Senior BJP leader and former Minister Biswabhusan Harichandan’s recent description of Kalinga War as a myth has sparked off a controversy and attracted strong reactions from noted historians.

Harichandan, while addressing visitors at the Kalinga Pustakmela here recently, described the Kalinga War as a fictional. “Kalinga War is a work of fiction. It was written to heighten the power of Ashoka, which has run down the heroism of Odia people,” Harichandan said and questioned dying of one lakh soldiers in the battle.

“If one lakh soldiers were killed, the army strength must have been more than eight lakh and there must have been a powerful king.

But there is no mention anywhere regarding the king who led Kalinga kingdom,” he said.

But historians have contended that Harichanan’s study before making a statement on “the much-accepted history”.

Prof Pritish Acharya, a historian, said the edicts of Ashoka available across India, Pakistan and Afghanistan have mentions about the war and no historian has ever doubted that such war had not happened.

Acharya, however, said the figure of soldiers died is debatable.

Similarly, noted historian and Assistant Director of National Archives of India Dr Dasmohapatra refuted Harichandan, stating that two rock edicts in Pakistan have vivid descriptions of the war that had been fought in 261 BC. The inscriptions on the edicts provide a vivid description of the war.

“It was mentioned in Rock Edict No. 13 in Shahbazgarhi and Manasera that after Emperor Ashoka witnessed the slaughter on the battlefield of Kalinga, he regarded conquest by the dharma as best conquest.

He also directed his sons and grandsons to regard the conquest through the dharma, the law of justice. We have Ashoka not only retreating from warfare but also changing the very concept of victory.

 The exact location of Kalinga War was not inscribed in the rock edicts,” Dr Dasmohapatra said.

‘The Military History of Odisha’,  a book published by the Cosmo Publication, New Delhi has mentioned that the Kalinga War was fought between the Kalinga State and the Maurya empire led by Samrat Ashoka and King Anant Padmanavan, respectively, on the Dhauli foothills.

Among others, noted historians Prof Amiya Patnaik, Dr Bimalendu Mohanty, Atulya Chandra Pradhan and Prof Ashok Parida said historians have written about the Kalinga War from facts and not from their minds.