Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela

Probable Archaeology

A long message about King Kharavela is carved in a cave near Bhubaneswar. It lists the towns he attacked and the pearls, jewels and elephants sent to him.

Hathigumpha means “Elephant Cave.” It is a cave cut into a hill near Bhubaneswar, in Odisha. Long lines are carved on its wall. They tell the story of a king named Kharavela [Sircar, 1965, p.213].

The words tell of things brought back from far away. Kharavela had elephants, jewels, and pearls brought here from a king of the Pandyas, to the south, after breaking a league against him [Jayaswal, 1930, p.88]. Kharavela also gave a kind of cloth called “China clothes” to monks - a fabric name, not a sign that the cloth came from China [Jayaswal, 1930, p.88].

Scholars care about this cave because it holds Kharavela’s own words. But the rock has big cracks. Some words are hard to read. Two scholars have read some lines in very different ways, so no one line is fully settled [Sircar, 1965, p.217].

For scholars

Even the writing’s age is debated. One study says it was cut in the early 100s BCE. A later study says it was cut near the end of the 1st century BCE, over 150 years after that first date [Sircar, 1965, p.213].

One damaged line matters most for trade. Early readers thought it named a port town. A later scholar read different letters there. He said the port-town reading cannot be trusted. Until the rock is read again, neither guess should be called the truth [Sircar, 1965, p.217].

Facts

Location
Hathigumpha ('Elephant Cave'), an artificial cave on the southern face of the Udayagiri hills, about three miles from Bhubaneswar, Puri district, Odisha
Language
Prakrit (Sircar: 'Prakrit resembling Pali')
Script
Brahmi
Date
First half of the 2nd century BCE according to the first editors, whose palaeographic range is 'not earlier than the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. or later than that of the 1st century B.C.' (Epigraphia Indica XX, pp. 74, 77); Sircar's edition instead gives 'Brahmi of about the end of the 1st century B.C.' (Select Inscriptions I, p. 213)
Edition
[Jayaswal, 1930, Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), pp. 71-89]
  1. *Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela, Udayagiri*. ed. K. P. Jayaswal, R. D. Banerji. 1930. public domain , Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), pp. 71-89 (Edited by K. P. Jayaswal and R. D. Banerji from the rock, the Patna Museum cast and their own impressions.)

Why it matters for trade

The record ties Kalinga to places far away. In the eleventh year the king destroys Pithumda, which the first editors identify with Ptolemy's Pitundra and call an important port; in the twelfth he carries off the wealth of Anga and Magadha; in the thirteenth, elephants, jewels, rubies and hundreds of pearls are brought to him from the Pandya king, and he gives 'China clothes' (silks) to monks. In the fifth year he restores a canal dug generations earlier. Every one of these lines is damaged and is read differently by different editors.

Scholar notes

Readings of the damaged lines are disputed. Jayaswal and Banerji read 'Pithumda' in line 11 and identify it with Ptolemy's Pitundra, 'an important port' (EI XX, p. 78); Sircar prints 'pothaṃ' there instead and records Barua's quite different reading of the same words (Select Inscriptions I, p. 217, n. 1). The two editions also disagree on date. Do not quote any single line as settled.

  1. *Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela, Udayagiri*. ed. K. P. Jayaswal, R. D. Banerji. 1930. public domain , K. P. Jayaswal & R. D. Banerji, Epigraphia Indica XX (1929-30), pp. 71-89; text of lines 11-13 at pp. 79-80; notes 34, 40, 42, 43 at p. 85; translation at pp. 86-89; geography at p. 78 (Read in the ASI scan of Epigraphia Indica XX on archive.org (item in.ernet.dli.2015.56671).)
  2. *Select Inscriptions Bearing on Indian History and Civilization, Volume I: From the Sixth Century B.C. to the Sixth Century A.D.*. ed. Dines Chandra Sircar. Calcutta: University of Calcutta. 1965 , No. 91, 'Hathigumpha Cave Inscription of Kharavela', pp. 213-221; language, script and dating at p. 213 with n. 1; variant readings of line 11 at p. 217, n. 1 (Later independent edition. Disagrees with Jayaswal & Banerji on the date and on several trade-relevant readings.)