Agni, with head of flames,
standing
between posts
on railing.
on railing.
Cambridge History of India - v1
D.
?
With the im-
perfect documents at our disposal, we can do little more than suggest
such possibilities. It is hopeless to attempt to discriminate between the
elements which may be historical and others which are undoubtedly pure
romance in the great cycle of legend which has gathered around the name,
or rather the title, Vikramāditya, the Sun of Might. ' Many kings at
different periods and in different countries of India have been so styled ;
and it seems that the exploits of more than one of them have been confused
even in those legends which may be regarded as having some historical
basis. While it is possible, nay even probable, that there may have been
a Vikramāditya who expelled the Çakas from Ujjayini in the first century
B. C. , it is certain that the monarch who finally crushed the Çaka power in
this region was the Gupta emperor, Chandragupta II Vikramāditya (380-
(414 A. D. ). Indian tradition does not distinguish between these two.
regards the supposed founder of the era, which began in 58 B. C. (p. 515),
and the royal patron of Kālidāsa, who lived more than four hundred
years later, as one and the same person.
During the first quarter of the first country B. C. , such dominion
as the Andhras may have exercised over the region now known as Mālwā
must have been restricted to its western portion, Avanti, of which
Ujjayini was the capital ; for the Çunga kings were still in possession of
Akara or E. Mālwā (capital Vidicā). But there is evidence that, presum-
ably at some date after c. 72 B. C. when the Çungas came to an end, E.
Mālwā also was annexed by the Andhras. An inscription (no 346) on one
of the Bhilsa Topes (Sānchi, no. 1) records a donation made in the reign of
1 These kings belonged probably to the family of Gardabhilas, viho appear in the
Purāņas among the successors of the Andhra ; see Kali Age, pp. 44-6, 72.
? B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxxv, xxxvi.
## p. 481 (#519) ############################################
XXI]
ANDHRA CONQUEST OF VIDIÇĀ
481
a king Çātakarņi, who cannot be identified more precisely, but who
must certainly have been an Andhra. The inscription is not dated ; but
there is now a general consensus among archaeologists that it probably
belongs to about the middle of the first century B. c. Andhra coins of a
certain type have also been attributed to E. Mālwā ; but their date is
uncertain, and they may belong to a later period”. The conquest of E.
Mālwā marks the north-eastern limit to which the progress of the Andhra
power can be traced from the evidence of inscriptions and coins.
The other great nation, which arose on the ruins of the Maurya em-
pire to take its part in the struggle for supremacy, had also its home in
the lowlands of the eastern coast. The Kalingas? , who occupied the country
of the Mahānadi, were no doubt connected ethnographically with the
Angas and the other peoples of the plains of Bengal with whom they are
associated in the Purāņas (p. 283). They had been conquered by Açoka
c. 262 B. c. 4 ; but at some time after his death they had regained their
independence ; and the next glimpses of their history are afforded by ins-
;
criptions in the caves of the Udayagiri Hill near Cuttack in Orissa”. The
immediate object of these inscriptions (nos. 1345-50) was to preserve the
memory of pious benefactors -- two kings, a queen, a prince, and other per-
sons-who had provided caves for the use of the Jain ascetics of Udayagiri;
and one of the inscriptions (no. 1345) in the Hathigumphā, or ‘Elephant
Cave,' contained a record of events in the first thirteen (or possibly four-
teen) years of the reign of one of the kings, Khāravela, a member of the
Cheta dynasty. This is one of the most celebrated, and also one of the most
perplexing, of all the historical monuments of India. Unfortunately it has
been badly preserved. Of its seventeen lines only the first four remain in
their entirety. These describe the fifteen years of the king's boyhood, the
nine years of his rule as prince (yuvarāja), his coronation as king when his
twentyfourth year was completed, and events in the first two years of his
reign. All the other lines are more or less fragmentary. Many passages are
irretrievably lost, while others are partially obliterated and can only be
restored conjecturally. Time has thus either destroyed or obscured much
of the historical value of this record.
Even the fundamental question whether the inscription is dated or not
is still in dispute. Some scholars contend that a passage in the sixteenth line
can only be interpreted to mean that the inscription was engraved in
the 165th year of the Maurya kings, or of the Maurya king while
1 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxiii, xxiv ; Marshali, Guide to Sānchi. p. 13 ;
Jouveau-Dubr uil, Anc. Hist. of the Deccan, p. 15.
2 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xcv, xcvi.
3 Chapter XXIV, pp. 544-5.
4 Chapter XX, pp. 446, 453.
5 Chapter XXVI, pp. 578 ff.
9
## p. 482 (#520) ############################################
482
(ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
others deny the existence of any such date'. The discussion of problems of
this kind does not fall within the scope of the present work ; but it may be
pointed out here that the acceptance of the supposed date would seem to
involve no chronological impossibilities, and that, in any case, the inscrip-
tion probably belongs to about the middle of the second century b. c. We
know from analogous instances that the origin of imperial eras is usually
to be traced to the regnal years of the founder of the empire. A Maurya
era, therefore, would naturally date from the accession of Chandragupta
c. 321 1. c. ; and, if such an era is actually used in the present instance,
the inscription must be dated c. 156 B. C. , and the beginning of Khāravela's
reign c. 169 B. C. With this hypothetical chronology other indications
of date seem to agree.
Epigraphical considerations show that the Hāthigumphā inscription
of Khāra vela and the Nānāghāt inscription of Nāganikā, the queen of
Cātakarņi, belong to the same period as the Nāsik inscription of Kțishņa? .
