Kharavela
Kharavela was a king of Kalinga in present-day Odisha, India, who ruled during the first or second century BCE. He was the best-known king of the Mahameghavahana dynasty, which is also known as the Chedi dynasty by some scholars based on a misreading of his father's name.
The primary source for Kharavela is his rock-cut Hathigumpha inscription. The inscription is undated, and only four of its 17 lines are completely legible. Scholars have interpreted it differently, leading to speculation about his reign. The inscription credits the king with welfare activities, patronage of the arts, repair works, and military victories. Although it exaggerates his achievements, historians agree that Kharavela was one of Kalinga's strongest rulers. He is believed to have been a follower of Jainism, although the Hathigumpha inscription describes him as a devotee of all religions.
Background
Date
The kingdom of Kalinga was annexed by Ashoka's Maurya Empire c. 262-261 BCE. It seems to have regained independence soon after Ashoka's death, and Kharavela was born in an independent Kalinga.Although Bhagwan Lal Indraji and other scholars believe that the 16th line of the Hathigumpha inscription contains a reference to the 165th year after the Mauryan era, the interpretation is controversial. Indraji says that the calculation of 165 years begins with the eighth year of Ashoka's reign, when the Kalinga war resulted in the Mauryan conquest of the kingdom. Based on this, Indraji concludes that Kharavela was born in 127 BCE and became king in 103.
According to Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya, the 16th line does not mention Maurya kala but reads Mukhya kala. Chattopadhyaya relies on the description of Kharavela's fifth regnal year in the Hathigumpha inscription, which he says implies that Kharavela flourished ti-vasa-sata years after the Nandaraja. Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri identifies Nandaraja with Mahapadma Nanda or one of his sons. The expression ti-vasa-sata can mean 103 or 300 years; Chattopadhyaya does not consider 103 plausible, since it would contradict Ashoka's records. Based on this, he places Kharavela in the second half of the first century BCE or the first half of the first century CE.
Alain Daniélou places Kharavela between 180 BCE and 130 BCE, identifying him as a contemporary of Satakarni and Pushyamitra Shunga. According to Rama Shankar Tripathi, Kharavela reigned during the third quarter of the first century BCE.
Dynasty
The first line of the Hathigumpha inscription calls Kharavela "Chetaraja-vasa-vadhanena". Although "Chetaraja" probably refers to Kharavela's father and his immediate predecessor, this is uncertain. The word "Cheta" has a small crack in the stone above the letter ta, giving the impression of medial i. The crack misled scholars such as R. D. Banerji and D. C. Sircar to decipher the word as "Cheti", and the conjectural reading led them to speculate that the dynasty might have descended from the one that ruled the Chedi mahajanapada.The Hathigumpha inscription also contains a word that has been interpreted as Aira or Aila. According to a small inscription found in the Mancapuri Cave, Kharavela's successor Kudepasiri also styled himself as Aira Maharaja Kalingadhipati Mahameghavahana. Early readings of that inscription by scholars such as James Prinsep and R. L. Mitra interpreted Aira as the name of the king in the Hathigumpha inscription. Indraji was the first scholar to assert that the king's name was Kharavela. According to scholars such as N. K. Sahu and B. M. Barua, Aira is the Prakrit form of the Sanskrit word Arya, a self-designation used by the ancient Indo-Aryan peoples. Others believe that it refers to the Aila dynasty, an ancient dynasty mentioned in Hindu mythology; Kharavela's family might have claimed descent from this dynasty.
Ancestry
The Hathigumpha inscription describes Kharavela as a descendant of Mahameghavahana. It does not directly mention the relationship between Mahameghavahana and Kharavela, or the number of kings between them. Indraji interpreted the inscription to create the following hypothetical family tree:Name
interpreted "Kharavela" as a name of Dravidian origin, possibly derived from the words kar and vel. Richard N. Frye, however, did not find Chatterji's etymology satisfactory. According to Braj Nath Puri, it is difficult to suggest a Dravidian cultural origin for Kharavela's dynasty or connect it to South India with certainty. N. K. Sahu also doubts this theory, saying that Kharavela and his successor Kudepasiri use the epithet "Aira".Early life
According to the Hathigumpha inscription, Kharavela spent his first 15 years on sports and amusements. He was formally appointed the heir-apparent prince at age 16, and remained in that office for nine years. Kharavela mastered several branches of learning during that time, including royal correspondence, currency, finance, and civil and religious law.Reign
Kharavela was crowned king of Kalinga at age 24. The Hathigumpha inscription describes the first 13 years of his reign as follows:Later years
Kharavela's empire is believed to have disintegrated soon after his death. Only two of his successors - Vakradeva and Vadukha - left inscriptions. According to Bhagwan Lal, Vakradeva was probably Kharavela's son and successor. Vakradeva's inscription is found in Udayagiri, and he has the same epithets as Kharavela: Kalingadhipati and Mahameghavahana. Vaduka seems to be a son of Vakradeva.Extent of the kingdom
Kharavela's inscriptions call him a Chakravartin emperor. Although his achievements were exaggerated in his inscriptions, he was one of Kalinga's strongest rulers;Kharavela's kingdom certainly included the present-day Puri and Cuttack districts of Odisha. It may have also included parts of present-day Vishakhapatnam and Ganjam districts. According to Dietmar Rothermund and Hermann Kulke, Kharavela's empire included "large parts of eastern and central India".
Religion
The Hathigumpha inscription begins with a variation of the salute to arihants and siddhas. This is similar to the Jain Pancha-Namaskara Mantra, in which three more entities are invoked in addition to the arihants and siddhas. The inscription mentions that Kharavela brought back an idol of Agrajina to Kalinga. Many historians identify Agrajina with Rishabha, the first Jain tirthankara. Although Kharavela is believed to have been a follower of Jainism, he does not appear in Jain records.The inscription notes that he was a devotee of all religions and repaired temples dedicated to a variety of gods ; it is difficult to know to what extent Kharavela was a devout Jain. According to Helmuth von Glasenapp, he was probably a free-thinker who patronized all his subjects.