Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions/Place-Names and their Suffixes

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Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Tej Ram Sharma

Concept Publishing Company Delhi, 1978

The full text of this chapter has been converted into Wiki format by Laxman Burdak

Place-Names and their Suffixes

Place-Names and Their Suffixes

Now we shall arrange the place-names occurring in our inscriptions with their suffixes and discuss each one of them.

Place-names ending in Rastra

Rashtra1 (from √rāj) :

It is the oldest and biggest territorial term. In the Rgveda 2 and later Samhitas,3 it denotes 'kingdom' or 'royal territory', It is considered to be one of the Prakrtis (constituents) 4 and refers to a country.5 It was the name of a Commissioner's division under the Rastrakutas.6 In South India, under the Pallavas, Kadambas, and Salankayanas also it denotes only a district, if not a tehsil.7 The Samaranganasutradhara 8 says that 'all the rastra including nagara is called desa or mandala while nagara is excluded in janapada'.

It divides rastras into three kinds :

(i) Big : It consists of nine thousand and ninety villages, but some scholars say that the nine thousand and sixty four villages make a big rastra.9

(ii) Middle : It consists of five thousand, three hundred and eighty four villages.10

(iii Small : It consists of one thousand, five hundred and forty eight villages.11

It further discusses that seven cities should be established in each rastra.12

In place-names rastra is changed into :13

(a) Rāṭhā, as Maharashtra, Marāṭhā

(b) Rāṭ, at Mayarashtra, (=Mayarāṭ), Mirāṭ

It also changes into rāṭṭa,

Cf. Nāgiraṭṭa. Walde also derives it

from √rāj-(n.sg. rāṭ)

Sk. rāshtra : AV. rāstar-14


210 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

In ancient Indian history extending over several centuries, we do not find uniformity in the nomenclature of the different territorial and administrative divisions in the various kingdoms flourishing in different centuries and provinces. In the small kingdoms like those of the Pallavas, the Vakatakas and Gahadavalas we usually find reference to only one territorial division, the district variously called visaya or rastra.15

Following are the names with this ending :

1. Devarastra (देवराष्ट्र) (No. 1, L.20) :

It has been mentioned as ruled by Kubera one of the kings ruling in Southern Region who were subdued by Samudragupta. Dey 16 identifies it with the Maratha country (i.e. Maharashtra). Fleet and Smith are also of the same opinion. G. Ramdas slightly differs from them when he identifies Devarastra with modern Devagiri in the Dharwar district. 17 According to R.D. Banerjee 18 Devarastra is the name of a district or province in Kalinga. B.C. Law 19 identifies it with Yellomanchili taluka of the Vizagapatam district, which is also the view of H.C. Ray chaudhuri, 20 S.B.Chaudhuri, 21 Dubreuil and Bhandarkar. 22 This view is generally accepted at present. Earlier scholars held that Samudragupta made a round of the South crossing from the eastern to the western coast of India. But this involves serious difficulties about his potential relations with the Vakatakas. Now, scholars describe southern campaign of Samudragupta as confined to the eastern coast. Thus it becomes apparent that Devarastra was conterminous with Kosala (Sirpur). Tamralipti may have been included in Devarastra. 23

2. Mula-Nagiratta (मूल-नागिरट्ट) (No-28,L.2,L.8, L.15) :

L.2 of the inscription mentions a manḍala (sub-division) called Nagiratta (Nagiratta-mandalika) and later on refers to Mula- Nagiratta which seems to have been the headquarters of this mandala. It is clear from the inscription itself that Mula- Nagiratta was situated in the neighbourhood of Nitva-Gohali. 24

Mula-Nagiratta literally means 'Nagiratta Proper'. The word Nagiratta is the Prakritic form of Nagarastra meaning 'a country of the Nagas'.

3. Surastra (सुराष्ट्र) (No. 14, L.8, L.9) :

In L.8 Surastra is used in plural 25 while in L.9 it is an adjective of avani (land). 26 In this inscription great importance has been

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 211


attached to Surastra. After his conquests, Skandagupta deliberated for days and nights together as to whom should be entrusted important task of guarding the land of the Surastras. 27 At last he was satisfied by appointing Parṇadatta as a governor over this western 28 region.

Surastra corresponds with Southern Kathiawar with its Prakrit name Soraṭh. 29 Literally the name means a good country. It was so named probably on account of the natural fertility of the land, Sorath is well known for rich crops of all kinds, and splendid cattle. 30

Surastra 31 is mentioned in the Junagarh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman I (A.D. 150). It was governed by Pusyagupta, under Chandragupta Maurya and by a Yavana Tusaspa under Asoka. 32 The Puranas 33 and the Kavyamimamsa 34 mention it a country in the west while the Brhatsamhita 35 mentions it as a country in the South. It may be due to the different geographical units made by the authors of the Kavyamimamsa and the Brhatsamhita.

Under Gupta emperors Bamanasthali (modern Banthali) was the capital of Surastra, before Valabhi became its capital.36 The name Surastra also occurs in the Mahabharata, the Jatakas 37 , and several times in the Ramayana.38 It is also mentioned in Patanjali's Mahabhasya.39 In Kautilya's Arthasastra, Surashtras are mentioned as one of the corporations of warriors who lived by agriculture and trade.40 According to the Arthasastra the elephants of Surastra were inferior to those belonging to Anga and Kalinga. 41

In the medieval period,42 in three directions, Bhavanagar, Porabandar and Somanath (the famous temple) were the limits of Surastra.

Place-names ending in Bhukti

Bhukti (भुक्ति) (from √bhuj)

Literally it means 'enjoyment' or possession. 43 Bhukti denoted an administrative division smaller than a modern Tehsil or Taluka in the Deccan and M.P., but in Northern India under the Guptas and Pratiharas it denoted a unit as large as the Commissioner's Division in modern times.44 Thus


212 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Pratisthanabhukti consisted of only 12 and Kopparakabhukti of 50 villages in the Deccan under the Rastrakutas, 45 whereas under the Guptas the Pundravardhanabhukti comprised of the districts of Dinajpur, Bogra and Rajshahi, and Magadhabhukti included the districts of GayaandPataliputra. 46 Sravastibhukti under the Pratiharas included several districts in northern U.P. 47 The Bhuktis under the Pratihara empire appear to have been rather Commissioners' Divisions than provinces. 48 Bhukti is changed into hutias Jejakabhukti, Jejahuti. 49 The unit bhukti which so often appears in the inscriptions of the Gupta period as the designation of an administrative unit is not frequently found in the early medieval period. 50 The mention of a Nagara-bhukti is also made in Deo-Baranark Inscription of Jivitagupta II. 51

We find only one place name with the suffix bhukti which is detailed below:

Pundravardhana (पुण्ड्र वर्धन) (No. 28, L.I; No. 33, LL .1-2; No. 34, L. 2 ; No. 35, L.2; No. 36, L. 2;- No. 37, L. 2; No. 43, L. 14) :

This bhukti is mentioned in the Gupta epigraphs ranging from the years 124 to 224 of the Gupta era, i.e. from A.D. 443 to 543. It formed an integral part of Gupta empire during this period. According to Inscription No. 37, a noble man (kula- putra) Amrtadeva by name belonging to Ayodhya approached the local government of Kotivarsa of which Svyambhudeva was the governor, under the provincial government of Pundra- vardhana-bhukti, during the reign of Bhanugupta, and prayed that he might be given, by means of a copper-plate document in accordance with the prevailing custom, some rent-free waste lands. His prayer was granted.

General Cunningham 52 identifies Pundravardhana with the extensive ruins known as 'Mahāsthāngarh', 8 miles north of the town of Bogra. The river Karatoya was the dividing line between Pundravardhana-bhukti and Kamarupa. 53 According to Wilson, the ancient kingdom of Pundradesa included the districts of Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Malda, Bogra and Tirhut. 54 It seems to have been the biggest administrative division or province of the Gupta empire, divided into several visayas and mandalas of which twenty-four 55 are mentioned

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 213

in known epigraphs. In short Pundravardhana signified North Bengal

Pundravardhana, as the name suggests, was a settlement of the Pundras. 56 The first reference to the Pundras is found in the Aitareya Brahmana. 57 The earliest literary reference to Pundravardhana is to be traced in the Buddhist work, the Divyavadana, where it is mentioned as the easternmost city of India. 58 The Paundra country is mentioned also in the Brhat-sarhhita, 59 as situated in the east. 60 The Kavyamimamsa also mentions it as a Janapada in the east. In the inscriptions of Bengal the name Pundravardhana was changed into [[Paundra- vardhana]] in the early part of the 12th century, when it occurs first in the Manahali grant of Madanapala and remained in use till the end of the Sena rule. The Rajatarangini mentions Pundravardhana as the capital of Gauda which is also proved by a reference in Purusottama's lexicon (llth century A.D.) 61