Even, therefore, if it must be admitted that the Hāthigumphā inscription
is undated, there is still reason to believe that Khāravela may have been
contemporary with Çātakarņi in the first half of the second century
B. C. ; Moreover,a Çatakatņi is actually mentioned in the Hāthigumphả
inscription as Khāravela's rival ; and it appears most probable that he is
to be identified with the Çātakarņi of the Nānāghāt inscription. Like this
Çātakarņi, Khāravela was also the third of his line, if we may accept
the usual interpretation of a passage in the Hāthigumphā inscription"; and,
as the rise of both the Andbra and Kalinga dynasties must no doubt
date from the same period when the Maurya power began to decline, the
probability that these two kings were contemporary is thus increased.
On two occasions, according to the inscriptional record, did Khāravela
invade the Andhra dominions in the Deccan. In his second year he sent a
large army of horse, elephants, foot-soldiers, and chariots to the West in
defiance of Çātakarņi ; and in his fourth year he humbled the Rāshtrikas
of the Marāthā Country and the Bhojakas of Berār, both feudatories
of the Andhra kings of Pratishthāna (pp. 447-48). Such expeditions were un-
doubtedly in the nature of a challenge to the predominant power of the
Deccan ; but they appear not to have been pursued beyond the limit
of safety. We may suppose that the armies of Khāravela passed up
the valley of the Mahānadĩ and over the water-shed into the valleys of the
Godāvari and its great tributaries the Waingangā and the Wardhā. They
1 For the literature which bears on the interpretation of the Hāthigumpha
inscription, see the Bibliography.
2 Bühler, Arch. Sur. West. Ind. v, p. 71 ; Indische Palaeographie, p. 39.
3 The different translation given by Mr. Jayaswal seems not to be necessitated
by the new reading to which he calls attention in Jour. Bihar and Orissa Research Soc. ,
1918, p. 454.
## p. 483 (#521) ############################################
xxi]
KALINGA AND OTHER COUNTRIES
483
;
would thus invade territory which the Andhra monarch regarded as lying
within his realm. But it is not stated, and there are no grounds for surmis.
ing, that the forces of the Kalingas and the Andhras came into actual con.
flict on either of these occasions or that any important political
results followed. Such military expeditions, as is abundantly proved by in-
scriptions, formed part of the ordinary routine in a state of society,
in which war had become a profession and the soldier was an here-
ditary member of a professional caste. They supplied to some extent the
place which is occupied by manoeuvres in the training of modern armies ;
and they also afforded the king such opportunities as there might bo for the
fulfilment of that desire to extend his rule which, according to the
law-books, is one of the chief qualifications for kingship (Manu ix, 251 ; x,
119 etc. ). Our knowledge of this feature in the life of ancient and medieval
India is derived from the eulogies of kings which fill so large a proportion
of the inscriptions which have come down to our time. These compositions
are the work of grateful beneficiaries or court-poets, whose object was
rather to glorify their royal patron than to hand down to posterity an accu-
rate account of the events of his reign. It is evident that in them successes
are often grossly exaggerated, while reverses are passed over in com-
plete silence. The statements of the inscriptions are, therefore, very
frequently those of prejudiced witnesses ; and they must be weighed as such
if we are to estimate rightly the value of these few scattered fragments of
historical evidence which time has preserved. The achievements of Khāravela
loom large in the Hāthigumphā inscription ; and there is no reason to doubt
:
that, as a military leader, he played an important part in the affairs of the
tiune. But if, as the expeditions of his second and fourth years seem to in.
dicate, his ambition led him to entertain the project of wresting the
suzerainty from th: Andhra king of Pratishthāna, the attempt must be held
to have failed. His family has found no place in the dynastic lists of
suzerains which were handed down to posterity by the Purāņas.
From the West, Khāravela turned his attention to the North. In his
eighth year he harassed the king of Rājagļiha, who fled at his approach ;
in his tenth year he sent an expedition to Bhāratavarsha ; and in his
twelfth year he produced consternation among the kings of Uttarāpatha,
humbled the king of Magadha, and, according to Mr Jayaswal's translation
which is not undisputed, brought back trophies which had been carried away
by king Nanda.
For the present we must be content with this brief summary of the
relations of Kalinga with other countries after the fourth year of
Khāravela's reign : and even those few statements raise problems for which
no satisfactory solution can yet be proposed. The identification of the kings
of Rājagņiha and Magadha is still uncertain. The former bears no personal
3
## p. 484 (#522) ############################################
484
[Ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
name in the inscription, and the question whether the latter is ramed or
not still undecided'. Both Bhāratavarsha and Uttarāpatha are often
general designations of Northern India ; and it is useless to speculate as to
what particular regions they may possibly denote in this instance. All
that appears to be certain is that Khāravela repeatedly invaded Northern
India, and that on one occasion he won a decisive victory over the king
then reigning at Pāțaliputra. Who that king was we do dot know. It seems
natural to assume that the Çungas were still the lords of the Magadha ; but
there is no undoubted evidence that this was the fact. The Yavana inva-
sion of the capital (p. 491) may have taken place before the twelfth year
of Khāravela's reign, and decisive events may have happened of which
no record has yet been discovered.
The mention of a king, Nanda, or of Nanda kings, in two passages
of the Hāthigumphā inscription seems to supply a link of connexion bet-
ween the histories of Kalinga and Magadha before the Maurya period.
But even this is doubtful ; and the doubt cannot be dispelled so long as
uncertainty remains in regard to the interpretation of the date, which is
apparently indicated in one of these passages. ? If ti-vasa-sata in line 6 of the
inscription can mean “three centuries before (the fifth year of Khāravela's
reign), we must suppose that, in the middle of the fifth century B. C. ,
Kalinga was under the rule of a Nanda king, and it is natural to associate
him with the well-known predecessors of the Mauryas. If, on the other
hand, the expression means 'one hundred and three years before the fifth
year of Khāravela's reign),' or 'in the one hundred and third year (of the
Maurya era)',' the reference must be, in the former case, to a king called
Nanda who was reigning over Kalinga before its annexation by Açoka,
and, in the latter case, to a predecessor of Khāravela in the Cheta dynasty
after the kingdom had regained its independence.
