Layout 3 - India Foundation for the Arts - IFA

Meghavahanas. Fortunately there is an
early inscription that provides a clue
to their identity. A king called
Kharavela ruling in Orissa in about
the first century BC issued a long
inscription, which is somewhat
autobiographical. His provides data on
his birth, his upbringing, where he
went, what he did, his conquests and
campaigns and the usual narrative of a
king’s life. He also claims to be an
ardent Jaina. All royal inscriptions
begin by giving the identity of the
king. The dynasty he belongs to, his
lineage and its origins are stated.
Therefore, Kharavela begins his
inscription by stating his identity as
Chedi and belonging to the
Meghavahana lineage.
Many dynasties claiming Haihaya and
Chedi ancestry established kingdoms
all along the Vindhyas and the river
Narmada in the early centuries AD.
They even used their own calculation
of time-reckoning that came to be
called the Chedi era beginning in the
equivalent of 248 AD. A number of
them were also patrons of the Jaina
sects. Dynasties claiming a Chedi
connection were a major political
presence in the region. This is the
same area where some of us have been
locating Lanka. A hint of this
connection between Ravana and the
Myth Retold – Romila Thapar
Chedis comes in indirect ways.
Ravana in Valmiki’s Ramayana is
frequently described as being like a
dark rain-laden thundercloud, like a
Meghavahana. One of Ravana’s claims
to fame was his aerial chariot. And
this was the boast of the Chedis,
referring to Indra’s gift to their
ancestor Uparichara.
Was Valmiki then retelling the story
of the conflict with Rama instead of
Sagara and Ravana instead of the
leader of the Haihayas and the
Chedis, demonising the latter into
rakshasas? Vimala Suri would have
had two reasons for writing a counterepic.
One was to de-demonise, as it
were, the rakshasas and show them as
part of the Meghavahana lineage of
the Chedi rulers who were patrons of
the Jainas; and the other was to
convert the popular rama-katha into a
narrative supporting Jaina teaching in
the same way as it had been converted
to the worship of Vishnu.
This period was the beginning of the
propagation of Vaishnavism by the
Bhagavata sect. It was a politically
important ideology because it
introduced the idea of the king being
an avatara of a deity. This is not the
same as the concept of divine will; it is
simply the belief that the king also has
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