Hathigumpha inscription

The Hathigumpha Inscription ("Elephant Cave" inscription), from Udayagiri, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, was inscribed by Kharavela, the then Emperor of Kalinga in India, during 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha Inscription consists of seventeen lines in a Central-Western form of Prakrit incised in a deep-cut Brahmi script on the overhanging brow of a natural cavern called Hathigumpha in the southern side of the Udayagiri hill, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha. It faces straight towards the Rock Edicts of Ashoka at Dhauli, situated at a distance of about six miles.

The inscription is written in a type which is considered as one of the most archaic forms of the Kalinga alphabet, also suggesting a date around 150 BCE.

The inscription is dated 13th year of Kharavela's reign, which has been dated variously by scholars from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.

Hathigumpha Inscription at Udayagiri Caves is the main source of information about Kalinga ruler Kharavela. This inscription, consisting of seventeen lines has been incised in deep cut Brahmi script of the 1st century BCE, on the overhanging brow of a natural cavern called Hathigumpha, in the southern side of the Udayagiri hill. It faces straight towards the Rock Edicts of Ashoka at Dhauli situated at a distance of about six miles. It was introduced to the Western world by A. Stirling in 1820, who published an eye copy of it in Asiatic Researches, XV, as well as in his book An Account, Geographical, Statistical and Historical of Orissa or Cuttack and by James Prinsep, who deciphered the inscription. Prinsep's reading along with the facsimile prepared by Kittoe was Published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, VI (1837), where he erroneously attributed this inscription to a king named Aira. Towards the end of 1871, a plaster-cast of the inscription was prepared by H. Locke, which is now preserved in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Alexander Cunningham published this inscription in 1877 in the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Vol. I, and in 1880 R.L. Mitra published a slightly modified version in his Antiquities of Orissa, Vol. II.

...
Wikipedia