The city lost its importance from the third quarter of the 12th century A.D. as the later Sena kings shifted their capital to Gauda in the Malda district. Towards the end of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th century A.D. Pundravardhana was occupied by the Muhammedans. 62

Place-names ending in Visaya

Vishaya (विषय) - According to Monier Williams it means a dominion, kingdom, territory, region, district, country, or abode and in plural it meant lands or possessions. 63 In the Astadhyayi 64 it denotes regions or provinces, called after their inhabitants, e.g. Saiba, the region of the Sibis ; Malavaka, the region of the Malava people; Rajanyaka, of the Rajanya tribe and so forth. 'The names according to Visaya seem to be based on the ethnic distribution of population over particular areas for the time being without reference to the form of government'. 65

The word Visaya in the sutra Visayo dese 66 is significant. Jainendra, Sakatayana and Hemacandra take it as rastra, and Vardhamana as Janapada. The Kasika takes it as grama-samu- daya. Katayayana and Patanjali interpret Visaya as being identical with Janapada in some cases, but their comments give the impression that even such geographical units as were

214 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

not a janapada were called Visaya. 67

If Visaya and Janapada had been identical, Panini would not have treated the former under a separate heading. 68 A Visaya denoted both a bigger unit having the status of a Janapada, and a smaller area which was but an estate. In the Rajanyadi gana, visaya denotes janapadas, while in the Bhauriki and Aisukari ganas, 69 it is landed property, the share of estate which was the source of livelihood.

In the post-paninian period, distinction between Janapada and visaya was lost, both being called by the same names, for example Angah, Vangah, Sumhah, and Pundrah. In some Jana- padas like Rajanya, the distinction was retained, as Rajanyaka denoted a visaya and Rajanyah, the Janapada of the Rajanya tribe. Similarly we have Vasatah, Vasatayah ; Gandharah, Gandharayah ; and Saibah, Sibiyah. Other smaller units were only visayas or estates like Bailvavanaka, Atmakameyaka, Bhaurikavidha and Aisukari-bhakta. 70

The visaya usually corresponded with the district of the modern administration. 71 Minor bhuktis, mandalas and the visayas were used to denote the same administrative division in many cases. 72 The district administration was well organised in the Gupta period. Some of the land-grant charters bear the seals of the district administration. 73 Sealings of the district administration of Rajagrha and Gaya have been found at Nalanda, showing that their correspondence to outsiders bore the impress of their official seals. 74

We have the following place-names ending in Visaya :

1. Gaya (गया) (No. 21, L. 7) :

A village named Revatika belonging to the Gaya visaya was granted as an agrahara to a brahmana, ostensibly by Samudragupta. 75 Gaya is at present headquarters of the Gaya district, 60 miles due south of Patna. It comprises the modern town of Sahebganj on the northern side and the ancient town of Gaya on the southern side. 76 Much has been written on Gaya, 77 all of which is not possible to discuss here. We will confine ourselves to the origin of the name Gaya and the importance of Gaya.

In the Rgveda Gaya is a proper name applied to a composex of hymns. 78 In the Atharvaveda 79 Gaya appears to be a

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 215

wonder-worder or sorcerer along with Asita and Kashyapa who later on transformed himself into Gayasura. 80 According to the Vayu Purana, 81 the city was named Gaya after an Asura, Gaya by name (Gayasura). Visnu killed this demon but granted him a boon that this city would be held highly sacred. According to R.L. Mitra, 82 this story is an allegorical representation of the expulsion of Buddhism from Gaya which was the headquarters of the Buddhist faith. Aurnavabha in explaining 'idam Visnur-vi Cakrame tredha nidadhe padam' 83 in the Nirukta 84 holds that the three steps of Visnu were placed on Samarohana, Visnupada and Gayasiras. The Mahabharata (III. 95 and VII. 64) describes the performance of sacrifices by Gaya 85 references to which 86 are also found in the Ramayana, 87 Bhagavata Purana 88 Brahmanda Purana, 89 Agni Purana, 90 Visnu Purana, 91 Vamana Purana, 92 etc. Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita 93 (I or II cent. A.D.) speaks of the Buddha's visit to the hermitage called 'the city of the royal sage Gaya', who was later conceived as a great giant. 94

We can find evidence of the importance of Gaya growing in the period subsequent to A.D. 750. At Gaya while we have only one inscription belonging to the Gupta period, we get numerous inscriptions belonging to the Pala period. 95 But these records are of not much use for the history of the town, they simply show that till the end of the twelfth century A.D. it was under the Palas. 96

The city played no major role in politics at any period of history but it was certainly a centre of religious movements of Buddhist and the Brahmanical Hindus. 97 Gaya which was the headquarters of Buddhist faith passed to the Hindus between the second and fourth centuries of the Christian era and by A.D. 637 when Hiuen Tsang visited the city it had become a thriving centre of Hindu Brahmanical religion. 98

The religious importance of Gaya is met with in the Mahabharata, 99 Ramayana 100 and Puranas. 101 The Gaya has a special religious importance with reference to the Sraddha cere- mony. 102

2. Khad(ta)para103 खाद(टा)पार (No. 29, L. 7) :

The inscription came from a place Dhanaidaha in the Katore subdivision of the Rajashahi district (in Pundravardhana). 103


216 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

So this visaya may be assigned to the Pundravardhana bhukti. The name of the district cannot be read with certainty. Sen 105 suggests three readings : Maha-Khushapara, Khada(ta) para, or Khusaspara. Banerji gives the reading 'Maha-khusapara. 106

3. Kotivarsa (कोटिवर्ष) (No 34, L.3; No.35,L.3; No.36,L.3; No.37,L.3):

It has been described as a visaya under Pundravardhana-bhukti. This reference clearly shows that the size of a visaya was smaller than that of a bhukti. The visaya of Kotivarsa occurs frequently in the epigraphic records of the Palas and Senas. 107 It seems to have comprised the southern part of the Dinajpur district, the northern portion of Rajashahi and probably also ,the eastern tracts of the Bogra district. 108 Its head-quarters was Diw-kot (Devakota or Devikota). 109 Yadavaprakasa identifies Kotivarsa with Devikotta. 110 The Vayu Purana also refers to a city of the name of Kotivarsa. 111

The Prakrit lexicon Paia-sadda-mahannavo describes it as the capital of Lata country. 112 The name is known to the Jain Prajnapana in which it is placed in Ladha or Lata. 113

Hemacandra 114 says that Kotivarsa, Banapura, Devikota, Umavana and Sonitapura are identical. Purusottama 115 agrees with Hemacandra with the only difference that he mentions Usavana in place of Umavana. Banapura is represented by Bangarh in the Dinajpur district, which still preserves the exten- sive ruins of a citadel known as Damdamah said to have been the fort of Devikota associated with the exploits of the mythi- cal king Bana. 116 Diw-kota or Devikota (wrongly read as Dihi- kota in the A-In-i-Akbari) was a mahal under the Sarkar of Lakhnauti (Lakshanavati). 117

The termination varsa is significant. It denotes a division of the earth as separated off by mountain ranges. 118 From the Puranas we know of such names as Harivarsa, Kimpurusa- Varsa and Bharata- Varsa. 119 Varsam in Panini 120 means the rainy season. We know that rains are connected with the moun- tains. So originally the divisions might have been made accord- ing to the rains in different areas. Rains being very important for agriculture affect the inhabitants of a certain area through- out the year. Later on the semantic development of the word came to denote a year. In India the seasons have been regard- ed to be important and hence they had often been used to


Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 217

denote the year. 121

4. Krmila (कृमिला) (No. 40, L. 5) :

The Visaya or district of Krmila also spelt as Krimila is mention- ed in inscription No. 40. According to D.C. Sircar "as the charter is spurious and seems to have been forged a few centuries after Samudragupta's time, it may or may not prove the existence of a visaya and therefore of a city of the above name in the fourth century. 122 But certain old seals found at Nalanda prove the existence of Krmila before the Pala occupation of Bihar. 123 The village Kavala in the Krimilavisaya known from one such seal can be identified with modern Kawali not far from Valgudar. 124 The visaya or district of Krmila is also men- tioned in the records of the Palas of Bengal and Bihar. 125

According to a tradition recorded in the Harivamsa, 126 Vayu Purana 127 and the Brahmanda Purana 128 Krmi, the son of king Usinara of the Puru dynasty, born of his second queen Krmi, was the lord of Krmilapuri. 129

In the Buddhist literature, we get various forms for the city of Krmila : Kimila, Kimmila and Kimbila. The name of an inhabitant of the city is given as Kimila, Kimmila or Kimbila. Malalasekera 130 recognises the spellings Kimila or Kimbila and Kimila or Kimbila, but prefers the forms Kimbila and Kimbila. Kimila can be the Pali form of Sanskrit Krmila (or Krimila), and Kimmila can be derived from the other Sanskrit variant Kirmila. 131 Two Suttas, the Kimilasutta and Kimilasutta, were preached by the Buddha when he was camping at the city of Kimila (Krmila) said to have been situated on the bank of the Ganga . The river is now at a short distance from the villages of Valgudar and Rajauna, on the site of which the ancient city stood. 132

M.S. Pandey 133 opposes the identification of Krmila with Valgudar on the ground that there is not sufficient evidence to prove this identification. Though Krmila is not referred to in early Pali literature, we find a city named Krmila mention- ed in the Anguttara Nikaya Commentary. 134 According to this commentary, the city stood on the bank of the Ganga. But now-a-days, the Ganga flows at some distance from this region which may be due to a change in the course of the river during so many centuries. The city was not very important and may have gradually disappeared. At present we do not find


218 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

any traces of the city : it may have been washed away by the Ganga. According to Pandey 135 the name of the modern village Kiul has some resemblance with the name Krmila and it is not unlikely that the city may have been somewhere in that locality.

