Kharavela’s campaigns against Magadha

01Year by year

The inscription is cut on the brow of a cave on Udayagiri hill outside Bhubaneswar, in Prakrit and Brahmi, and opens with salutation to the Arhats. In his second year Kharavela sent an army west without regard for Satakarni. In his eighth he stormed Gorathagiri in the Barabar hills and pressed Rajagriha, and a Yavana king fell back to Mathura. In his twelfth he struck Magadha, watered his elephants in the Ganga, and made King Bahasatimita bow at his feet. He brought back the image of the Kalinga Jina that a Nanda king had taken, with treasure from Anga and Magadha.

02Reading the stone

The rock is weathered and some readings are argued over: the Yavana king’s name, once read as Dimita, is uncertain, and so is Kharavela’s exact date. What is clear is the arc of a Kalinga king, a Jain by faith who honoured all sects, avenging the conquest of his land and returning a captured image to its people. The cave itself, the Hathigumpha or elephant cave, was a shelter for Jain monks, and the hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri are honeycombed with such cells.

Person · 1st century BCE (dating debated, 2nd–1st century BCE)KharavelaKharavela of the Mahameghavahana line ruled Kalinga and set down his reign, year by year, in seventeen lines cut over the Hathigumpha cave at Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar. He marched on Magadha and brought home the Jina image a Nanda king had taken from Kalinga.Read →