As is so often inevitable in our attempts to reconstruct the mosaic of
ancient Indian history from the few pieces which have as yet been found, we
can do little more than define the limits of possible hypothesis in this in-
stance. For greater certainty we must be content to wait until the progress of
archaeological research has furnished us with more adequate materials.
1 Mr. Jayaswal holds that the king of Rājagriha was also the king of Magadha,
whose name he reads in the inscription as Bahasatimitra, and whom he identifies with
Pushyamitra. Apart from the proposed reading of the name, which cannot be verified
from the reproduction of the inscription in Plate I of the Jour. Bihar and Orissa
Research Soc. 1918, the identification of the Bahasatimitra of the Pabhosă inscription
and the coins with Pushyamitra appears not to be possible, if Mr. Jayaswal is correct
in assigning the Pabhosā inscription (no. 904) to the tenth year of Odraka (p. 469).
According to the Purāņā there was an interval of twenty-five years between the reigns
of Pushyamitra and Odraka (p. 518) ; and Āshādhasena, the donor of the Pabhosa
cave, was the maternal uncle of king Bahasatimitra.
2 Chapter XIII, pp. 280. 81.
3 K. G. Sankara Aiyar, Ind. Ant. , 1920, pp. 43 ff.
## p. 485 (#523) ############################################
XX]
KEY TO PLATES V
485
KEY TO PLATE V
:
9
.
1. Æ. Eran : Dharmapāla. Obv. Rano Dhamapālasa in ancient Brāhmil characters
written from right to left.
2: Æ. Kauçãmbi : Babasatimitra. Obv. Humped bull to r. facing chaitya ; above,
symbol. Rev. Bahasatimitrasa. Tree within railing; on either side, symbols.
3. Æ. Panchāla : Agnimitra. Obv.
Agni, with head of flames, standing between posts
on railing. Rev. in incuse, Agimitasa; above, three symbols.
4. Æ. id. : Indramitra. Obv. Indra seated on railing. Rev. in se, Idamitasa ; above,
three symbols.
5. Æ. Mathurā : Gomitra. Rev. Gomitasa. Standing figures; on either side, symbols.
6. Æ. id. : Brahmamitra. Rev. Brahmamitasa, Standing figure, with r. arm raised; on
either side, symbols.
7. Æ. id. : Hagāmasha. Obv. Horse to 1. Rev. Khatapasa Hagāmashasa Standing figure,
with r. , arm raised; on either side, symbols.
8. Æ. id. : Hagāna and Hagāmasha. Obv. Horse to l. Rev. Khatapāna Hcgānasa
Hagāmashasa; to r, thunderbolt.
9. Æ. id. : Rañjubula. Obr. The abhisheka of Lakshmi. Rev. Mahākhatapasa
Rājuvulasa. Standing figure ; on either side, symbol.
10. Æ. id. : Çodāsa. Obv. Indistinct, probably as on no. 9. Rev. Mahākhatapasn putasa
Khatapasa Codāsasa Type as on no. 9.
11. Æ. Ayodhyā: Āryamitra, Obv. Peacock to r. facing tree, Rev. in incuse, Āy.
yamitasa, Humped bull to ). facing post.
12. Æ. id. : Mūladeva, Obv, Mūladevasa, Elephant to ). facing symbol. Rev. Wreath ;
above, symbel ; below, snake.
13. Æ. Rājanya Janapada, Obv. Humped bull to 1. Rev. Rājanya-jana padasa.
Standing figure.
14. R. Udumbara : Dharāghosha, Obv. Mahadevasa rano Dharaghoshasa Odum.
barisa ;r. , tree within railing ; 1. , trident battle-axe. Rev. Similar legend
in Kharoshthi characters. Viçvamitra standing, with r. hand raised ; ac-
ross field, Viçpa-mitra in Kharoshthi characters,
15. R. Çaka : Azilises. Rev. (Kh. ) Maharajasa rajatirajasa mahatasa Ayilishasa,
One of the Dioscuri standing.
1 All the coin-legends in this Plate are in Brāhmi, except when 'Kharoshthi'
is specially indicated.
;
.
9
## p. 486 (#524) ############################################
486
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
16. R. Kuninda : Amogbabhūti, Obr. Raño Kuņimdasa Amoghabhūtisa Maha.
rajasa. Deer to r. facing female figure ; above, symbol ; below, chaitya.
Rev. Similar legend in Kharoshthi characters. Chaitya surmounted by
nandipada ;r. , tree within railing 1. , svastika and another symbol.
17 R. Almora : Çivadatta. Obr. Railing with symbols between the posts. Rer.
Sivadatasa. Type uncertain (symbol or letter ? ); in margin, deer and tree
within railing.
18. Æ. Ujjayini. Obv. Elephant to r. Rer. Ujeni (ye] ; above, a hand.
19. Æ. id. Obr. Three-headed standing figure. Rev. The symbol usually found on
coins of Ujjayini.
## p. 487 (#525) ############################################
CHAPTER XXII
THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
The disintegration of the Maurya empire was followed by foreign
invasions. Now that the unifying power was removed, the frontiers could
no longer be held securely ; and the history of N. W. India becomes for
many centuries the record of successive conquerors who came along the
coutes which led from Bactria (N. Afghanistān) over the Hindu Kush into
the Kābul valley or from Ariāna (Seistān and Kandahār) over the Brāhūi
Mountains into Sind.
