01A reign in seventeen lines
The inscription opens with a salutation to the Arhats and the Siddhas. Kharavela was crowned at twenty-four. In his first year he repaired the gates and walls of Kalinganagari after a storm. In the second he sent an army west, disregarding Satakarni, the Satavahana king. In the fifth he brought into the capital the canal opened by a Nandaraja long before. In the eighth he struck at Gorathagiri, the Barabar hills, and pressed Rajagriha, and a Yavana king fell back to Mathura at the news.
02The Jina comes home
In his twelfth year Kharavela made the king of Magadha, read as Bahasatimita, bow at his feet, and carried back to Kalinga the image of the Kalinga Jina that the Nanda king had removed, with treasure from Anga and Magadha. The same record says he broke a league of Tamil kingdoms that had stood for 113 years and received pearls and gems from the Pandya king. Then he turned to building: rock-cut chambers on the Kumari hill, today’s Udayagiri, for Jain monks, where the caves still carry his queen’s and officials’ dedications.
