THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRESdynasties which emerged south of the Vindhyas after the decline of the
Maurya dynasty, the Shatavahanas of Central India and the dynasty of
Kharavela of Orissa, is as yet very uncertain. It was initially assumed that
both emerged soon after the decline of the Maurya empire around 185 BC,
but more recent research seems to indicate that they arose only around the
middle of the first century BC.
Kharavela, one of the great rulers of ancient India, has left a detailed
record of his deeds in the inscription found in the Jaina cave at Udayagiri
near Bhubaneshwar. He called himself ‘Supreme Lord of Kalinga’ (Kalinga-
adhipati) and he was probably a member of the Chedi dynasty which had
migrated from eastern Madhya Pradesh to Orissa. He also referred to
himself as Maharaja of the third royal dynasty indicating in this way that
he regarded himself as successor to the Nanda and Maurya dynasties
which had ruled Orissa before him. Kharavela was a true chakravartin
though he was a Jaina and should have believed in the doctrine of non-
violence (ahimsa). In his campaign against the rulers of North India he got
beyond Magadha and so frightened a Greek (Yavana) king who lived
northwest of this area that he took to his heels. Marching westward,
Kharavela entered the realm of the Shatavahana king, Satakarni, and,
turning south, he defeated a confederation of Dravidian rulers
(Tamiradeha sanghata).
The inscription does not tell us much about the administrative structure
of Kharavela’s realm, but it does contain some interesting information
about some of his activities. In the first year of his reign he got the
fortifications of his capital, Kalinganagara, repaired because they had been
damaged by a storm. In the fifth year of his reign he restored an aqueduct
which, the inscription states, had been constructed 300 years earlier by a
king of the Nanda dynasty. In the twelfth year of his reign he brought back
from Pataliputra a Jaina statue called Kalinga Jina which the Nanda king
had abducted from Orissa. All this shows a great deal of continuity in the
historical awareness of the region in this early period.
The spoils of the many successful campaigns which Kharavela
conducted almost every year seem to have made him so rich that by the
sixth year of his reign he could afford to abolish all taxes payable by the
citizens of towns (paura) and the rural folk (janapada) in his realm. The
inscription also contains the interesting news that Kharavela reintroduced
the sixty-four arts of song, dance and instrumental music (tauryatrika)
which had been prohibited by the Mauryas. This testifies to the fact that
Ashoka’s Dhamma-Mahamatras had successfully implemented the imperial
orders even in distant Orissa.
Kharavela’s far-flung realm, which included large parts of East and
Central India, seems to have disintegrated soon after his death as had
happened to the Maurya empire after Ashoka’s death. Only his son and
another member of the dynasty have left us some rather unimportant