The first three of the series, who belong to the period before the
Christian era, are known in Indian literature and inscriptions as Yavanas
or Yonas (Greeks), Çakas or Sakas (Scythians), and Pahlavas (Parthians).
Like other invaders they are regarded by the Sanskrit law-books and epics
as degenerate Kshatriyas who had lost caste through their neglect of the
religious and social code, and they are supposed to be of Indian origin, the
descendants of Tarvasu : but their names alone are sufficient to prove
that
they were foreigners, and that they came into India from Bactria or from
Irān. -
The Yavanas are the launā of the Old Persian inscriptions of Darius,
which show that the Persians applied to all Greeks without distinction the
name of the Ionians of Asia Minor who were conquered by Cyrus in 545
B. C. Greek soldiers and officials formed no unimportant element in the
administration of the empire of the Achaemenids ; and it is not surprising
therefore to find that the Greeks were known in India at a time when
a large portion of the North-West was still under Persian rule. The
occurrence of the word Yavana in a grammatical rule of Pāṇini (Iv, 1, 49)
is a certain indication that it had been adopted into Sanskrit before the
middle of the fourth century B. C. Its Prākrit equivalent, Yona, is used in
the inscriptions of Açoka to describe the Hellenic sovereigns of Egypt,
Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus, and Syria ; and there can be little doubt that,
in all Indian documents earlier than the third century A. D. , the term denotes
a person of Greek descent, in spite of the fact that, like other foreign
487
## p. 488 (#526) ############################################
488
[CH.
SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
settlers in India, many of the Yavanas had become Hinduised and had
adopted Indian names. At a later date, foreigners generally are classed as
Yavanas.
On three occasions have Yavana conquerors occupied the Kābul
valley, the North-Western Frontier Province, and large portions of the
Punjab. The earliest of these episodes, the Indian expedition of Alexander
the Great, has for more than twenty-two centuries been celebrated in
the Western world as one of the most amazing feats of arms in the whole
of history. Of its progress detailed accounts have been preserved by
Greek and Latin authors whose information was derived from the writings
of officers who themselves took part in the events which they describe ;
and in all these accounts Alexander himself is the great central figure.
No personage of the ancient world is better known ; but of this great
conqueror the records of India have preserved no certain trace ; he had
failed to reach the Midland Country, to which the literature of the period
is almost exclusively confined.
On the second occasion, Bactrian princes of the house of Euthy-
demus, whose conquests began c. 200 B. C. , succeeded in rivalling and
in surpassing the exploits of Alexander; and on the third occasion,
Eucratides, who had supplanted the family of Euthydemus in Bactria,
deprived it of its possessions in the Kābul valley and of a portion of
its territory in N. W. India, before 162 B. C. (p. 411).
No connected account of these two rival Yavana houses has been
preserved ; and practically nothing is known about the personal character
or achievements of the leaders who directed the affairs of a period which
must have been full of stirring events. A few isolated references in
literature, Greek, Roman and Indian, a single Indian inscription, and
the coin-legends of about thirty Greek kings and two Greek queens
supply the evidence which enables us to retrace very imperfectly a few
outlines in the history of the successors of Alexander the Great in India
during the second and first centuries B. C.
For about a century after the treaty of peace between Seleucus and
Chandragupta, c. 305 B. C. , and half a century after the foundation of
the Hellenic kingdom of Bactria, c. 250 B. C. , the southern limit of the
Yavana dominions was marked by the Hindu Kush. This broad band of
mountainous country, which separates the great river systems of the
Oxus and the Indus, was thus also the political boundary between Bactria
and Paropanisadae (the Kābul valley and the country north of the Kabul
river now known as Laghmān, Kohistān, and Kāfiristān). The mountain
barrier, although a formidable natural obstacle, has never effectually
prevented intercourse between the two fertile regions which it divides.
In all ages it has been traversed by migrating tribes, by military expedi-
## p. 489 (#527) ############################################
XXII]
DIRECTION OF INVASIONS
489
B. C.
-
tions, or by peaceful traders and pilgrims. It was crossed by Alexander,
from the Paropanisadae to Bactria, in fifteen days, and recrossed in
eleven days. The routes which led from Bactria over its passes converged
at a point near the present Chārikār where Alexander had founded the
city of Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus ; and, so long as this strategical
position could be held, invasion was impossible. But already in 206
the expedition of Antiochus the Great had shown that the
way was now open ; and the object lesson was not lost. Within a few
years, the Bactrian king Euthydemus and the princes of his house began
their triumphal career, the first stage of which was marked by the occupa-
tion of the Kābul valley.
From Kābul ancient routes led, on the one hand, into the provinces
of Ariāna - Aria (Herāt) on the west, and Arāchosia (Kandahār ) on the
south-west-and, on the other hand, into India through Gandhāra
(Peshāwar and Rāwalpindi) on the south-east. It is probable that the
Yavana power expanded in all these directions ; but it was in the
second or third of these-to Arachosia and to India –that its progress
was most marked. In these directions it must no doubt have followed the
routes once trodden by the armies of Alexander the Great. The full extent
of the Yavana conquests is described by Strabo (XI, 516) who quotes
Apollodorus of Artemita, the author of a history of Parthia which has
been lost :
The Greeks who occasioned its (Bactria’s) revolt became so powerful by means
of its fertility and advantages of the country that they became masters of Ariāna and
India, according to Apollodorus of Artemita. Their chiefs, particularly Menander (if
he really crossed the Hypanis to the east and reached Isamus), conquered more nations
than Alexander. These conquests were achieved partly by Menander, partly by
Demetrius, son of Euthydemus, king of the Bactrians. They got possession not only
of Patalene but of the kingdom of Saraostos, and Sigerdis, which constitute the
mainder of the coast. . . . . . They extended their empire even as far as the Seres and
Phryni. (Trans.
