Pic courtesy : Defenceforumindia
On the contrary, Kharavela is probably the only Oriya Emperor who even gets the slightest scrap of respect from our eminent historians.
Lel…
Just kidding. Sorry.
NO Oriya Emperor or King gets any respect from our eminent historians. Not ONE.
I think it was Krauthammer who once said that one of the reasons he preferred the company of Conservatives over Liberals was because while Liberals remained ensconced in their own delusions of erudition and paid no attention to dogma not of their own making, Conservatives- continually mocked and challenged for their beliefs since birth- had to be constantly honing their debating skills, learning the tricks and ploys of their opponents, learning never to bow in front of the overwhelmingly liberal superstructure in universities, and on the whole, never bowing their heads.
You won’t find many eminent Indian historians- to borrow Arun Shourie’s words- reading Oriya texts- but that doesn’t mean I, an Oriya, don’t read their propaganda.
Let’s crack open a book often described as the definitive guide to Indian history-Early India from the origins to AD 1300 by Ms Romila Thapar. Of the word base ‘Odra’- pertaining to the land called ‘Orissa’, and the language and people called ‘Oriya’, there is a grand total of ONE mention.
And that too in conjunction with Bengali, Marathi, and other mere ‘Hindu’ architecture.
As for Kharavela, he’s mentioned. Let’s listen to what Ms Thapar has to say about the guy:-
1- Kharavela used to ‘raid’ his neighbours. Yes, I suppose he moonlighted as a smuggler as well.
2- Kharavela’s description of his welfare and building programs is described as ‘ predictable rhetoric of Royalty’. Meaning the King of Oriyas and Emperor of India was a liar.
3- Kharavela proclamation of himself as a descendant of Chedi kings somehow means Ms Thapar sees him as the possessor of a ‘flying chariot’. Gods help us! What the fuck is a ‘flying chariot’ doing here? Kharavela doesn’t even mention normal chariots in his inscriptions!
4- ‘After Kharavela’s death, Kalinga lapsed into quiescence‘
FML.
5- I also observe something very interesting. Among the titles Kharavela claims is ‘Lord of the Aryans‘.
Think about this. We’re constantly hearing about how ‘India’ never existed before 1947. How there was no unity among the people of India. How we used to be divided into castes and tribes and all that crap.
And here we have Kharavela. This guy boasts of conquering all of India. He talks of starting great projects to benefit his people. He speaks of crushing Indo-Greek kings and exiling them. And then he conducts the Rajasuya yagna- mentioned clearly in almost every single Hindu text as the Yagna that demonstrates one’s domination of Aryavarta. And he ends with calling himself ‘Lord of the Aryans’.
Some will tell that Aryavarta refers to only North India. But let me remind you that Oriyas are only nominally North Indian. And Kharavela goes on and on about conquering Tamil kingdoms (which BTW also gives proof of the antiquity of Tamil monarchies) and Kannada and Maratha kingdoms.
Before ending with describing himself as Lord of Aryans
ONE LAND. ONE RACE. ONE EMPEROR.
In my opinion, Kharavela’s records are some of the most significant anywhere in the World at any possible time frame. Here we have established proof that Indian Emperors not only considered India to be a single country, to be under the rightful rule of a single Emperor but also were holding true to Iron Age customs that predated them by as many as two millennia. This demonstrates a continuity in thought and tradition that has rarely been matched anywhere in history.
And our eminent historians would have us believe that there are two races called ‘Aryans’ and ‘Dravidians’ and they fight with each other. For heaven’s sake- ‘Dravida’ is a Sanskrit word.
I don’t remember where I read it but at one point during the Chola-Kalinga wars, one Tamil King was mocking his Oriya counterpart that Oriyas have always been on the wrong side since the Mahabharata. The Tamils fought for the Pandavas; we fought under Duryodhana’s King Cobra banner.
Unless you might want to claim that only Oriyas are Aryans- but that would really throw a spanner in those tales of the pony-ridding blonde-haired, blue-eyed Nazis riding in the steppes, I’d guess.
Do you see this shit, Applejack?
BTW ever heard of the Chola Kalinga wars? Three multi-decade wars fought over two centuries over the entire Bay of Bengal from Burma to Sri Lanka which lead to the destruction of almost all coastal Andhra, a civil war in Sri Lanka, the destruction of an Oriya dynasty, a Tamil epic, and a great Oriya temple.
Ms Thapar as well as Ms Singh believe that never happened and that presumably, Oriyas and Tamils were just sitting around for two thousand years jerking off, waiting for the British to arrive.
A few days ago, there was a post on my timeline that the government is going to be funding Sanskrit education- which had many of my friends in arms because apparently learning Sanskrit is- what? Unfashionable? Uncool? Unnecessary?
