Калиңга патшасы Харавела

Monarch of Kalinga

Kharavela (also transliterated Khārabēḷa) was a monarch of Kalinga in present day Odisha, India, who ruled during the second or first century BCE. The primary source for Kharavela is his rock cut Hathigumpha inscription. The inscription is undated, only four of its 17 lines are completely legible, others unclear, variously interpreted and disputed by scholars. The inscription written with Jainism related phrases recites a year by year record of his reign and panegyrically credits him with public infrastructure projects, welfare activities, patronage of the arts, and many military victories. Historians agree that it is best and most complete biography of Kharavela available. He was a follower of Jainism.

The kingdom of Kalinga was invaded by Ashoka c. 262 261 BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription implies that Kalinga regained its independence from the Maurya Empire sometime after Ashoka's death, and Kharavela was born in an independent Kalinga. According to Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya, the 16th line does not mention Maurya kala ("Maurya era") but reads Mukhya kala ("the main era"). 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. According to Rama Shankar Tripathi, Kharavela reigned during the third quarter of the first century BCE.

The first line of the Hathigumpha inscription calls Kharavela "Chetaraja vasa vadhanena" (चेतराज वस वधनेन, "the one who extended the family of the Cheta King"). R. D. Banerji and D. C. Sircar interpreted "Cheti" (चेति) to be referring to a dynasty from which Kharavela descended, namely Chedi mahajanapada. According to Sahu, this is incorrect and an artifact of a crack in the stone. The "Chetaraja", states Sahu, probably refers to Kharavela's father and his immediate predecessor. It does not directly mention the relationship between Mahameghavahana and Kharavela, or the number of kings between them. and Sahu to be the Prakrit form of the Sanskrit word Arya ("noble"). Jayaswal and Banerji interpret the same word to be referring to the Aila dynasty, the mythical Pururavas dynasty mentioned in Hindu and Jain texts; Kharavela's Mahameghavahana family might have claimed descent from this Pururavas dynasty. Scholars such as Sircar and Sharma, based on later discovered Guntupalli inscriptions, state that Kharavela was one of the ancient Mahameghavahana dynasty king from Kalinga.

Suniti Kumar Chatterji interpreted "Kharavela" as a name of Dravidian origin, possibly derived from the words kar ("black and terrible") and vel ("lance"). 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. Other parts of the Hathigumpha inscription, as well as the minor inscriptions found at Udayagiri from around 1st century BCE use Jain phrases. He is therefore generally called a Jain king. He brought back Jina idol from Mathura which was taken by Nanda king. Some scholars such as Paul Dundas question whether he was a Jain, or another ancient king who supported Jainism and is valorized in an inscription written at a Jain site. One reason for doubts is that Hathigumpha inscription explicitly states he was a devotee of all religious sects (sava pāsanḍa pūjako) and repaired temples dedicated to a variety of gods (sava de[vāya]tana sakāra kārako). Other reasons to doubt Kharavela was a devout Jain is also found in many lines of the Hathigumpha inscription. The repeated mention of violence and wars in the inscription, says Dundas, raises questions whether Kharavela was merely partial to Jainism given the central doctrine of Ahimsa (non violence) in Jainism. According to Helmuth von Glasenapp, he was probably a free thinker who patronized all his subjects (including Jains).