Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c17.s2.14

c17.s2.14

³ JBORS, 1917, 432; *cf.* 1918, 377, 385. The older view was changed in 1927, 238, 244. According to the usually accepted interpretation of a passage in the Hāthīgumphā record Khāravela, in his fifth year, extended an aqueduct that had not been used for "*ti-vasa-sata*" since Nandarāja. If "*ti-vasa-sata*" is taken to mean 103 years, Khāravela's accession must be placed 103—5=98 years after Nandarāja. His elevation to the position of Yuvarāja took place 9 years before the date, *i.e.*, 98—9=89 years after Nandarāja (*i.e.*, not later than 324 B.C.—89=235 B.C.). Khāravela's father was apparently on the throne at that time, and he seems to have been preceded by his father. But we learn from Aśoka's inscriptions that Kaliṅga was actually governed at that time by a Maurya Kumāra under the suzerainty of Aśoka himself. Therefore "*ti-vasa-sata*" should be taken to mean 300, and not 103 years. The figure 'three hundred' (a round number) is in substantial agreement with the Purāṇic tradition about the interval between the Nandas and Sātakarṇi I, 137 (period of the Mauryas)+112 (of the Śuṅgas)+45 (of the Kāṇvas)+23 (of Simuka)+10 (of Kṛishṇa)=327.