Sircar is himself not sure about the identification of Krmila with Valgudar 136 and seems to prefer the claim of modern Kawali not being far from Valgudar Krmila. 137 But in the district Gazetteer of Monghyr it is the village of Kiul which is mentioned and not Kawali. Hence we prefer the view of Dr. Pandey.

The word Krmila means "a fruitful woman" or "a place full of worms" and the word Krmi forming its first part is sometimes also written as Krimi. 138

5. Lata139 (लाट) (No. 17, L. 3)

The district or visaya of Lata is here described as "pleasing with choice trees that are bowed down by the weight of (their) flowers, and with temples and assembly-halls of the gods, and with viharas, (and) the mountains of which are covered over with vegetation".

The country south of Mahi or at times south of the Nar- bada up to the Purva or so far as Daman, was called Lata and 'it corresponded roughly with Southern Gujarat'. 140 It comp- rised the collectorates of Surat, Bharoch, Kheda and parts of Baroda territory. 141

According to Prof. Buhler, Lata is Central Gujarat, the district between the Mahi and Kim rivers and its chief city was Broach. 142 Lata has been identified with Central and Southern Gujarat in the Rewah Stone Inscription of Karna. 143 We also find the Lata kingdom mentioned in other epigraphical records. 144 Latarastra 145 is identical with the old Lata kingdom of Gujarat, the capital city of which is stated in the Dipavarhsa to have been Simapura (Sihapura). 146 In the early days of the imperial Guptas, the Lata country was formed into an administrative province in the Latavisaya. 147 The Saktisangam Tantra places the Lata country to the west of Avanti and to the north- west of Vidarbha. 148

Lata is the same as the Larike of Ptolemy which lay to the east of Indo-Scythia along the sea-coast. 149 The word Lata is

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 219

derived from Sanskrit Rastra. 150 The Nagara brahmanas of Lata (Gujarat) are said to have invented the Nagari character which is believed to have been derived from the Brahmi alphabet. 151

6. Vaivya152 (वैव्य) (No. 40, L. 4) :

In this inscription the visaya of Vaivya is mentioned. The word Vaivya is inexplicable. We may, however, suggest that the term was possibly derived from Prakrit Vevva 153 which means 'fear' and hence Vaivya would mean 'fearful' or 'dreadful'.

Place-names ending in Mandala

Mandala (मण्डल)

Mandala is a territorial unit which is found in the inscriptions of many dynasties of the early medieval period. Originally it denoted in the Arthasastra and other legal texts, 154 a diplomatic circle of twelve neighbouring kings, some friendly and others unfriendly, in relation to a king desirous of conquest. The term could also be used for the territory under the possession of a feudatory. But in the Gupta period mandala is used for some kind of administrative division though in early medieval period its use was in feudalistic association. 155 In Chalukyan records, the governor of a mandala was usually called a Mandalesvara or Mahamandalesvara. 156 In the records of the Imperial Guptas it denoted a unit smaller than a Vithi. 157 Literally meaning a circle or round it denotes a district, province, country in general or it may signify a surrounding district or neighbouring state. 158

1. Nāgirattamandala (नागिरट्टमण्डल) (No. 28, LL. 1-2) :

Nagirattamandala formed a part of Daksinamsakavithi in Pundravardhana, the headquarters of the province of the same name. Mula-Nagiratta seems to have formed the headquarters of the Nagirattamandala 159 Nagiratta is a Prakritic form of Nagarastra.

2. Uttaramandala (उत्तरमण्डल) (No. 52, L. 7) :

Literally it means 'the Northern Mandala'. The province might have been divided into four mandalas in the four directions from the point of view of administration. The village Kāntedadaka is described to have formed a part of the Uttaramandala as mentioned in the record. 160


220 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Place-names with the suffix Pradesa

Pradesha (प्रदेश)

'Fleet translates it as 'place' 161 but the term has a specific use as an administrative division. Here it connotes a division 162 or may correspond with the word visaya used in the same context in the Eran Stone Boar Inscription of Toramana. 163 In modern usage pradesa signifies a province.

In our inscriptions we find only one place-name termed as Pradesa.

Airikina (ऐरिकिण) (No. 2, L. 25) :

It has been described here as the bhoga-nagara of the king (svabhoga-nagara). 164 In this context the use of the phrase 'Sva- bhoganagara' is important. K.P. Jayaswal 165 interprets 'svabho- ganagara' as a town that had, since the victory scored by the Gupta king at Eran, become his direct personal possession. Fleet translates it as 'the city of his own enjoyment'. 166

Dasaratha Sharma 167 explains it as analogous to the word 'Ekabhoga' defined in the Manasara as a town or village inhabited by a single land-holder along with his dependants. 168 It is 'Svabhoga' for the master and 'Ekabhoga' for others'. Sharma connects this 'Svabhoga' with a feudatory 'who lived therein with his family and dependants, and on whom Samudragupta, pleased by his 'devotion', policy, and valour' conferred the litle of Rajan and the accompanying glories of consecration, etc. described in verse 4. 169 But Sharma seems to be incorrect in associating the inscription with a feudatory, the inscription belongs to Samudragupta himself which is clear by further description in subsequent verses. 170 No doubt in the Eran Stone Boar Inscription of Toramana 171 the word 'sva-visaya' an adjectival clause of Airikina is used to refer to a feudatory, which is very clear from the inscription.

The editor 172 also, following Sharma, is misled and ex- plains the term 'Svabhoga' as implying a grant, or something like it by the governor of the province, who had for his own salary the revenues of the city of Airikina allotted to him. 173 But the term 'Svabhoganagara' is significant in connoting royal status, higher than that of a feudatory chief and can mean 'the capital city' where the king himself was residing. In contrast, in the Eran Stone Boar Inscription of Toramana 174 the

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 221

term 'Sva-visaya' has been used for the feudatory Dhanyavisnu (of king Toramana) who may have been a visayapati, the administrator-incharge of Eran.

Airikina is the same as modern Eran, the ancient Airikina, a village on the left bank of the Bina, in Sagar District of Madhya Pradesh. From the Copper Coins of the Asokan period found at Eran, we get an earlier Pali or Prakrit form of the name which is Erakana or Erakana or Erakana. 175 It is thus clear that Erakana or Erakana is the simplified form of Erikina : to simplify still more the medial letter 'k' has been dropped by the process of elision. 176 The meaning of the word Erikina is a puzzle but its connexion with eraka 'a kind of grass, 177 found in that area may be accepted as a hypothesis.

Place-names ending in Desa

Desha (देश)

It means a province, country, kingdom. 178 Sometimes it is used as a technical territorial term. But its exact meaning and bearing are difficult to explain due to the fact that sometimes it is described as bigger and at others smaller than other geographical divisions, such as mandala, rastra and visaya. 179 We find only one reference each in the Brahmanas 180 and the Vajasaneyi Samhita. 181 The passage in the Vajasaneyi Samhita is significant in as much as here for the first time, desa is used in the sense of a 'country'. We find a reference to the river Sarasvati as flowing in the Madhyadesa or 'Middle Country'. The term was much in vogue in the Upanisad and Sutra period denoting therein the meaning 'land'.

1. Mleccha-desa (म्लेच्छा-देश) (No. 14, L. 4) :

There is a mention of the Mleccha countries in the Junagarh Rock Inscription of Skandagupta (No. 14). But the record does not refer to any boundary of the Mlecchas. 182

2. Sukuli-desa सुकुलि-देश (No. 5, L. 4) :

It will literally mean 'a country possessing noble families in it'. It seems to have been a place near Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh.

Place-names ending in Rajya

Rajya (राज्य)

Rajya means a kingdom, country, realm (=rastra). 183


222 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

In the Vedic period the term 'Rajya' regularly denoted sovereign power. In addition to this there were other expressions referring to sovereign power.184 In the ritual of the Rajasuya, the Aitareya Brahmana 185 gives a whole series of terms: Rajya, Samrajya, Bhaujya, Svarajya, Vairajya, Paramesthya, and Maharajya.

