NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERITY, BHOPAL

NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY,

BHOPAL

In the partial fulfilment for the requirement of the project on the subject of
History of B.A.L.L.B (Hons.), third semester.

SUBJECT: HISTORY

THIRD SEMESTER PROJECT

TOPIC: HATHIGUMPHA INSCRIPTION AT KHARAVELA

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

SHUBHAM KAMAL Prof. UDAY PRATAP SINGH sir

2019 BA LLB (HONS) 36

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project has been made possible by the support of various people, my friends, family and
most importantly my respected teachers. I would like to extend a very sincere gesture of
gratitude towards our History teacher prof. Uday Pratap singh sir for guiding me throughout
the development of this project and providing me with everything that was needed. I’m very
grateful to the library staff, my parents, my teachers, my seniors and my friend’s for helping
me throughout this time.

SHUBHAM KAMAL
2nd year BA.LLB(HONS) 36

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BACKGROUND

3. SALIENT FEATURES

i. LOCATION

ii. DISCOVERY

iii. TRUE RECORD

iv. CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.

4. THE INSCRIPTION

5. HISTORICL SIGNIFICANCE

6. CONCLUSION

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INTRODUCTION
Hathigumpha Inscription at Udayagiri caves is the main source of information about Kalinga
ruler Kharavela. This inscription, consisting of seventeen lines has been incised in deep cut
Brahmi script of the 1st century BCE, on the overhanging brow of a natural cavern called
Hathigumpha, in the southern side of the Udayagiri hill. It faces straight towards the Rock
Edicts of Asoka at Dhauli situated at a distance of about six miles. The inscription records the
historical events of the reign in a chronological order, covering political, religious and
cultural episodes of Kalinga during that glorious period. It is presented in Kavya style, and in
the language Brahmi, which is very much like Pali. The inscription mentions that King
Kheravela had done extensive repairs of the forts of the Capital City. In the 2nd year,
Kharavela sent a strong army to the west. He brought back the sacred idols from Magadha
which the earlier rulers of Magadha had taken away from Kalinga.

The inscription is written in a type which is considered as one of the most archaic forms of
the Kalinga Brahmi script, also suggesting a date around 150 BCE.

The inscription is dated 165th year of the era of the Maurya kings, and 13th year of
Kharavela's reign, which, considering the coronation of Chandragupta in 321 BCE as the
probable start of the era, makes a date of 157 BCE for the inscription, a date of 170 BCE for
Kharavela's accession, and a date of 162 BCE for the conflict against the Yavana king
Demetrius.

The Hathigumpha Inscription is like the history of Kharavela as a king, a conqueror, a patron
of culture and a champion of Jainism. The accounts are corroborated by other historical
evidences relating to contemporary times, and therefore the inscription is considered as a
reliable source of information of that time.

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BACKGROUND
It was introduced to the Western world by A. Stirling in 1820, who published an eye copy of
it in Asiatic Researches, XV, as well as in his book An Account, Geographical, Statistical and
Historical of Orissa or Cuttack and by James Prinsep, who deciphered the inscription.
Princep's reading along with the facsimile prepared by Kittoe was published in the Journal of
the Asiatic Society Bengal, VI (1837), where he erroneously attributed this inscription to a
king named Aira. Towards the end of 1871, a plaster-cast of the inscription was prepared by
H. Locke, which is now preserved in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Alexander Cunningham
published this inscription in 1877 in the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Vol. I, and in 1880
R.L. Mitra published a slightly modified version in his Antiquities of Orissa, Vol. II.

Bhagwan Lal Indraji is credited with the first authentic reading, which he presented before
the Sixth International Congress of Orientalists, 1885. It is to be noted here that, Pandit
Indraji was the first scholar to declare that the king eulogised in the Hathigumpha inscription
was named Kharavela. It is a fact that there is a large number of lacuna in the inscription,
which obstruct its correct reading and because of its mutilated condition has given rise to
unnecessary controversies.

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SALIENT FEATURES
The Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela is one of the few notable inscriptions which throw
much light on ancient Indian history. The Hathigumpha Inscription is comparable only to the
inscriptions of Samrat Ashoka and Samudragupta in respect of its historical significance. No
other inscription of India presents the details of the year-wise achievements of a ruler as does
the Hathigumpha Inscription.