perfect documents at our disposal, we can do little more than suggest
such possibilities. It is hopeless to attempt to discriminate between the
elements which may be historical and others which are undoubtedly pure
romance in the great cycle of legend which has gathered around the name,
or rather the title, Vikramāditya, the Sun of Might. ' Many kings at
different periods and in different countries of India have been so styled ;
and it seems that the exploits of more than one of them have been confused
even in those legends which may be regarded as having some historical
basis. While it is possible, nay even probable, that there may have been
a Vikramāditya who expelled the Çakas from Ujjayini in the first century
B. C. , it is certain that the monarch who finally crushed the Çaka power in
this region was the Gupta emperor, Chandragupta II Vikramāditya (380-
(414 A. D. ). Indian tradition does not distinguish between these two.
regards the supposed founder of the era, which began in 58 B. C. (p. 515),
and the royal patron of Kālidāsa, who lived more than four hundred
years later, as one and the same person.
During the first quarter of the first country B. C. , such dominion
as the Andhras may have exercised over the region now known as Mālwā
must have been restricted to its western portion, Avanti, of which
Ujjayini was the capital ; for the Çunga kings were still in possession of
Akara or E. Mālwā (capital Vidicā). But there is evidence that, presum-
ably at some date after c. 72 B. C. when the Çungas came to an end, E.
Mālwā also was annexed by the Andhras. An inscription (no 346) on one
of the Bhilsa Topes (Sānchi, no. 1) records a donation made in the reign of
1 These kings belonged probably to the family of Gardabhilas, viho appear in the
Purāņas among the successors of the Andhra ; see Kali Age, pp. 44-6, 72.
? B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxxv, xxxvi.
## p. 481 (#519) ############################################
XXI]
ANDHRA CONQUEST OF VIDIÇĀ
481
a king Çātakarņi, who cannot be identified more precisely, but who
must certainly have been an Andhra. The inscription is not dated ; but
there is now a general consensus among archaeologists that it probably
belongs to about the middle of the first century B. c. Andhra coins of a
certain type have also been attributed to E. Mālwā ; but their date is
uncertain, and they may belong to a later period”. The conquest of E.
Mālwā marks the north-eastern limit to which the progress of the Andhra
power can be traced from the evidence of inscriptions and coins.
The other great nation, which arose on the ruins of the Maurya em-
pire to take its part in the struggle for supremacy, had also its home in
the lowlands of the eastern coast. The Kalingas? , who occupied the country
of the Mahānadi, were no doubt connected ethnographically with the
Angas and the other peoples of the plains of Bengal with whom they are
associated in the Purāņas (p. 283). They had been conquered by Açoka
c. 262 B. c. 4 ; but at some time after his death they had regained their
independence ; and the next glimpses of their history are afforded by ins-
;
criptions in the caves of the Udayagiri Hill near Cuttack in Orissa”. The
immediate object of these inscriptions (nos. 1345-50) was to preserve the
memory of pious benefactors -- two kings, a queen, a prince, and other per-
sons-who had provided caves for the use of the Jain ascetics of Udayagiri;
and one of the inscriptions (no. 1345) in the Hathigumphā, or ‘Elephant
Cave,' contained a record of events in the first thirteen (or possibly four-
teen) years of the reign of one of the kings, Khāravela, a member of the
Cheta dynasty. This is one of the most celebrated, and also one of the most
perplexing, of all the historical monuments of India. Unfortunately it has
been badly preserved. Of its seventeen lines only the first four remain in
their entirety. These describe the fifteen years of the king's boyhood, the
nine years of his rule as prince (yuvarāja), his coronation as king when his
twentyfourth year was completed, and events in the first two years of his
reign. All the other lines are more or less fragmentary. Many passages are
irretrievably lost, while others are partially obliterated and can only be
restored conjecturally. Time has thus either destroyed or obscured much
of the historical value of this record.
Even the fundamental question whether the inscription is dated or not
is still in dispute. Some scholars contend that a passage in the sixteenth line
can only be interpreted to mean that the inscription was engraved in
the 165th year of the Maurya kings, or of the Maurya king while
1 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxiii, xxiv ; Marshali, Guide to Sānchi. p. 13 ;
Jouveau-Dubr uil, Anc. Hist. of the Deccan, p. 15.
2 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xcv, xcvi.
3 Chapter XXIV, pp. 544-5.
4 Chapter XX, pp. 446, 453.
5 Chapter XXVI, pp. 578 ff.
9
## p. 482 (#520) ############################################
482
(ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
others deny the existence of any such date'. The discussion of problems of
this kind does not fall within the scope of the present work ; but it may be
pointed out here that the acceptance of the supposed date would seem to
involve no chronological impossibilities, and that, in any case, the inscrip-
tion probably belongs to about the middle of the second century b. c. We
know from analogous instances that the origin of imperial eras is usually
to be traced to the regnal years of the founder of the empire. A Maurya
era, therefore, would naturally date from the accession of Chandragupta
c. 321 1. c. ; and, if such an era is actually used in the present instance,
the inscription must be dated c. 156 B. C. , and the beginning of Khāravela's
reign c. 169 B. C. With this hypothetical chronology other indications
of date seem to agree.
Epigraphical considerations show that the Hāthigumphā inscription
of Khāra vela and the Nānāghāt inscription of Nāganikā, the queen of
Cātakarņi, belong to the same period as the Nāsik inscription of Kțishņa? .
