The Mauryan Polity c6.s1.t2: Conquest of Kaliṅga?
The Mauryan Polity c6.s1.t2
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Conquest of Kaliṅga?
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It has been suggested that even the conquest of Kaliṅga was not the conquest of an independent province but only a suppression of a rebellion.¹ There is of course the evidence of the Purāṇas that the empire of the Nandas was as large and as extensive as that of the Mauryan empire at the commencement. We have already shown how the Kuntala province must have been a part of the empire of Magadha under the Nandas. There is again inscriptional evidence to show that Kaliṅga was also one of these provinces. In the course of a learned note on the Hathi-gumpha Inscriptions of Khāravela, R. D. Banerjea remarks: "Three centuries before Khāravela and two hundred years before Aśoka, Kaliṅga was conquered by Nanda I or Nandivardhana, the founder of the Nanda dynasty of Magadha. This invasion was not a mere raid and Kaliṅga continued under the Nanda kings at least for some time. This is proved by the mention of public works undertaken during the reign of Nanda I, who excavated a canal in this country."²
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¹ Vide P. T. S., History of Tamils, p. 140. Prof. E. J. Rapson seems to think that this was possible from his alternative statement 'or that it had revolted and was reconquered by Aśoka' (C.H.I., p. 315).
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² See line 6 of the inscription. Also J.B.O.R.S., III, pp. 502-3.
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We are not in possession of facts or figures which would definitely mark out the period when Kaliṅga threw off the yoke of the empire of Magadha, and whether it effected its independence even during the epoch of the Nandas or in the revolution effected by Candragupta Maurya or even later. If the Mauryan invasion of South India is an historical fact, and if Bindusāra’s conquests were mainly beyond the Vindhyas, then it is plausible to postulate a theory that Kalinga continued to be a part of the Magadha empire under the two first Mauryan emperors. But soon after Aśoka’s succession, the sturdy Kalingas declared independence. The emperor, though actuated by the principle of dharmavijaya, had no other option than to engage himself in asuravijaya by conquering them with sword and bloodshed. There is of course a view that Aśoka’s eclectic ethics were the consequence of Kalinga war, its horrors and atrocities. Though we do not hear of any other incident which made it necessary on the part of the Emperor to take arms it could not by itself be the starting point of enunciating the policy of peace and good-will. Aśoka must have possessed divine temperament from his early life, which enabled him to turn even sour things sweet. The peculiar character in him, viz., to girdle all around with music, the music of the heart, must have been an inborn characteristic and not the mere outcome of a particular incident or even a series of incidents.¹ Until it is proved on reliable evidence that Kalinga was an independent country at the accession of Aśoka, and that the latter pursued at the outset a policy of aggression and self-aggrandisement for enlarging the territorial limits of his empire, it is reasonable to presume that Kalinga continued to be a part of the empire of Magadha from Nanda I to Aśoka, and asserted its autonomy under Aśoka. This he put down with a strong hand, as befits the duty of an emperor of even of the Rājasattama type.
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¹ This seems to be also the view of Edmund Hardy. See Konig Asoka, p. 21 (last para.), published by Von Kirchheim & Co., Mains, 1913.
Linked texts (1)
- Purāṇa — Sanskrit