LOCATION
The location of this inscription is noteworthy. Near Bhubaneswar, there stand the twin hills of
Udayagiri and Khandagiri, famous in ancient times as the Kumari Parvata and the Kumara
Parvata respectively for their religious sanctity. According to Jaina tradition, Mahavira Jina
came to the Kumari hill from where he preached his doctrines. Ever since that time, the hill
had been venerated as a sacred centre of Jainism. Kharavela selected that place to record both
his political and religious activities. Interestingly enough, Kharavela’s inscription describing
his great victory over Magadha, and his other conquests stands within a visible distance from
Asoka’s Inscription at the Dhauli hill. From the top of the Udayagiri-Khandagiri hills one can
see the Dhauli hill and vice-versa to remember the achievements of the two great monarchs,
both conquerors as well as patrons of their respective religions.

DISCOVERY
The Hathigumpha Inscription was first discovered in recent times by the historians in the
early years of the 19th century. Since then the Udayagiri-Khandagiri hills became a place of
pilgrimage for historians, archaeologists and epigraphists who came to study the Inscriptions
and the caves for purpose of history. Many centuries of time as well as the ravages of Nature
had done much damage to the inscription to create problems for the scholars. But, yet, as a
piece of historical evidence, it revealed many aspects of that remote time for the knowledge
of the present and the future.

TRUE RECORD
The contents of the Hathigumpha Inscriptions are taken as true records of Kharavela’s reign
for the fact that, his inscription contained Jaina religious symbols on the side to prove that
nothing but truth had been mentioned in it. Moreover, Kharavela begins his inscription with
salutation to the Arhatas, and to all the Siddhas. An ancient monarch and a man of deep
religious faith, he could not have mentioned anything which he did not perform.

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CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
The inscription records the historical events of the reign in a chronological order. It throws
light not only on political episodes, but also on religious, cultural and social condition of
Kalinga during that glorious period. It is presented in Kavya style, and in the language
Brahmi, which is very much like Pali.

The Hathigumpha Inscription is like the history of Kharavela as a king, a conqueror, a patron
of culture and a champion of Jainism. The accounts are corroborated by other historical
evidences relating to contemporary times.

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THE INSCRIPTION
The Hathigumpha inscription starts with a version of the auspicious Jain Namokar Mantra:
नमो अरहं तानं [।।] णमो सवसिधानं [।।] for in Jainism.

The inscription is among the early biographical sketches of a king and deserves a more
detailed summary as it represents the beginnings of a style of royal eulogy. An adaption of
the lengthy inscription would read:

Salutation to the Arhats (Jinas)… by illustrious Kharavela, the Aira, the great king, the
descendant of Mahameghavahana, increasing the glory of the Chedi dynasty, endowed with
excellent and auspicious marks and features, possessed of virtues that have reached the four
quarters, overlord of Kalinga.

Fifteen years were spent in youthful sports with a body ruddy and handsome.

Administration as an heir apparent lasted for nine years and he mastered correspondence,
currency, finance, civil and religious law and was well-versed in all branches of learning.

On attaining manhood he was crowned king in the dynasty of Kalinga.

In his first year he repaired the gates, walls and buildings of the city damaged in a storm;
built embankments on the lake, and tanks and cisterns in the city; and restored the gardens.

This was done at the cost of thirty-five thousand and pleased the people.

In the second year his strong army of the four-fold units of cavalry, elephants, infantry and
chariots was sent against the western regions controlled by Satakarni [the Satavahana king],
and also threatened the city of the Mushika peoples.

The third year was given to dance performances and music at festivals and assemblies.

In the fourth year the Rathikas and Bhojakas were attacked and they submitted to him.

In the fifth year he extended the canal originally built by the Nanda king.

Since he was performing the rajasuya sacrifice he remitted taxes and cesses and bestowed
many hundreds of thousands on the institutions of the city and realm.

In the seventh year his wife became a mother.

In the eighth year he threatened the capital of Magadha which led to the king Dimita
[Demetrius, the Indo-Greek king], retreating to Mathura.

More gifts follow- golden trees, elephants, chariots, residences and rest-houses as well as the
declaration that Brahmans were exempt from tax.

A royal residence was built at the cost of thirty-eight hundred thousand.

In the tenth year he sent an expedition to conquer Bharatavarsha

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Another expedition went south towards the Krishna River and attacked town of Pithunda
which was ploughed with a plough yoked to asses. He broke up the confederacy of the
Tramira [Tamil countries] which had been a threat to Kalinga.

In the twelfth year his armies turned northwards causing panic among the people of
Magadha.

He retrieved the image of the Jina which had been taken away from Kalinga by the Nandas
and brought back the riches of Magadha and Anga.

He settled a hundred builders, giving them exemption from land revenue, to build towers and
carved interiors and stockades for elephants and horses.

Precious stones were brought to his court and pearls from the pandya realm in the south.

In the thirteenth year he offered maintenance and gifts to the monks of a Jaina monastery.

