History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c16.s3.86

c16.s3.86

A very clever suggestion has been put forward by Dr. A. Banerji Sastri.³ The Hill of Barābar, called Khalatika in the Aśokan inscriptions, was known in the time of Anantavarman as Pravaragiri. It also had another name, which is incised in the rock in Brahmī characters, in two forms, Gorathagiri and Goradhagiri.⁴ The *Mahābhārata* refers to a hill of the same name as situated not far from Rājagṛha.⁵ According to Jayaswal’s reading of the Hāthīgumphā inscription of Khāravela, that king occupied Gorathagiri in the eighth year of his reign, in the course of his Magadhan campaign. A clause in the 7th–8th line of the inscription is read by Jayaswal as: “*Athame ca vase mahati senāya maha[ta-bhitti]-Goradhagirim ghātāpayitā Rājagaham upapīḍāpayati.*”⁶ This Jayaswal translates: “In the eighth year he (Khāravela) having got stormed (*sic*) the Gorathagiri (fortress) of great enclosure (lit. ‘wall’, ‘barrier’) by a great army causes pressure around Rājagṛha.”⁷ The word Goradhagiri, supposed by Jayaswal to exist at the end of the seventh line of the inscription, is not definitely legible in the reproduction to which he refers,⁸ but his reading is apparently supported by Konow⁹ and also by other competent authorities,¹⁰ and does not seem to be questioned in this particular. Banerji Sastri¹¹ suggests that Khāravela, known to be an earnest Jaina, was responsible for the expulsion of the Ājīvikas from the caves, the mutilation of the inscriptions of Aśoka and Daśaratha, and the carving of the façade of the Lomas Ṛṣi cave. He believes that the façade shows resemblances to those of the Jaina caves of Udayagiri, in one of which Khāravela’s inscription is found; he admits that these resemblances are not striking, but points specially to the monsters at the corners of the frieze of the Lomas Ṛṣi cave, which are very similar in design to those at Udayagiri, where the elephants are replaced by lotuses or lions.