page_title: History of Odisha
section_title: Kharavela
hierarchical_section_title: History of Odisha / Ancient Odisha / Kharavela
caption_attribution_description: English: hatigumfa rock inscription
context_page_description: The name Odisha refers to the current state in India. In different eras the region and parts of the region were known by different names. The boundaries of the region also have varied over the ages.
  Human history in Odisha begins in the Lower Paleolithic era, as Acheulian tools dating to the period have been discovered in various places in the region. The early history of Odisha can be traced back to the mentions found in ancient texts like the Mahabharata, Maha Govinda Sutta and some Puranas. In 261 BCE, Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty conquered the region in the bloody Kalinga War which was fought at the banks of River Daya near present-day Bhubaneswar. The resulting bloodshed and suffering of the war deeply affected Ashoka. He turned into a pacifist and converted to Buddhism. He sent peace emissaries to various neighbouring nations. Thus as an indirect consequence, the event caused the spread of Buddhism in Asia.
  The region was also known to other kingdoms in region of East Indies due to maritime trade relations.
  The year 1568 CE is considered a pivotal point in the region's history.
context_section_description: In the 1st century BCE, Mahameghavana established the Mahameghavahana dynasty in Kalinga. Kharavela was the third ruler of the dynasty. He reigned in the second half of the 1st century BCE. Most of the information about Kharavela comes from the Hathigumpha inscription in Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar. The inscription also calls the dynasty as Chedi (also spelled Cheti) The inscription records his life from his boyhood to his 13th regnal year.
  Reigning year 1–5 : Kharavela took up the administration after the premature death of his father as a yuvaraj (heir apparent). He ascended to the throne as a proper King when he came of age at 24, around c. 170 BCE, but the date is contentious by several decades. In the first year of his coronation, he repaired the gates and ramparts of his capital Kalinganagari which had been damaged by storm. In the second year, he invaded the territory of the Satavahana king Satakarni I and marching up to the Kanha-bemna river (possibly Krishna River) stormed the city of Musikas. In the 3rd year of his reign, he organized various performances of dance and music and delighted the people of the capital. In the fourth year, he again invaded the Satavahana kingdom and extended his political supremacy over the region. In the fifth year he is known to have renovated the aqueduct that was originally excavated three hundred years back by the Nandas.
  Reigning year 6–10 : In the sixth year, he remitted taxes and gave benevolences both in urban and rural areas of his kingdom. The account of his seventh year is not known. But that year his chief queen, Queen of Vajiraghara ("The Queen of the Diamond Palace") gave birth to a child. In his eighth regnal year he led a military expedition against Rajagaha (Rajagriha). By that time the Yavana (Indo-Greeks) who were in possession of Mathura were advancing towards Pataliputra. But getting the news of the triumph of Kharavela at Rajagriha the Yavana king had to retreat to Mathura. Kharavela pursued the Yavana ruler, Dimita (possibly Demetrius I) and purged them out of Mathura, which was an important seat of Jain religion and culture. In commemoration of this achievement, he built a victory palace in Kalinga at a cost of thirty-eight hundred thousand penas during the ninth year of his reign. In the tenth regnal year, he again invaded northern India the account of which is not clearly known.
  Reigning year 11–13 : In the eleventh year of his reign, Kharavela defeated the Dramira country which had been in existence for hundred and thirteen years before his time. In the twelfth year, he invaded northern India for the third time and advanced as far as Uttarapatha. On his return, he terrorized Magadha. Bahasatimita (a Shunga king), the king of Magadha surrendered and Kharavela brought back the statue of Kalinga Jina. Kalinga Jina was the statue of Rishabhanatha, which had been taken away from Kalinga by Mahapadmananda three hundred years back and its restoration was considered to be a great achievement of Kharavela. In his thirteenth reigning year, Kharavela excavated a number of cave-dwellings in the Kumari hills for the Jain monks and bestowed endowments for them. Jainism greatly flourished in Kalinga under the patronage of Kharavela. He was also extending liberal patronage towards other religious communities and earned great reputation as the worshipper of all faiths and the repairers of all temples. He also built the caves at Udayagiri and Khandagiri for Jain monks.
  The record stops at his 13th regnal year. It is presumed that he was succeeded by his son, Kudepasiri. The Mahameghavahana dynasty (or a successor Sada dynasty) probably continued to rule over Kalinga and Mahishaka as evident from the inscriptions and coins discovered at Guntupalli and Velpuru, Andhra Pradesh, which mention a series of rulers with the suffix Sada.
caption: Hathigumpha inscription of King Khāravela at Udayagiri Hills
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