Dikhyaa Mohanty 
It is well said that – ‘A society with a stronger sense of its history and culture is likely to hold together better than one without it”. But with the tech-savvy generation and a world where everyone is just wanted to be ahead all the time, neglects their own history of their land. The fact that today’s generation is young and that’s why they are not made aware of their past, if we check Odisha’s history in the curriculum then it will notice that how flawed our history is in the academic line.
We all know that Odisha was once called ‘Kalinga’ but most people are not aware about Aira Maharaja Mahameghavahana Kharavela was one of the greatest kings of ancient India. He was the first great historical sovereign of ancient Kalinga who belonged to the soil and styled himself as Chetaraja-Vamsa Vardhana, and Kalingadhipati.
In history, it says that he owned many propitious signs on his body and was gifted with many qualities. At the age of 15, Kharavela became the Yuvaraja, or Crown Prince, to understand the burden of royal responsibilities. By that time he was already skilled in five main subjects, namely, Lekha or Writing, Rupa or Coinage, Ganana or Arithmetic, Vyavahara or Law, and Vidhi or procedure.
Kharavela worked as the Crown Prince for nine years and later after completion of the 24 years of his life, he was crowned as the king of Kalinga. He then began his marvellous rule as the king belonging to the third generation of his royal dynasty. He worked for the stability of his capital city Kalinganagari as the capital was earlier damaged by a severe storm that required repair and construction. In the first year, he repaired the gates, fortifications, and the structures of the fort of Kalinganagari. He also improved the conditions of the tanks and gardens for the beautification of the city.
At the time of Asoka, the capital of Kalinga was Tosali which was an ancient city in the present-day Odisha state in eastern India. On the other hand, Kharavela’s famous capital went by the name of Kalinganagara or Kalinganagari.
The archaeological diggings at Sisupalgarh, which is in the near region of both Asoka’s Dhauli Inscription and Kharavela’s Hatigumpha Inscription, acknowledged the permanence of a strongly entrenched site with protective walls, towers and gates. There are epigraphic shreds of evidence to propose that Kharavela’s Kalinganagari has dwelled near Bhubaneswar, or more specifically, within the near distance of Udayagiri Khandagiri hills.
In a concise period of his role as a king, Kharavela achieved glorious achievements in western, southern and northern India. He authenticated his domination over a large part of India raising thereby the status of Kalinga to that of an empire. Rightly, therefore, Kharavela has been defined in the Manchapuri Cave Inscription of his chief queen as the ‘Chakravarti’ monarch of Kalinga.
Pic Courtesy – Google