An assembly was held of ascetics and sages and monks and the depository of the relic of the
Arhat was embellished. He caused Jaina texts to be compiled.

He is a king of peace, of prosperity, of the monks and of the teaching.

He is accomplished in extraordinary virtues, respects every sect and repairs all shrines. His
armies cannot be vanquished and he protects the realm. He is descended from the family of
the royal sage, Vasu.

Adapted from Epigraphia Indica, XX, Pp. 71-89,

K.P. Jayaswal and R.D. Banerji, ‘Thc Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela'

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HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Kalinga emerged as an independent state towards the end of the second century BC under
ruling house of the Mahameghavahanas. Under Kharavela, the third ruler of this line, in the
middle of the first century BC it achieved political prominence and remained a source of
trouble to the Magadhan rulers for some time. A long inscription of Kharavela from
Hathigumpha, engraved on the Udayagiri hills near Bhubaneshwar, enables us to reconstruct
his biography despite his being in a poor state of preservation. According to this record he
was a Jaina by faith, though given to military conquests. He defeated the king of the western
Deccan, occupied Rajagraha in the North, and conquered Magadha. He attacked the Greeks
in the north, and overran the Pandyan kingdom in the south and sent an expedition to
Bharatvarsha, a term which occurs for the first time in Kharavela’ record and whose
geographical connotation remains vague. Kharavela enlarged an irrigation canal originally
dug by a Nanda king and spent large sums of money on the welfare of his subjects.

After him Kalinga lapsed into political oblivion for several centuries. Though Pliny (died AD
79) refers to the Kalingas as being divided into several branches and substantial
archaeological material has been unearthed in Orissa after 1947, no coherent reconstruction
of political developments in the region is possible.

This was an example of secondary-state formation, as it had been a core area in the Mauryan
system and had been imprinted with the structure of a state through being under Mauryan
administration. The Mauryan centre at Tosali developed into a Buddhist site, but Kalinga was
also associated with Jaina monasteries, encouraged no doubt by the initial patronage of
Kharavela. A long inscription that includes an almost year-by-year biographical sketch of
Kharavela survives at Hathigumpha- the Elephant’s Cave. The inscription is tantalizing as it
is damaged, and permits of alternative readings. Kharavela was of the Meghavahana lineage
associated with the Chedis. (Curiously, Ravana is said to be of the same lineage in the
Paumachariyam, a Jaina version of the Ramayana that was probably composed in the third
century AD.) Despite his support for Jainism, Kharavela protected the independence of
Kalinga through raids against neighbours. Kharavela refers to irrigation canals built by the
Nandas, but proudly mentions his own efforts in this direction. There is no reference to the
Mauryas, unless it was included in the sections of the inscription that are now illegible, yet
there are a few hints of ideas that seem to echo those of Ashoka, such as his veneration for all
sects. He also lays claim to investing much wealth in the welfare of his subjects, although this
could be the predictable rhetoric of royalty.

The attributes of royalty such as conquest, patronage and the welfare of subjects are
accentuated, with royalty being emphasized in the sculptures and reliefs in the surrounding
caves. Such an assertion would have been necessary if Kalinga was still supporting some
chiefdom. The Rathika and Bojaka peoples arc mentioned in the Ashokan inscriptions and in
later Satvahana inscriptions they refer to designations- Maharathi and Mahabhoja-implying
they were chiefs who had been given administrative functions. Shishupalgarh, a Mauryan
administrative centre, was also an exchange centre. But Kharavela did not issue coins and the
use of punch marked coins continued. It is possible that, despite the vast sums mentioned in

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connection with the development of the town, the Kalingan economy was not yet ready for its
own coinage. Descent from Vasu refers to the Vasu who was the raja of the Chedis, believed
to be the recipient of a gift from the gods- a chariot that could fly. The claim to a connection
with Vasu links Kharavela to epic and Puranic genealogies, and the flying chariot would have
linked him to Ravana in the Ramayana. On Kharavela's death, Kalinga relapsed into
quiescence.

The inscription mainly mentions the various conquests of this king, starting with his fight
against the Satavahana king Satakarni:

"And in the second year (he), disregarding Satakamini, dispatches to the western
regions an army strong in cavalry, elephants, infantry (nara) and chariots (ratha)
and by that army having reached the Kanha-bemna, he throws the city of the
Musikas into consternation."

Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XX

The inscription then mentions that Kharavela forced the Indo-Greek (Yavana) king
Demetrius to retreat from Rajgir, about 70 km southeast of Pataliputra, to the area of
Mathura:

"Then in the eighth year, (he) with a large army having sacked Goradhagiri causes pressure
on Rajagaha (Rajagriha). On account of the loud report of this act of valour, the Yavana
(Greek) King Dimi[ta] retreated to Mathura having extricated his demoralized army and
transport."
Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XX

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CONCLUSION
Hathigumpha inscription is valuable evidence left by Kharavela, king of Kalinga (around 209
after 170 BC), in the 1st century BC. Kharavela was the greatest emperor of Kalinga - ancient
Orissa. He was subdued by the great Mauryan king Ashoka. Kharavela was inclining towards
Jainism, but also very liberal regarding religious questions.

Hathigumpha inscription is the main source of information about the reign of this king.
Inscription was incised over the entrance or Hathi Gumpha and consists of 17 lines of deep
incised Brahmi script. The famous rock incisions of Ashoka at Dhauli are located only 9.5
kilometres south-east from Udayagiri - incisions of both great kings are facing each other.

Inscription was discovered by A.Stirling in 1820 who copied it and published. This
publication was used by James Princep to provide the first attempt to decipher the inscription
in the 1830s. Authentic deciphering of inscription took place in 1885 and was performed by
historian Bhagwan Lal Indraji - but numerous mistakes in the inscription and natural
deformations have left space for interpretations and controversies.

Inscription starts with the fundamental mantra of Jains - Namokar Mantra. Then it goes about
life and deeds of King Kharavela, "the worshipper of all religious orders, the repairer of all
shrines of gods".

The inscription is a Jain record, in somewhat imperfectly spelt Prakrit, beginning with the
formula: - Namo arahamtanam namo sava-sidhana. It gives a concise account of the career
of Kharavela from his birth to the thirteenth year of his reign. But its primary object was to
register certain acts done by him, as king, to promote the Jain faith. The words which have
been supposed to give the date mentioned above are in line 16, in a clause which is part of a
passage beginning in line 14 and running to the end of the record. This passage mentions in
line 14 vahika- nisidiya, 'an outer place for quiet study', and in line 15 arahala-nisidiya, 'a
place of the Arhats for quiet study’. That part of the passage ends in line 16 with the words
thabhe patithapayati, "he sets up pillars".

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REFERENCES
 Romila Thapar, Early India, Penguin India 2003. pg no. 211-13.
 Dwijendra Narayan Jha, Ancient India: In Historical Outline, Munshiram Manoharlal
Publishers Pvt Ltd.
 Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XX (1929–30). Delhi: Manager of Publications, 1933.
 Hathigumpha Inscription, World Public Library, available at
http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/hathigumpha_inscription (last accessed on 25th
November, 2015)

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SUMMARY
Hathigumpha Inscription at Udayagiri caves is the main source of information about Kalinga
ruler Kharavela. It is located at the overhanging brow of a natural cavern called
Hathigumpha, in the southern side of Udayagiri hill.

The inscription records the historical events of the reign in a chronological order, covering
political, religious and cultural episodes of Kalinga during that glorious period.

The Hathigumpha Inscription is like the history of Kharavela as a king, a conqueror, a patron
of culture and a champion of Jainism. The accounts are proved further by other historical
evidences relating to contemporary times.

It is presented in Kavya style, and in the language Brahmi. The inscription is considered as
one of the most archaic forms of the Kalinga Brahmi script,

makes a date of 157 BCE for the inscription

No other inscription in India that presents such a detailed work of the year-wise achievements
of a ruler as does the Hathigumpha Inscription.

his inscription contained Jaina religious symbols on the side to prove that nothing but truth
had been mentioned in it. Moreover, Kharavela begins his inscription with salutation to the
Arhatas, and to all the Siddhas. An ancient monarch and a man of deep religious faith, he
could not have mentioned anything which he did not perform.

It was introduced to the Western world by A. Stirling in 1820, who published an eye copy of
it in Asiatic Researches, XV.

However, Bhagwal Lal Indraji is credited with the first authentic reading of the inscription,
which he presented before the Sixth International Congress of Orientalists, 1885.

It is a fact that there is a large number of lacuna in the inscription, which obstruct its correct
reading and because of its mutilated condition has given rise to unnecessary controversies.

His achievements.

He defeated the king of the western Deccan, occupied Rajagraha in the North, and conquered
Magadha. He attacked the Greeks in the north, and overran the Pandyan kingdom in the south
and sent an expedition to Bharatvarsha. Kharavela enlarged an irrigation canal originally dug
by a Nanda king and spent large sums of money on the welfare of his subjects.

Was he secular?

First line of the last inscription says “He is accomplished in extraordinary virtues, respects
every sect and repairs all shrines”. Suggests that he was a secular person when it came to
administration.

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