The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c30.114

v1.c30.114

The mention of a king Nanda, or of Nanda kings, in two passages of the Hāthigumphā inscription seems to supply a link of connexion between the histories of Kaliṅga 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 passages². 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., Kaliṅga 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)¹,’ the reference must be, in the former case, to a king called Nanda who was reigning over Kaliṅga 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.