Heard of the Yuga Purana? Ever cracked open your books and wondered what the fuck was happening in India outside the tiny corner of Punjab ruled by the Kushanas or whatever between the Mauryas and the Guptas? The Yuga Purana describes exactly that.
But, Rohit- you ask, aren’t the Puranas religious crap full of flying chariots and immortal kings and plastic surgery?
To which I reply- O, modernistas sipping venti strawberry-mocha in Starbucks!
1- There are ZERO Flying Chariots in the Yuga Puranas. It’s all about ‘this king killed this king and this army conquered this place and this minister built this place.’ No flying chariots. No gods. Nothing.
2- The book speaks jack about Macaulay’s ‘immortal kings’. In fact, I’d really like to know where these immortal kings are coming from. Even god-kings die fairly easily in Hindu mythology. How long do Macaulayputras think even Lord Rama ruled?
3- Plastic surgery was invented in India. As was vaccination. As was bone-setting.
Now go and sip your venti strawberry-mocha in peace. Leave me to my books. Men of my culture built great temples of stone that still proclaim defiance to time and rot and unfaith to this day. Your culture produced what? Corn syrup?
Guess how do we have the translations for this extraordinary work, the Yuga Purana?
We don’t. Seriously.
All we have are SCRAPS. Translated by an American amateur historian who used to work in the Calcutta embassy and used to tinker around with old Sanskrit works in his spare time. To this great hero, John Mithchiner, I bow my head in salutation. To this great defender of Aryan pride in the face of Marxist mockery, this hero of Indian Nationalism against the Liberal hordes, this foreign Indian, no amount of praise and honour will ever be enough. If I was ever anything more than a penniless student in the middle of nowhere, I’d have wished for at least a medal for Mr Mithchiner.
Now when Mr Mithchiner was burning midnight oil in defence of our long-dead ancestors, our eminent historians were busy claiming that Oriyas didn’t have coinage during the Mahameghavana era and were using punch-marked icons and foreign coins. How do we know this?
Because they haven’t found any coins yet.
Really?
Once in school, I made a mistake while working on BlueJ. Now imagine if I had gone up to my Professor and told him- Mr S., I fucked up bad. Which means the program is impossible and your questions are stupid.
How do you think Mr S. would’ve reacted?
He’d have cuffed me on the ear, failed me in that exam, made me kneel in the sun for the day, and called my parents. And Mr S. would’ve been right to do so. I don’t agree with Corporal punishment personally- but all the beatings I was given by my school teachers made me what I am and I am grateful to them for this. Hardship breeds Discipline.
Anyway- this is a map for Coin hoards for the Roman Empire.
How many dots do you think there are on that map? Three hundred? Four hundred?
Now as a rule of thumb, Gaul and Britannia had an economy probably half that of Egypt. And Egypt’s economy had often been compared to Bengal by both Mughal and British accounts over most of the 17th and 18th century.
So we can, within a reasonable degree, estimate that Mahameghavana Orissa- the centre of an Empire spanning all Aryavarta- had an economy the size of or maybe greater than Egypt. And we also know that the barter system had been on the outs in India since the late Iron Age, at the start of the Mahajanapada era.
So- assuming a great economy implies great liquidity- where are all the coins?
Where are the Mauryan coins? Where are the Sunga soins? Where are the Mahameghavana coins? You cannot run a sophisticated economy on clouds and hot air!
The laws of Economics NEVER change. Glory to the Austrian School. You haven’t found the coins? DIG HARDER.
I can go on and on and on about these blatant insults to scholarship and Aryans.
Where is the account of the Routray kings of Orissa- kings who drove th Tughlaqs and Sayyids behind the walls of Delhi and whose writ ran from the Yamuna to Padma to Krishna? Where is the account of the Kesaris who fought the Great Cholas on land and Sea to a standstill for a century? Where is the account of the Gangas, Lords of the East, who’ve built the greatest temples the East has ever seen and in whose fear, Delhi was putting garrisons of hundreds of thousands across the Doab?
And to any claims that there are no records, BULLSHIT.
Read about Gajapati Kapilendra Routray, before the extent of whose domains the so-called Delhi Sultanate resembled a pile of tiny villages. Read about Gajapati Narendra whose armies marched across North India at will. Read about Gajapati Shata and his Tribal allies who broke the Saka invasion of Magadha and ensured no Yavana crossed Mathura to touch the sacred waters of the Ganga. There are hundreds of thousands of such records lying around. Go tell your eminent historians to bring them out.
… rushed over the southern hills, the Red Clad kings, Slayers of Yavanas… Lords of Forest Tribes, Lords of Stone… Crushers of Foreigners…
-Ancient Magadha account of the Emperors of Orissa during one of their campaigns
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