Even, therefore, if it must be admitted that the Hāthigumphā inscription
is undated, there is still reason to believe that Khāravela may have been
contemporary with Çātakarņi in the first half of the second century
B. C. ; Moreover,a Çatakatņi is actually mentioned in the Hāthigumphả
inscription as Khāravela's rival ; and it appears most probable that he is
to be identified with the Çātakarņi of the Nānāghāt inscription. Like this
Çātakarņi, Khāravela was also the third of his line, if we may accept
the usual interpretation of a passage in the Hāthigumphā inscription"; and,
as the rise of both the Andbra and Kalinga dynasties must no doubt
date from the same period when the Maurya power began to decline, the
probability that these two kings were contemporary is thus increased.
On two occasions, according to the inscriptional record, did Khāravela
invade the Andhra dominions in the Deccan. In his second year he sent a
large army of horse, elephants, foot-soldiers, and chariots to the West in
defiance of Çātakarņi ; and in his fourth year he humbled the Rāshtrikas
of the Marāthā Country and the Bhojakas of Berār, both feudatories
of the Andhra kings of Pratishthāna (pp. 447-48). Such expeditions were un-
doubtedly in the nature of a challenge to the predominant power of the
Deccan ; but they appear not to have been pursued beyond the limit
of safety. We may suppose that the armies of Khāravela passed up
the valley of the Mahānadĩ and over the water-shed into the valleys of the
Godāvari and its great tributaries the Waingangā and the Wardhā. They
1 For the literature which bears on the interpretation of the Hāthigumpha
inscription, see the Bibliography.
2 Bühler, Arch. Sur. West. Ind. v, p. 71 ; Indische Palaeographie, p. 39.
3 The different translation given by Mr. Jayaswal seems not to be necessitated
by the new reading to which he calls attention in Jour. Bihar and Orissa Research Soc. ,
1918, p. 454.
## p. 483 (#521) ############################################
xxi]
KALINGA AND OTHER COUNTRIES
483
;
would thus invade territory which the Andhra monarch regarded as lying
within his realm. But it is not stated, and there are no grounds for surmis.
ing, that the forces of the Kalingas and the Andhras came into actual con.
flict on either of these occasions or that any important political
results followed. Such military expeditions, as is abundantly proved by in-
scriptions, formed part of the ordinary routine in a state of society,
in which war had become a profession and the soldier was an here-
ditary member of a professional caste. They supplied to some extent the
place which is occupied by manoeuvres in the training of modern armies ;
and they also afforded the king such opportunities as there might bo for the
fulfilment of that desire to extend his rule which, according to the
law-books, is one of the chief qualifications for kingship (Manu ix, 251 ; x,
119 etc. ). Our knowledge of this feature in the life of ancient and medieval
India is derived from the eulogies of kings which fill so large a proportion
of the inscriptions which have come down to our time. These compositions
are the work of grateful beneficiaries or court-poets, whose object was
rather to glorify their royal patron than to hand down to posterity an accu-
rate account of the events of his reign. It is evident that in them successes
are often grossly exaggerated, while reverses are passed over in com-
plete silence. The statements of the inscriptions are, therefore, very
frequently those of prejudiced witnesses ; and they must be weighed as such
if we are to estimate rightly the value of these few scattered fragments of
historical evidence which time has preserved. The achievements of Khāravela
loom large in the Hāthigumphā inscription ; and there is no reason to doubt
:
that, as a military leader, he played an important part in the affairs of the
tiune. But if, as the expeditions of his second and fourth years seem to in.
dicate, his ambition led him to entertain the project of wresting the
suzerainty from th: Andhra king of Pratishthāna, the attempt must be held
to have failed. His family has found no place in the dynastic lists of
suzerains which were handed down to posterity by the Purāņas.
From the West, Khāravela turned his attention to the North. In his
eighth year he harassed the king of Rājagļiha, who fled at his approach ;
in his tenth year he sent an expedition to Bhāratavarsha ; and in his
twelfth year he produced consternation among the kings of Uttarāpatha,
humbled the king of Magadha, and, according to Mr Jayaswal's translation
which is not undisputed, brought back trophies which had been carried away
by king Nanda.
For the present we must be content with this brief summary of the
relations of Kalinga with other countries after the fourth year of
Khāravela's reign : and even those few statements raise problems for which
no satisfactory solution can yet be proposed. The identification of the kings
of Rājagņiha and Magadha is still uncertain. The former bears no personal
3
## p. 484 (#522) ############################################
484
[Ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
name in the inscription, and the question whether the latter is ramed or
not still undecided'. Both Bhāratavarsha and Uttarāpatha are often
general designations of Northern India ; and it is useless to speculate as to
what particular regions they may possibly denote in this instance. All
that appears to be certain is that Khāravela repeatedly invaded Northern
India, and that on one occasion he won a decisive victory over the king
then reigning at Pāțaliputra. Who that king was we do dot know. It seems
natural to assume that the Çungas were still the lords of the Magadha ; but
there is no undoubted evidence that this was the fact. The Yavana inva-
sion of the capital (p. 491) may have taken place before the twelfth year
of Khāravela's reign, and decisive events may have happened of which
no record has yet been discovered.
The mention of a king, Nanda, or of Nanda kings, in two passages
of the Hāthigumphā inscription seems to supply a link of connexion bet-
ween the histories of Kalinga and Magadha before the Maurya period.
But even this is doubtful ; and the doubt cannot be dispelled so long as
uncertainty remains in regard to the interpretation of the date, which is
apparently indicated in one of these passages. ? If ti-vasa-sata in line 6 of the
inscription can mean “three centuries before (the fifth year of Khāravela's
reign), we must suppose that, in the middle of the fifth century B. C. ,
Kalinga was under the rule of a Nanda king, and it is natural to associate
him with the well-known predecessors of the Mauryas. If, on the other
hand, the expression means 'one hundred and three years before the fifth
year of Khāravela's reign),' or 'in the one hundred and third year (of the
Maurya era)',' the reference must be, in the former case, to a king called
Nanda who was reigning over Kalinga before its annexation by Açoka,
and, in the latter case, to a predecessor of Khāravela in the Cheta dynasty
after the kingdom had regained its independence.
