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BUDDHIST INDIA
after the death of Asoka. This is, indeed, scarcely surprising. For while, in the western parts of India, the coins have preserved the names of the kings, in Magadha the people continued to use the coinage bearing only the private mark or marks of the individual or guild that issued them. None of the ancient sites there—Sāvatthi or Vesāli or Mithila, Pāțaliputta or Rājagaha-have been excavated. And, thirdly, the literature of Magadha in this period, mostly Jain or later Buddhist, lies also still buried in MSS. But as early as 150 B.C. we have one short note in the Elephant Cave inscription of Kharavela, King of Kalinga, who claims to have twice invaded Magadha successfully, having ad. vanced the second time as far north as the Ganges. As he also gives us to infer that his father and grandfather had preceded him on the throne, Kalinga inust, in that case, have become independent of Magadha very soon after the death of Asoka. It is unfortunate that the name of the then King of Magadha is not mentioned in this inscription. We may fairly conclude, at all events provisionally, from the fact that no neighbouring king claims to have conquered them, that both Magadha and Kalinga retained their independence from the time of Asoka down to that of Kanishka. Magadha, however, must have lost all its outlying provinces, and consisted, usually, only of the ancient kingdoms of Magadha and Champa, together with the eastern portion of Kosala.
South of Kalinga was the important and powerful kingdom of the Andhras, with its chief capital at Dha.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
