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CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCES
285
In the main text of Khāravela’s record, we find that the effect of rhythm is heightened by a mathemetical progression of the volume of sound and that the main statement commences from the point where the climax is reached. In such a text as this, the verbs are bound to be sparingly used and a rhyming process is bound to play its part as will be evident from the following quotation : "Aireņa mahārājena mabāmeghavāhanena
cheta-rāja vasanena pasatba subha lakhanena chaturanta
rakhana-guna-upetena kalingādhipatinā siri khāravelena
pandarasa vasāni siri kaņāra sarīravatā kīļitā kumāra kīļikā.........”
Dr. Barua opines that: “The inscription is not the prose style of the Pali Tripitaka, nor that of earlier portions of the Jaina Āgamas, nor that of the Vedas, Brāhmaṇas, older Upanishads, Kalpasūtras, Niryuktas and Prātisākhyas. So far as its prose style goes, it stands out, in point of time, as a notable landmark in the literary history of India."
Taking the rhythmic prose style of the Hāthigumpha inscription into consideration, we may not be far wrong in concluding that it not only shows an improved but also a very new and advanced style compared to the simple and blank writings of the Asokan edicts, and this notable difference is not that of place but is that of time. We may ascribe a period of two centuries to this and place the Kbāravela inscription in the last quarter of the first Century B.C.
1. OBI, p. 172.
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