We find only one name ending with this suffix in our inscriptions which is given below :

Airavata-go-rajya (ऐरावत-गो-राज्य) (No. 35, L.9) :

The name is not clearly legible. But D.C. Sircar takes the reading to be 'Airavata-go-rajye'. Airavata-go-rajya may literally mean 'a kingdom where elephants and cows are found'. 186 It was situated in the visaya of Kotivarsa which formed a part of the Pundravardhana bhukti. 187

Place-names ending in Vithi

Vithi (वीथि)

It is spelt both as vīthī and Vīthi and means a row, line, road, way or street. 188 But in the inscription it has been used to refer to an administrative division. It seems to have been smaller than a visaya (district) and bigger than a mandala. 189

We find only one name with this suffix in one inscription which is given below :

Daksinamsaka-vithi दक्षिणांशक-वीथि (No. 28, L. 1) :

Literally it means 'a road forming the southern part' of the city. It seams to have formed part of the Pundravardhana district and Nagirattamandala was included in it. 19

Place-names with the suffix Patha

Patha (footpath) (पथ)

'Patha' in Zend. The Sanskrit spelling (th) is loaned from Iran. Greek relatives are patos (path) and pontos (mariners' path, sea-route : sea). Initial p is dropped in old Irish : pathin (path) and pons (bridge) recur as ath (ford)'. Russian pant (path) and pent (ford). 191


Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 223

Monier Williams derives it from √panth to go, to move. It means a way, path, a road or route. 192 In the Samaranga-Tiasutradhara 193 we find the word 'Jangha-patha (foot-path)'. The suffix 'patha' has been used as early as the later Vedic period. 194 Originally patha meant 'a path', 'a road' but later on it came to denote 'a country'. Even now-a-days, the suffix 'road' is used for inhabitations and localities.

Following are the place-names ending in this suffix :

(1) Adyapatha (आद्यपथ) (No. 43, L. 23) :

It was situated to the east of a village called Gulmagandhika. 195 Literally Adyapatha means 'the first route'. It seems to have been a small area like a mohalla.

(2) Daksinapatha (दक्षिणापथ) (No. I, L. 20) :

According to inscription No. 1 all the kings of the region of the north were conquered by Samudragupta who attained great fame by liberating them. 196 The kingdoms specifically named as included in the southern region are : Kosala, Mahākāntāra, Kurala, Pistapura, Kottura, Erandapalla, Kanci, Avamukta, Vengi, Palakka, Devarastra and Kusthalapura. 197 "The earliest epigraphical mention of the Daksinapatha is found in the Nanaghat Cave Inscription (Second half of first Century B. C.). 198 It later appears in the Junagarh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman (A. D. 150) 199 as also in the Nasik Cave Inscription of Vasisthiputra Pulumavi (A.D. 149). 200

Literally it means 'the path or road leading to the south' and in short the 'south country'. As a designation of the Deccan, 201 the term is found as early as the Baudhayana Dharmasutra. 202 A similar expression is Daksina pada, 'with southward foot', occurring in the Rgveda, 203 and refers to the place to which exiles are expelled. 204 Thus the term denoted 'South' beyond the limits of the recognised Aryan world.

In the Buddhist literature originally the name seems to have been restricted to a remote settlement on the Upper Godavari. 205 Some hold that it was situated to the south of the Narbada and was identical with the Dakhinabades of the Greeks.206

According to the Yadavaprakasa, Daksinapatha is the name of the country to the south of the Vindhyas and includes Pandya, Kuntala, Chola, Maharashtra, Kerala, Kulya, Setuja,


224 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Kulakālaka, Isīka, Shabara, Aratta and other countries. 207

Rajasekhara places it ahead of Mahishmati. Countries situated in it are : Maharashtra, Mahishaka, Ashmaka, Vidarbha, Kuntala, Krathakaishika, Sūrpāraka, Kanchi, Kerala, Kavera, Murala, Vanavāsaka, Simhala, Choda, Dandaka, Pandya, Pallava, Ganga, Nāshikya, Konkana, Kollagiri, Vallara, etc. 208

Thus we see that Daksinapatha in later times came to represent more or less the whole of the south.

Place-names with the suffix Pura

Pur or Pura (पुर)

Pur is a word of frequent occurrence in the Rgveda. 209 The early Vedic Aryans were not city builders. Puras 210 which are mentioned from the context seem to have been always associated with the dasyus and the enemies of the Aryans. 211 Pura, the oldest Sanskrit word denoting city, is usually derived from the Dravidian ur (उर) . From what we read in the Rgveda about Puramdara's exploits in connection with the destruction of the ninety -nine puras of the Asuras who had been causing havoc to the gods, these puras seem to refer to the cities of the Indus Valley pre- Aryans. 212 But the -word ur is not available in Dravidian lexicons : on the contrary it is pura which is mentioned by them. 213 The word ur is not to be traced in the I.E. languages. 214 We find Ur only as the name of a town in Babylonia. 215 In Tamil country, in the inscriptions of the Chola dynasty (A.D. 900-1300) the word ur is used to refer to The Primary Assembly of the villagers in the case of ordinary villages while in the same context the word Sabha is used in case of Agrahara villages, mostly tenanted by learned brahmanas. 210

In the later Vedic literature 217 the word Pur meant 'rampart', 'fort', or 'stronghold'. The meaning of Pura as 'city' developed later and was not at all in vogue in the Vedic literature.

Lexicons define it as a place containing large buildings surrounded by a ditch and extending not less than one Kosa in length, if it extends for half that distance it is called a kheta; if less than that, a karvata or small market town, any smaller cluster of houses is called a grama or village. 218 The Sama-


Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 225

rāngaṇasutradhāra describes puras as being of three kinds Big, middle and small which have different measurements for their ditches, buildings, streets and road-ways. 219 The big one possesses a circumference of four thousand arcs, the middle of two thousand arcs and the small of one thousand arcs. 220 T.Burrow derives pura from √pri to fill Piparti 'fills': pur 'city': Lithuanian pilis (l becomes r). 221 We find the word being spelt in two ways pur 222 and pura 223 Pur (city), from puru (much) and purna (full) means 'plentitude' or multitude of settlers. Similarly Greek polis (city) from poly (much) : Latin populus (population, people) from plenus (full), and English folk from full. Pur is the city and purusa the citizen. Greek polites (citizens), is preserved in politics (civic concerns), police (city administration), and cosmopolitan (citizen of the world) : Lithuanian pilis (fort, castle). 224 In modern times the word purā (from pura) is used for mohalla in India. It seems to be the result of Muslim contact. 225

Pura, where it does not retain the original from pur, is changed into the following 226 :

  • (b) Urs or ur, as Māyāpura, Mayura; Simhapura, Singur;

Juskapura, Zukur

  • (c) Or, as Traipura, Teor; Candradityapura, Caindor
  • (d) Ora, as Ilbalapura, Ellora
  • (e) Ore, as Lavapura, Lahore
  • (f) Ola, as Aryapura, Aihole
  • (g) ar, as Kusumapura, Kumrar
  • (h) aur, as Siddhapura, Siddhaur
  • (i) Own, as Hiranyapura, Hindoun or Herdoun

There are many names with the suffix Pura in the Astadhyayi, Patanjali's Mahabhasya and the Kasika. 227 The word Mahapura in the Yajurveda Sarhhitas 228 and the Brahmanas 229 denotes a great fortress. Probably the only difference between the Pur and Mahapura was in their size. 230

Following are the place-names ending in the suffix pura:

(1) Ajapura (अजपुर) (No.l2, L.25) : In Inscription No. 12, we find the mention of the town of Aja-

226 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

pura. The name of the visaya of which it was a part has been damaged. Since the column bearing the inscription was originally found in front of the northern gate of the old fort of Bihar, 231 we can easily identify Ajapura with the modern village of the same name in the Rajagrha visaya which is not very far from Nalanda. 232 The name of the visaya which included this town can possibly be restored as Rajagrha in the damaged part of the inscription.

(2) Candrāpura 233 (चंद्रापुर) (No.l6, L.5) :

It is the name of Indrapura. See Indrapura.

