature of the Jains, while the memory of Asoka has all along been adored by the whole Buddhist world. The sigh of monarchs found its fitting expression in the verse singing the death-ode of the royal state and the everlasting glory of the nobler deeds of men :
Jiranti ve rajaratha sucitta, atho sariram pi jaram upeti
Satan ca dhammo na jaram upeti, santo have sabbhi pavedayanti || 3
1. Canningham's Mahabodhi, Pl. IV, two square panels.
2. Cunningham's Mahabodhi, Pl. IV, the pillar in the middle.
3. Dhammapada, Jaravagga. Such is indeed the moral or central idea of the Maha. vamaa which is the greatest known epic chronicle of the kings of Ceylon, and of all the epics of the Hindus,
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