As is so often inevitable in our attempts to reconstruct the mosaic of
ancient Indian history from the few pieces which have as yet been found, we
can do little more than define the limits of possible hypothesis in this in-
stance. For greater certainty we must be content to wait until the progress of
archaeological research has furnished us with more adequate materials.
1 Mr. Jayaswal holds that the king of Rājagriha was also the king of Magadha,
whose name he reads in the inscription as Bahasatimitra, and whom he identifies with
Pushyamitra. Apart from the proposed reading of the name, which cannot be verified
from the reproduction of the inscription in Plate I of the Jour. Bihar and Orissa
Research Soc. 1918, the identification of the Bahasatimitra of the Pabhosă inscription
and the coins with Pushyamitra appears not to be possible, if Mr. Jayaswal is correct
in assigning the Pabhosā inscription (no. 904) to the tenth year of Odraka (p. 469).
According to the Purāņā there was an interval of twenty-five years between the reigns
of Pushyamitra and Odraka (p. 518) ; and Āshādhasena, the donor of the Pabhosa
cave, was the maternal uncle of king Bahasatimitra.
2 Chapter XIII, pp. 280. 81.
3 K. G. Sankara Aiyar, Ind. Ant. , 1920, pp. 43 ff.
## p. 485 (#523) ############################################
XX]
KEY TO PLATES V
485
KEY TO PLATE V
:
9
.
1. Æ. Eran : Dharmapāla. Obv. Rano Dhamapālasa in ancient Brāhmil characters
written from right to left.
2: Æ. Kauçãmbi : Babasatimitra. Obv. Humped bull to r. facing chaitya ; above,
symbol. Rev. Bahasatimitrasa. Tree within railing; on either side, symbols.
3. Æ. Panchāla : Agnimitra. Obv.
Agni, with head of flames, standing between posts
on railing. Rev. in incuse, Agimitasa; above, three symbols.
4. Æ. id. : Indramitra. Obv. Indra seated on railing. Rev. in se, Idamitasa ; above,
three symbols.
5. Æ. Mathurā : Gomitra. Rev. Gomitasa. Standing figures; on either side, symbols.
6. Æ. id. : Brahmamitra. Rev. Brahmamitasa, Standing figure, with r. arm raised; on
either side, symbols.
7. Æ. id. : Hagāmasha. Obv. Horse to 1. Rev. Khatapasa Hagāmashasa Standing figure,
with r. , arm raised; on either side, symbols.
8. Æ. id. : Hagāna and Hagāmasha. Obv. Horse to l. Rev. Khatapāna Hcgānasa
Hagāmashasa; to r, thunderbolt.
9. Æ. id. : Rañjubula. Obr. The abhisheka of Lakshmi. Rev. Mahākhatapasa
Rājuvulasa. Standing figure ; on either side, symbol.
10. Æ. id. : Çodāsa. Obv. Indistinct, probably as on no. 9. Rev. Mahākhatapasn putasa
Khatapasa Codāsasa Type as on no. 9.
11. Æ. Ayodhyā: Āryamitra, Obv. Peacock to r. facing tree, Rev. in incuse, Āy.
yamitasa, Humped bull to ). facing post.
12. Æ. id. : Mūladeva, Obv, Mūladevasa, Elephant to ). facing symbol. Rev. Wreath ;
above, symbel ; below, snake.
13. Æ. Rājanya Janapada, Obv. Humped bull to 1. Rev. Rājanya-jana padasa.
Standing figure.
14. R. Udumbara : Dharāghosha, Obv. Mahadevasa rano Dharaghoshasa Odum.
barisa ;r. , tree within railing ; 1. , trident battle-axe. Rev. Similar legend
in Kharoshthi characters. Viçvamitra standing, with r. hand raised ; ac-
ross field, Viçpa-mitra in Kharoshthi characters,
15. R. Çaka : Azilises. Rev. (Kh. ) Maharajasa rajatirajasa mahatasa Ayilishasa,
One of the Dioscuri standing.
1 All the coin-legends in this Plate are in Brāhmi, except when 'Kharoshthi'
is specially indicated.
;
.
9
## p. 486 (#524) ############################################
486
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
16. R. Kuninda : Amogbabhūti, Obr. Raño Kuņimdasa Amoghabhūtisa Maha.
rajasa. Deer to r. facing female figure ; above, symbol ; below, chaitya.
Rev. Similar legend in Kharoshthi characters. Chaitya surmounted by
nandipada ;r. , tree within railing 1. , svastika and another symbol.
17 R. Almora : Çivadatta. Obr. Railing with symbols between the posts. Rer.
Sivadatasa. Type uncertain (symbol or letter ? ); in margin, deer and tree
within railing.
18. Æ. Ujjayini. Obv. Elephant to r. Rer. Ujeni (ye] ; above, a hand.
19. Æ. id. Obr. Three-headed standing figure. Rev. The symbol usually found on
coins of Ujjayini.
## p. 487 (#525) ############################################
CHAPTER XXII
THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
The disintegration of the Maurya empire was followed by foreign
invasions. Now that the unifying power was removed, the frontiers could
no longer be held securely ; and the history of N. W. India becomes for
many centuries the record of successive conquerors who came along the
coutes which led from Bactria (N. Afghanistān) over the Hindu Kush into
the Kābul valley or from Ariāna (Seistān and Kandahār) over the Brāhūi
Mountains into Sind.