(3) Dasapura (दशपुर) (No. 17, L.4, L.I 6) :

In this inscription L.4 refers to the migration of a guild of silk-weavers from Lata visaya (Central and Southern Gujarat) to the city of Dasapura. The guild came to this city attracted by the virtues of its kings. 234 The inscription refers itself to the reign of king Kumaragupta, under whom Bandhuvarman, the son of Vishvavarman 235 was the governor at Dasapura. L. 16 of the inscription records that it was under the governorship of Bandhuvarman (in Malava era 493-=A.D. 437) 236 , that a lofty temple of the Sun-god was caused to be built by the guild of silk-cloth weavers at Dasapura. 237 Afterwards, under other kings, part of this temple fell into disrepair. And then it was restored by the same guild in the year 529 of the Malava era (AD=473).238

Dasapura has been identified with Mandasor in Western Malwa 239 formerly in the Gwalior State. The ancient Dasapura stood on the north or left bank of the Siwana, a tributary of the river Sipra. 240 We also find it mentioned in the Mandasor Fragmentary Inscription of the time of Adityavardhana (A.D. 490-500). 241 Under the Imperial Guptas the use of the Malava or the Krta era seems to have been confined to Dasapura. 242 Thus Dasapura may have been the main city of the Western Malavas. We also get a reference to Dasapura in the Brhatsamhita 243 and the Meghaduta 244 of Kalidasa.

The ancient Sanskrit name Dasapura also occurs in an early Nasik inscription of Usavadata, 245 and in one inscription of Vikram Samvat 1321 (=A.D. 1264) from Mandasor itself. 246

There are two explanations of the name Dashapura or Dasor. The local explanation is that the place was originally a city of

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 227

the Puranic king Dasaratha. But, on this view, the name of the city should have been Dasarathapura or Dasarathore. Fleet points out that even now, the township includes some twelve to fifteen outlying hamlets or divisions (Khilchipur, Jankupura, Rampuriya, Chandrapura, Balaganja, etc.) and that 'when it was originally constituted, it included exactly ten (dasa) such ham- lets (pura)'. 247 This view of Fleet is more appealing.

Mandasor, the full form of the name of the town by which it is officially known and which is entered in maps, is also explained in two ways:

As suggested by Bhagwan Lal Indraji, it may represent Manda-Dasapura, "the distressed or afflicted Dasapura," referring to the overthrow of the town, and the destruction of the Hindu temples in it, by the Musalmans, in memory of which, even to the present day, the Nagar brahmanas of the area do not drink water there. This is supported by the fact that some pandits still call it Mannadasor. 248

F.S. Growse suggests that the name combines the two names of Mad and Dasapura: the former 249 being the name of a village (also called Afzalpur) about eleven miles south-east of Mandasor, from which, it is said, were brought, from ruined Hindu temples, the stones that were used in the construction of the Musalman fort at Mandasor. 250

It is very difficult to choose between the two explanations, but the second seems to be more reasonable.

(4) Indrapura (इंद्रपुर) (No. 16, L.5, L.6, L.7, L.8) :

The inscription states that an endowment was given by a brah- mana named Devavisnu for the maintenance of a lamp in a temple of the Sun established by the merchants of the town of Indrapura kshatriyas named Achalavarman and Bhrukunthasimha at Indrapura.

In line 5 we get 'Candrapuraka-Padma' as the reading taken by Fleet 251 and he thus considers it a separate town than Indrapura. 252 But the correct reading should be as 'Cendra-puraka-Padma', since we find a small stroke by the left side of 'c'. The stroke in other lines for 'e' is very clear (e.g. in L.2) though it is not very clear in L.5 still we cannot read it simply 'c'. The reading 'ce' for 'c' has been suggested by Sircar and Jagannath. 253 Thus we see that the Padma referred in line 5

228 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

of this inscription also belongs to Indrapura.

Now we find two different spellings of Indrapura in lines 5 and 6 and Indrapura in lines 7 and 8. 254

What we can find out here is that the affix 'ka' in lines 5 and 6 is very important which seems to have grammatically a succinct purpose here. The vrddhi of the first vowel T was desirable here as is also clear by the use of affix 'ka' in the Allahabad Inscription of Samudragupta. 255 So it is a weaker form of the affix 'ka', without vrddhi of the vowel in the first syllable. 256 The writer seems to have used the long vowel (with the last syllable of Indra) instead of vrddhi in the first syllable to avoid confusion between Aindrapura and Indrapura. We do not find any such example of the elongation of vowel in the classical Sanskrit literature though we find its rare use in Vedic literature. 257 So we shall translate 'Indrapuraka Padma' as Padmā of (the town of) Indrapura and 'Indrapuraka-vanigbhyam' as 'merchants of (the town of) Indrapura'. This Indrapura is the same as modern Indor, 258 near Dibhai, Bulandshahr district, U.P. 259 The ancient town of Indrapura was situated on a large and lofty mound about five miles to the north-west of Dibhai. 260 Now-a-days it is only a kheda or deserted mound, and is not shown in maps 261

(5) Kartrpura (कर्तृपुर) (No.I, L.22) :

Though the most accepted and correct reading is Krtrpura, some scholars prefer to read Katṛipura 262 or Kātripura. 263

It is one of the five frontier kingdoms 264 mentioned in the inscription whose kings did homage and paid tribute to Samudragupta. Scholars differ in their views about the identification of this place-name :

According to smith, 265 this kingdom 'occupied the lower ranges of the western Himalayas, including probably Kumaon, Garhwal, and Kangra'. Oldham 266 holds that the kingdom of Katripura, included Kumaun, Almora, Garhwal and Kangra. Fleet 267 suggests that the name may survive in Kartarpur in the Jullundur district.

We prefer the view of Dasaratha Sharma. 268 His contention is that amongst the five frontier kingdoms mentioned in the inscription, the first three belong to the East, the fourth one belongs to the North, hence it will be better to leave aside

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 229

the northern and eastern sides of the empire and to look for Kartrpura somewhere to the west of the Gupta dominions. Consequently he finds Karor or Karur to be a good equivalent for Kartrpura. 269 Kara here stands for Kartr and 'ur' or 'ur' would stand here for pura. 270 Karur, again, is to be preferred to the other alternatives on account of its associations with the Gupta period of Indian History. According to Al-Beruni, an eastern king, called Vikramaditya, put to flight and killed a Saka ruler in the region of Karur, between Multan and Loni. 271 This Vikramaditya is to be identified with Chandragupta II 'the enemy of the Sakas', who disguised as his brother's wife, Dhruvasvamini, 'ripped upon the belley of the Saka ruler', and destroyed the Saka army, most probably, in Kartrpura or Karur. 272

This was the first encounter between the Sakas and Vikramaditya, and Karur, Karor, or Kartrpura was the theatre of the war because of its intermediate position between the Saka dominions and the Gupta empire. 273

(6) Kripura (क्रीपुर) (No. 52, L. 1) :

Krīpura was the place from which Vainyagupta issued his land-grant in A.D. 507-08, was evidently the seat of his government. 274 It was the victorious camp full of great ships and elephants and horses (situated). 275 The place is of unknown identity, 276 but is possibly to be looked for in Bengal. 277 Literally the name can mean a 'market-town'.

(7) Kusthalapura (कुस्थलपुर) (No. I, L. 20) :

Kusthalapura ruled by Dhananjaya is mentioned as one of the Daksinapatha kingdoms subdued by Samudragupta. Smith takes it to be a mistake for Kusasthalapura, 278 and identifies it with the holy city of Dwarka, the capital of Anartta, i. e. North Gujarat. 279 Raj Bali Pandey also identifies it with Kusasthall (Dwarka). 280 G. Ramdas locates the place in Gujarat following Smith. 281 Monier Williams also identifies Kusasthala with the town of Dwarka. 282 Bhandarkar, following Barnett identifies the place with Kuttalur near Polur in North Arcot. 283

This Kusasthall is not situated in Gujarat but presumably on the eastern spurs of the Vindhya range near Daksinakosala. 284 It was the capital of Kusa, son of Ramacandra. 285 But its

230 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

position in the list of the States of Daksinapatha indicates a place a little more to the south.

By the process of Haplology, 286 Kusasthalapura is simplified into Kusthalapura which may be changed to Kusasthali or Kusavati in short.

