History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c13.2

v1.c13.2

Shortly after the death of the great Maurya Emperor Aśoka, Kaliṅga threw off the yoke of Magadha and regained independence. It appears that an independent kingdom was founded in Kaliṅga long before the extinction of the Maurya dynasty by the Senāpati Pushyamitra. The only source of the history of the revival of Kaliṅga and the conquest of Northern India by a Dravidian power is the great rock inscription of King Khāravela on Udayagiri hill, a low range near Bhuvaneswar in the Puri district of Orissa. This inscription, unfortunately, is very much damaged and the first seven lines and certain portions only of the remaining ten can be read with any degree of certainty.