The first three of the series, who belong to the period before the
Christian era, are known in Indian literature and inscriptions as Yavanas
or Yonas (Greeks), Çakas or Sakas (Scythians), and Pahlavas (Parthians).
Like other invaders they are regarded by the Sanskrit law-books and epics
as degenerate Kshatriyas who had lost caste through their neglect of the
religious and social code, and they are supposed to be of Indian origin, the
descendants of Tarvasu : but their names alone are sufficient to prove
that
they were foreigners, and that they came into India from Bactria or from
Irān. -
The Yavanas are the launā of the Old Persian inscriptions of Darius,
which show that the Persians applied to all Greeks without distinction the
name of the Ionians of Asia Minor who were conquered by Cyrus in 545
B. C. Greek soldiers and officials formed no unimportant element in the
administration of the empire of the Achaemenids ; and it is not surprising
therefore to find that the Greeks were known in India at a time when
a large portion of the North-West was still under Persian rule. The
occurrence of the word Yavana in a grammatical rule of Pāṇini (Iv, 1, 49)
is a certain indication that it had been adopted into Sanskrit before the
middle of the fourth century B. C. Its Prākrit equivalent, Yona, is used in
the inscriptions of Açoka to describe the Hellenic sovereigns of Egypt,
Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus, and Syria ; and there can be little doubt that,
in all Indian documents earlier than the third century A. D. , the term denotes
a person of Greek descent, in spite of the fact that, like other foreign
487
## p. 488 (#526) ############################################
488
[CH.
SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
settlers in India, many of the Yavanas had become Hinduised and had
adopted Indian names. At a later date, foreigners generally are classed as
Yavanas.
On three occasions have Yavana conquerors occupied the Kābul
valley, the North-Western Frontier Province, and large portions of the
Punjab. The earliest of these episodes, the Indian expedition of Alexander
the Great, has for more than twenty-two centuries been celebrated in
the Western world as one of the most amazing feats of arms in the whole
of history. Of its progress detailed accounts have been preserved by
Greek and Latin authors whose information was derived from the writings
of officers who themselves took part in the events which they describe ;
and in all these accounts Alexander himself is the great central figure.
No personage of the ancient world is better known ; but of this great
conqueror the records of India have preserved no certain trace ; he had
failed to reach the Midland Country, to which the literature of the period
is almost exclusively confined.
On the second occasion, Bactrian princes of the house of Euthy-
demus, whose conquests began c. 200 B. C. , succeeded in rivalling and
in surpassing the exploits of Alexander; and on the third occasion,
Eucratides, who had supplanted the family of Euthydemus in Bactria,
deprived it of its possessions in the Kābul valley and of a portion of
its territory in N. W. India, before 162 B. C. (p. 411).
No connected account of these two rival Yavana houses has been
preserved ; and practically nothing is known about the personal character
or achievements of the leaders who directed the affairs of a period which
must have been full of stirring events. A few isolated references in
literature, Greek, Roman and Indian, a single Indian inscription, and
the coin-legends of about thirty Greek kings and two Greek queens
supply the evidence which enables us to retrace very imperfectly a few
outlines in the history of the successors of Alexander the Great in India
during the second and first centuries B. C.
For about a century after the treaty of peace between Seleucus and
Chandragupta, c. 305 B. C. , and half a century after the foundation of
the Hellenic kingdom of Bactria, c. 250 B. C. , the southern limit of the
Yavana dominions was marked by the Hindu Kush. This broad band of
mountainous country, which separates the great river systems of the
Oxus and the Indus, was thus also the political boundary between Bactria
and Paropanisadae (the Kābul valley and the country north of the Kabul
river now known as Laghmān, Kohistān, and Kāfiristān). The mountain
barrier, although a formidable natural obstacle, has never effectually
prevented intercourse between the two fertile regions which it divides.
In all ages it has been traversed by migrating tribes, by military expedi-
## p. 489 (#527) ############################################
XXII]
DIRECTION OF INVASIONS
489
B. C.
-
tions, or by peaceful traders and pilgrims. It was crossed by Alexander,
from the Paropanisadae to Bactria, in fifteen days, and recrossed in
eleven days. The routes which led from Bactria over its passes converged
at a point near the present Chārikār where Alexander had founded the
city of Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus ; and, so long as this strategical
position could be held, invasion was impossible. But already in 206
the expedition of Antiochus the Great had shown that the
way was now open ; and the object lesson was not lost. Within a few
years, the Bactrian king Euthydemus and the princes of his house began
their triumphal career, the first stage of which was marked by the occupa-
tion of the Kābul valley.
From Kābul ancient routes led, on the one hand, into the provinces
of Ariāna - Aria (Herāt) on the west, and Arāchosia (Kandahār ) on the
south-west-and, on the other hand, into India through Gandhāra
(Peshāwar and Rāwalpindi) on the south-east. It is probable that the
Yavana power expanded in all these directions ; but it was in the
second or third of these-to Arachosia and to India –that its progress
was most marked. In these directions it must no doubt have followed the
routes once trodden by the armies of Alexander the Great. The full extent
of the Yavana conquests is described by Strabo (XI, 516) who quotes
Apollodorus of Artemita, the author of a history of Parthia which has
been lost :
The Greeks who occasioned its (Bactria’s) revolt became so powerful by means
of its fertility and advantages of the country that they became masters of Ariāna and
India, according to Apollodorus of Artemita. Their chiefs, particularly Menander (if
he really crossed the Hypanis to the east and reached Isamus), conquered more nations
than Alexander. These conquests were achieved partly by Menander, partly by
Demetrius, son of Euthydemus, king of the Bactrians. They got possession not only
of Patalene but of the kingdom of Saraostos, and Sigerdis, which constitute the
mainder of the coast. . . . . . They extended their empire even as far as the Seres and
Phryni. (Trans.