The suffix sthala or sthall is significant : it suggests a high- lying country, an eminence, tableland, or dry-land as opposed to a damp low-land. 287 The Mahabharata, Harivamsa, early Jain and Pali literature use the word in this sense. 288 The Mahabharata mentions both Kusasthala as well as kusa-sthall. The latter is supposed to be another name of Dwarka. 289

(8) Pataliputra (पाटलिपुत्र) (No. 7, L. 12; No. 6, L. 4; No. 1, L. 14) :

It is the same as modern Patna situated to the south of the river Ganga. Inscription No. 7 refers to Pataliputra. Inscription No. 6 mentions Virasena, the child of Kutsa, the minister for peace and war under Chandragupta II, who knew the meanings of the words, and logic, and (the ways of) mankind, who was a poet and who belonged to (the city of) Pataliputra. 290 Inscription No. 1 mentions a city named Puspa where Samudragupta enjoyed playfully while he was young. 291 Apparently, the city was the Gupta capital. We also find the word Pataliputa (Pataliputra) used by Asoka, in his rock edicts. 292 The city was also known as Kusumapura due to the abundance of flowers. 293 Its name Puspapura is also met with in the Raghuvamsa. 294 It is mentioned in the Mudraraksasa as well. 295 The Kathasaritsagaraof Somadeva 296 (llth century) describes it as a place of both wealth and education though generally there is a fight between Sri (Laksmi) and Sarasvati. 297

The Kavyamimamsa of Rajasekhara (A.D. 900) mentions a tradition that there were assemblies of scholars called brahma- sabhas, organised by kings, which examined poets like Kalidasa, Bharṭrmaṇṭha, Amara, Rupa, Aryasura, Bhāravi and Candragupta in Viśālā (Ujjaini) and where such great masters of grammar as Upavarsa, Panini, Pingala, Vyaḍi, Vararūci and Patanjali were examined in Pataliputra and attained fame. 298

The Manjusrimulakalpa 299 (A.D. 800) mentions Pataliputra as Nandanagara. This work refers to king Nanda, his learned Council of brahmana philosophers and to his intimacy with Panini. "After him (Surasena) there will be king Nanda

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 231

at Puspa city. In the capital of the Magadha residents there will be brahmana controversialists and the king will be surroun- ded by them. The king will give them riches. His minister was a Buddhist brahmana, Vararuci, who was of high soul, kind and good. His great friend was a brahmana, Panini by name". 300

The Kasika 301 records two divisions of Pataliputra :

1. Purva-Pataliputra (eastern on the Ganga)

2. Apara-Pataliputra (western on the Sona)

Patanjali 302 mentions the western Pataliputra. A citizen of Pataliputra was called Pataliputraka.303

The city is named as Palibothra by Megasthenes, the Ambassador of Seleucus Nicatorat the court of King Chandragupta Maurya. 304 The Pala inscriptions refer to it by the name Srinagara. 305

The termination 'Putra' in Pataliputra is difficult to explain. We find it being used with 'Brahman' to denote the river 'Brahmaputra'. As regards places-names we find the mention of Satiya puta (Satiya-putra) and Kerala-puta (Kerala putra) in Asokan Rock-edicts. 306

The name Pataliputra is taken to mean "the son (putra) of Pāṭali, i. e. the trumpet flower. The words Puspapura and Kusumapura also mean 'a city of flowers'. The word 'Srinagara' means 'a beautiful city'. 307 Because of the abundance of flowers the city may have looked beautiful. It was known by other names also, viz., Puspapura, Puspapuri and Kusumapura. 308 According to Yuan-Chwang, it had been called Kusumapura (K' u-su-mo-pu-lo) on account of the numerous flowers (kusuma) in the royal enclosure. 309 Later its glory was replaced by that of Kanyakubja which came to be known as Kusumapura. 310

The meaning of 'Pataliputra' is explained in the legendary origin of the city. According to the legend : there was a brahmana of high talent and singular learning. Many flocked to him to receive instruction. One day all his students went out on a tour of observation. One of them looked very sad. When asked, he told that his life was waning without any company. In a joke his friends made the Patali tree, under which they were standing, his father-in-law : in other words he was to marry the daughter of the tree, or a Patali flower

232 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

(Bignonia Suaveolens). 311 As the Sun was about to set, all - the students proposed to return home but the young student fascinated by love stayed there fearlessly. Accidentally, next day he was married with the young daughter of an old couple. After a year his wife gave birth to a son. He declined to stay there fearing the exposure to wind and weather. But the old man (the father of the wife) constructed a house for him and made him stay there. When the old capital of Kusumapura was changed, this town was chosen, and "as the genie built the mansion for the youth the country was named as Pataliputrapura (the city of the son of the Patali tree)." 312

It is not unlikely that originally the name of the city was Pataliputrapura and that later suffix Pura was dropped.

The Buddhist literature informs us that Pataliputra was originally a village known as Pataligama. Ajatasatru is said to have fortified it in order to check the attacks of the Licchavis who often harassed its inhabitants. The Buddha on his way from Rajagrha to Vaisali, passed through this village on his last journey and is said to have predicted that the village was destined to become a great city. 313

The Vayu-Purana attributes the real foundation of Pataliputra to Raja Ajata-Satru's grandson, Udaya or Udayasva. It was he who first removed the capital from Rajagrha to Pataliputra (during the last part of the 6th century B. c.) 314

Pataliputra had closely been associated with multifarious political and cultural activities right from the fifth century B.C. to the later part of the sixth century A.D. 315 It had the honour to be the capital of the Saisunagas, the Nandas, the Mauryas and the great Imperial Guptas uptil the Huna invasion in the 6th century A.D. when it was ruined. Harsavardhana (7th century A. D.) made no attempt to restore it. 316 Sasanka Narendragupta destroyed many Buddhist temples and monasteries at Pataliputra. 317 Dharmapala, the most powerful of the Pala kings of Bengal and Bihar, tried to restore its glory. 318

Coming to medieval times, we find that it remained deserted for a number of centuries. It was Sher Shah, who, in about A. D. 1541 occupied it again as a royal city and built a fort there. It then came into importance under its modern name Patna (from Skt. Pattana) i. e. the town or city. It is even now

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 233

the capital of Bihar. 319

(9) Pistapura (पिष्टपुर) (No. 1, L. 19) :

It has been mentioned as one of the southern regions which were first captured and then liberated by Samudragupta. 320 Mahendragiri is mentioned as its king. Pistapura is the same as the fortress Pistapura captured by the Chalukya king Pulakesin II. The Tandivada (टांडीवाद) grant of Prthivi Maharaja also refers to Pistapura. 321 Pistapura is modern Pithapuram in the Godavari district of the Madras Presidency. 322 It was the capital of Kalinga. 323 'Kalingadhipati' Anantavarman issued a grant 324 from the victorious city of Pistapura. This grant records that Anantavarman's grandfather Gunavarman ruled over Devarastra with Pistapura as its chief city. 325 In our inscription Devarastra 326 has been treated separately. It seems that during Samudragupta' s time these two States (Devarastra and Kalinga) were separate states but later on under Guṇavarman they were amalgamated.

Guha ruled over the whole of Kalinga and the neighbour- ing regions. 327 Guha belonged to the Salankayana family of brahmanas. Samudragupta installed him as his viceroy in Kalinga. 328 Guha was already reigning over Kalinga (with his capital at Pistapura) when Samudragupta conquered him and placed him as his feudatory. 'Mahendragiri' may have been another name given to him on account of the extension of his dominion over the Mahendra mountain. 329 It is interesting to note that Kalidasa 330 refers to Raghu defeating a king named Mahendranatha in the course of his southern campaign. It is tempting to connect Mahendranatha with Mahendragiri. After the victory of Samudragupta, Guha was confirmed in the enjoyment of sovereignty under the imperial tutelage. 331

At Pistapura there is a Vaisnava temple named Kunti-madhava. 332 We get references to Pistapuri or Pistapurikadevi, a form at Manapura, of the goddess Laksmi, in the inscriptions of the Privrajaka Maharajas and the Maharajas of Uccakalpa during the Gupta period. 333 This must be a local form of some popular goddess at Pistapura itself. 334

234 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Place-names ending in the Suffix Nagara

Nagara (नगर) :

Nagara means a town, a city. 335 we find the term being used by Panini (IV. 2. 142). 336 The word Nagaraka (or Nagarika) 337 also occurs in Sanskrit literature as standing for 'an inhabitant of a town' but sometimes its use was restricted for the chief of a town or a police-officer. In modern times nagarika is used to refer to 'a citizen of a state whether living in city or village'.

In the early Vedic literature Nagara is found only as the derivative adjective Nagarin, used as a proper name, but it appears in the sense of 'town' in the Taittirlya Aranyaka (1.11, 18:31,4) and frequently in the later works. 338

Nagara is an important factor which helps us to distinguish Janapada from rastra : nagara forms a part of the rastra but is excluded from the Janapada. 339 Samaranganasutradhara uses Nagara and Pura as synonyms. 340 It is significant that the word Nagara is of late occurrence. 341 It is likely that in the early Vedic times city life does not seem to have developed much. In the Epic, 342 there are references to Nagara, 'a city' : Grama 'Village' : and Ghosa 'ranch'. Vedic literature especially of the earlier period is generally confined to the village. The siege of puras is mentioned in the Samhitas and Brahmanas.

The word Nagara is changed into :343

(a) Nar as Kusmagara, Kusinar, Girinagara, Girnar

(b) Ner as Jirnanagara, Jooner.

In modern times the suffix nagara is sometimes used to denote an inhabitation or Mohalla e. g. Tilak Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Patel Nagar, Jawahar Nagar, Lajapat Nagar.

We do not find any place-name with the suffix 'nagara' in our records but with a little change in the same sense with the suffix nagari, which is given below :

Pancanagari (No. 44, L. 1) :

It was the chief town of the district, where Kulavrddhi's Court was situated. 344 D. C. Sircar considers it to be modern Pāncbibi in the Bogra District and the same as Pentapolis of Ptolemy. 345

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 235

Pancanagari literally means 'a multitude of five towns'. Five small localities might have been collected into one for the smoothness of administration.

Place-names ending in Nauyoga

Nauyoga (नौयोग) :

Literally meaning 'a place for parking boats' it signifies 'a harbour'. Following are the place-names which have been term- ed as 'nauyoga' or harbour.

1. Cudamani 346 (चूडामणि) (No. 52, L. 28) :

Literally meaning 'a jewel worn by men and women on the top of the head' it denotes 'the best or most excellent'. 347 Combined with its epithet nauyuga, Cudamani signifies 'the best of harbours'.

2. Nagarasri (नगरश्री) (No. 52, L. 28) :

Literally Nagarasri means 'the glory of the town'. Combined with its epithet nauyoga it means 'the harbour of Nagarasri'. It seems to have been an important part of the town.

3. Pradamara (प्रडामार) (No. 52, L. 29) :

It has also been described as a nauyoga. 348 The meaning of Pradamara is difficult to explain. It seems to be the Sanskritised form of the Prakrit Padamara, i.e. a place where clothes or tents are found in abundance or it may signify 'a harbour of "pala-boats". 349

Place-names ending in Kataka

Kataka (कटक):

It is formed from the root √kaṭ to surround, to encompass, to cover and means a 'royal camp'. 350

There is only one such place-name with the suffix 'Kataka' which is as follows :

...Kataka (No. 29, L. 12) :

The first part is not clearly legible. Sircar takes it to be bhratri 351 but does not seem to be correct as it yields no sense with the word Kataka. The donated land is mentioned to have been given to the Chandoga (Samavedin) brah- mana Varaha-svamin, an inhabitant of this Kataka. 352

236 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Place-names ending in Vasaka

Vasaka (वासक) :

It means an abode or inhabitation. 353 An inhabitation can be big or small. In referring to a big inhabitation it denotes a city. Following are the names with this suffix :

(1) Anandapuravasaka (आनंदपुरवासक) (No. 40, L. 1) :

It has been mentioned as a camp of victory. Anandapura literally means 'a city of pleasure'. It has not been identified so far.

(2) Ayodhya (No. 21, L. 1 ; No. 37, L. 6 ; No. 39, L. 10) :

In No. 21 the word 'Ayodhya-Vasaka' occurs 355 while in No. 37 and 39 the word 'Ayodhyaka' has been mentioned. In No, 21, Ayodhya is described as a victorious camp, full of great ships, and elephants and horses. In No. 39 certain brahmanas belonging to Ayodhya, living in the vicinity of Mahadeva Sailesvara are named and are mentioned as belonging to various gotras and caranas, and as proficient in observants, in sacred duty, in the mantras, the sutras, bhasyas and pravacanas. 356

It has been venerated as one of the most important and holy places of the Hindus. 357 Vinita was another name for this city. 358 Its other names including Viṇīā (Vinītā) are mentioned in the Vividhatirthakalpa. 359 Fa-Hsien calls it Sha-che and Ptolemy knew it as Sogeda. 360 Ayodhya and Saketa have been treated by many writers as being identical. Csoma de koros 361 calls this place as "Saketan or Ayodhya" and H.H. Wilson in his dictionary, refers to Saketa as 'the city of Ayodhya'. Several passages in the Raghuvamsa 362 confirm it. The Vividhatirthakalpa mentions Sakeyam (Saketa) as a synonym for Ayodhya, 363 but in the Buddhist literature we find separate references to Ayodhya and Saketa which creates doubt about their identity and suggests that the two existed separately. 364 V. Pathak quotes a well known verse occurring in the Yuga Purana, a section of Gargi Samhita, 365 to show that Saketa is the same as Ayodhya. But there is nothing in the passage to support the view.

The ancient city of Ayodhya or Saketa is described in the Ramayana as situated on the banks of the Sarayu or Sarju river. 366 During the Buddhist period, Ayodhya was divided into

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 237


Uttara (Northern) Kosala and Daksina (Southern) Kosala. The river Sarayu was the dividing line between the two provinces. Ayodhya was the capital of the latter. 367 Ancient tradition believes it to have been built by Manu. 368

The history of Kosala, with its mighty King Prasenajit and his son Vidudabha pales into insignificance with the emergence of the Magadhan rulers as powerful antagonists. The Nandas, followed by the Mauryas, assimilated Kosala in their empire. Under the Sungas, it was being ruled by a viceroy. An inscription from Ayodhya mentions Pusyamitra as having performed two horse-sacrifices. Under the Kusanas, the city remained more or less in oblivion. Subsequently in the Puranas it figures along with Prayaga and Magadha as forming part of the kingdom of the Guptas. The spurious Gaya Plate of Samudragupta (No. 21) mentions it as a seat of a Gupta camp of victory. The history of the city in the post- Gupta period is wrapped up in obscurity. It was within the empire of the Pratiharas and Gahadavalas of Kanauj. Ayodhya is described by Muslim historians 369 to have been a wilderness.

The Slaves and Khilji rulers held sway over it, and subsequently it received importance as the headquarters of Oudh. It was under the charge of Muslim governors appointed from Delhi, but with the emergence of Jaunpur as a strong kingdom Ayodhya was completely over-shadowed. It was a mint-town in the time of Akbar, but there is no reference to it in later Chronicles. 370

Ayodhya is important as a centre of pilgrimage. There are several places in the city connected with different events in the life of Rama. Rama was born at a place called Janmasthana. At Chīrodaka also called Chīrasāgara, Dasaratha performed, with the help of Rsyasrnga Rsi, the sacrifices for obtaining a son. At a place called Treta-ka-Thakur, Ramacandra performed the horse sacrifice by setting up the image of Sita. At Ratnamandapa, he held his Council, 371 at Swargadwaram in Fyzabad, his body was burnt. At Laksmana-kunda, Laksmana disappeared in the river Sarayu. Dasaratha accidentally killed Sravana, the blind Rsi's son, at Majhaura in the district of Fyzabad. 372 Ayodhya engaged the attention of the Muslim rulers some of

238 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

whom set up mosques here, of these the mosques of Babar and and Aurangzeb are notable. 373 At present this city forms a part of the district of Fyzabad.

(3) Isvaravasaka (ईश्वरवासक) a (No.5, L. 6) 374 : It seems to be a village or an allotment of land granted by Amrakarddava, the son of Undana, and apparently an officer of Chandragupta II to the Aryasamgha at the great vihara of Kakanadabota for the purpose of feeding mendicants. 375 The word Isvara here is connected with Vasaka and there is no infix or place-name suffix in between (just as 'pura' in Anandapuravasaka). Hence vasaka here has a double purpose. It is meaningful to Isvara and also denotes the inhabitation. The whole will literally mean 'an inhabitation of God'.

Place-names ending in Vana

We find some place-names with the suffix denoting forest, for example Vindhyatavi, and Vrndavana. In our inscriptions we come across only three such names, Tumbavana and Vindhatavi, and Mahakantara. The suffixes vana, atavi and kantara are synonyms. These are described below :

1. Tumbavana (तुम्बवन) (No. 30, L. 6) :

It has been identified with Tumain in Guna district, the old Gwalior State, now in Madhya Pradesh. It is also mentioned in the Sanchi Stupa inscription. 376 The Brhatsamhita 377 refers to it as situated in the South.

The name suggests that Tumba, the gourd Lagenaria vulgaris was in abundance at this place.

2. Mahākāntāra (महाकांटार) (No. 1, L. 19):

It is one of the southern countries subdued by Samudragupta. Its ruler was Vyaghraraja. Literally Mahakantara means 'a great forest'. It has to be distinguished from Sarvatavi referred to later on in this inscription. 378 According to Krishnaswami Aiyangar, 379 it must have included the Saugar division of C.P. extending northwards to the Ajaigadh State in Bundelkhanda. But G. Ramdas differs from this view on the ground that Mahakantara must be sought in Southern India as it is specifically mentioned as one of the kingdoms of the South conquered by Samudragupta. He suggests that Mahakantara must be the same as Mahavana, a forest region extending northwards into

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 239

Ganjam Agency and westwards into the tract formerly known as the Chatisgarh States of CP. 380 This very region has been mentioned by the same name in the Ganj and Nachna inscriptions. 381

3. Vindhyatavi (विन्ध्याटवी) (No. 28, L. 25) :

The name appears in one of the verses quoted from ancient Smrtis or the Mahabharata asking people to honour land grants. In the present case it is said that a man who violates the grant is born in the Vindhya forest as a serpent and resides in the dry hollow of a tree. 382 Vindhya forest is the belt of forest at the foot of the Vindhya mountain.

Place-names ending in Grama

Grama (ग्राम) :

It means an inhabited place, village, hamlet. 383 It seems that firstly the word grama denoted the collective inhabitants of a place, community or race. Later on this sense was transferred to an inhabitation and was used in the sense of a village. The earlier usage of this word, which occurs frequently from the Rgveda 384 onwards, appears to have been in the sense of a village. The early Aryans must have dwelt in villages which were scattered over the country, some close together, some far apart, and were connected by roads. 385 In the early Vedic literature village is regularly contrasted with the forest (aranya) in the evening the cattle regularly returned thither from the forest. 386 The villages were probably open, though perhaps a fort (pur) might on occasion be built inside. 387 Presumably they consisted of detached houses with enclosures, but no details are to be found in Vedic literature. Large villages (maha-gramah) were known. 388 The grama may, however, perhaps be regarded more correctly as an aggregate of several families, not necessarily forming a clan, but only part of a clan (vis), as is often the case at the present day. 389 The head of the village was called Gramani or 'the leader of the village'. The king's share in a village is referred to as early as the Atharvaveda. 390

Villages played an important role as a unit of Rastra or city. 391 Kheṭa was the half of a city and the village was the

240 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

half of a kheta. 392 Cities other than the capital are called Karvaṭa, a little less is Nigama and lesser is grama and still lesser is a house. 393

Grama is changed into gaon, 394 as Suvarnagrama, Sonar-gaon ; Kalahagrama, Kahalgaon.

Following are the place-name with this suffix. We have also included here some place-names which are villages though they have not been termed as such with this suffix.

(1) Bhadrapuskarakagrama (भद्रपुष्करकग्राम) (No. 4o, L. 5) :

Bhadra means 'good or auspicious and Puskara (modern Pokhara) means 'a pond or lake'. So literally the name would mean 'a village possessing an auspicious or good pond'. It has not so far been identified. 395

(2) Bharadidasamada (भारड़ीदसमद) (No. 39, L. 11) :

It is the name of a village. The name of the place where the linga containing the inscription was found is said to be Bhārādhī Dīh, 396 Bharadi of our inscription may also be compared with 'bharadiya' (भरड़िया) of the Sanchi stupa inscription. 397 Samada is possibly Samudra, an epithet for Siva. D.C. Sircar takes 'Samudra' to be the 'nam-aika-desa of a deity called Samudersvara' and suggests that the relevant passage is to be corrected as pārago bharaḍida-samudresvarā. 398 The meaning of the passage is difficult to explain.

(3) Chandagrama (चण्डग्राम) (No. 33, L. 3) :

The village is difficult to identify. 399 Canda is the Prakritic form of Chandra 400 which means 'the moon'. Thus the village seems to have been named after the Moon-god. But Canda may also mean ferocious or turbulent and in that case it may have been so named because of its wild looks or its violent population.

(4) Citravatangara 401 (चित्रवातंगर) (No. 43, L.24) :

It is the name of a village. Citra means 'excellent' or distin- guished 402 and vatangara (from vatahkara) means 'producing wind'. Thus the whole will literally mean 'which produces excellent wind or air'. The village might have been noted for its healthy and open atmosphere.

(5) Donga-grama (डोंगा-ग्राम) (No. 34, L.ll; No. 36. L.6):

In No. 34 we get a reference to 'Donga', but in No. 36, the name appears as Donga-grama.

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 241

The Donga-grama is said to have been situated in Himavac- Chikhara 403 identified with Barahachatra (Varahaksetra) in Nepal. 404 But scholars 405 are not right in co-relating Donga-grama with Himavac-Chikhara, Inscription No. 36 clarifies it. There is a long gap between the references to Himavac-Chikhara and Donga-grama. Actually Himavac-Chikhara is associated with Kokamukhasvamin (a form of the Boar incarnation of Visnu) and Svetavarahasvamin where originally (adya) these gods were installed in a temple. The name Donga-grama is used for the place where the lands were donated by Rbhupāla for the construction of the two temples having the names of the two deities. 406 The word 'adya' in L. 7 is significant and distinguishes the temples at Himavac-Chikhara from those at Donga-grama. The writer had to use the word 'Himavac-Chikhara' again in L.10, with the names of Kokamukhasvamin and Svetavarahasvamin in order to avoid confusion between the temples at the two places. For the temple at Donga-grama the writer uses the word 'iha' in L.11. We also find the word 'Himavac-Chikhara' absent in another Damodarpur Copper Plate Inscription of the Gupta Year 224 (=A.D. 543), where a person named Amrtadeva hailing from Ayodhya donates a land for the repairs and worship, etc., at the temple of Lord Svetavarahasvamin obviously because he was referring to the temple at Donga-grama and there was now, no question of any confusion or distinction. 407 Thus Dorigagrama does not seem to have any connection with Himavac-Chikhara. This village is to be located somewhere near Damodarpur and belonged to the Kotivarsa visaya as mentioned in the records. 408 But the village was most probably situated in a hilly area which is clear from the wrod Donga itself. 409 The word 'Atraranye' (local forest where the temple of Svetavarahasvamin was situated) in No. 37 also attests to it. 410 The village may have consisted of a few huts with bushes and trees all around or the place where the temples were situated was away from habitation.

Thus the earlier suggestion that the Kotivarsa district included the hilly region bordering on the northern fringe of Bengal, 411 which was rejected by Sircar, 412 seems to be correct.

6. Gosatapunjaka (गोषाटपुन्जक) (No. 28, L.2, L.8, L.15) :

242 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

In line 2 of the inscription the reading is Gosatapunjaka while in lines 8 and 15 the reading is Gosatapunja.

Gosata may be the same as gosala or a cow-stall 413 and punja means a multitude. 414 So the village may have consisted of a multitude, of cow-stalls and thus resembled ihe villages known as gohālīs.

7. Gulmagandhika (गुल्मगंधिका) (No. 43, LL.1-2, L.22) :

It is the name of a village. It occurs once in lines 1-2 and twice in L.22.415

Gulma means 'a cluster of trees' 416 and gandhika means 'having the smell of'. 417 The whole will literally mean 'a place which is full of a cluster of trees having smell'. We may conjecture that the village originally possessed a few shrubs or small trees which produced fragrance.

8. Gunekagraharagrama (गुणेकाग्रहारग्राम) (No. 52, LL. 18-19, L. 21) :

In lines 18-19 we get the reading 'Gunekagraharagrama' while in line 21 the reading is Gunikagraharagrama. The two names are identical and are the same as modern Gunaighar, 18 miles to the north-west of Comilla, Tippera district Bengal, in East Pakistan 418 (now Bangla Desh).

Sen considers it to have been a village-name ending with the term agrahara and suggests that from the standpoint of administration this division was more important and better developed than an ordinary grama. The expression gramagra- hara 419 or agraharagrama refers to 'a process of unification which some of the more fortunate villages underwent through pressure of administrative and economic necessities. 420

Agrahara (Prakrit aggahara) was a village, 421 or consisted of fields which were given to brahmanas. 422 The agraharas enjoyed exemption from several taxes and had other administrative immunities.

9. Jambudeva (जम्बूदेव) (No. 28, L. 2, LL. 7-8, L. 14) :

It was the name of a village. It seems that this locality was named after a person named Jambudeva. 423

10. Kakubha (ककुभ) (No. 15, L. 5) :

Inscription No. 15 informs us that five stone images of Adikartris or Tirthamkaras were set up by Madra at the village of Kakubha. The village was sanctified by its association with holy men. 424 It was also known as Kakubhagrama, 425 the

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 243

suffix grama seems to have been dropped in the present case. Kakubha is identified with modern Kahaum or Kahawan, a village about five miles to the west by south of Salampur- Majhauli, the chief town of the Salampur-Majhauli Pargana in the Deoria, Deoriya or Dewariya Tehsil or sub-division of the Gorakhpur district in Uttar Pradesh. The grey sandstone column on which the inscription is engraved stands at a short distance on the east of the village. 426

11. Kantedadaka grama (कांतेड़दक ग्राम) (No. 52, L.7) :

It was a village situated in the division called Uttaramandala. 427 The name cannot be explained but the suffix 'ḍadaka' also appears in the name here and Nadadadakagrama mentioned in line 27 of this inscription.

12. Nadadadaka grama (नादड़दक ग्राम) (No. 52, L. 27) :

It was situated in the Northern direction. 428 The name is difficult to explain.

13. Lavangasika (लवङ्गसिका) (No. 37, L. 15) :

It is the name of a village based on the Lavanga (Clove) tree. Philologically in Lavangasika one 'l' has been dropped : the original and full form should have been 'Lavangalasika' i.e. 'where Lavanga trees play'.

14. Purnnanaga grama (पूर्णननाग ग्राम) (No. 40, L. 5) :

The village belonged to a visaya called Krmila in Nalanda, Patna district, Bihar. Literally Purnnanaga means 'full of serpents' and in this respect the name may be compared with the name Krmila of the visaya which means 'full of Krmis or worms'.

15. Revatika grama (रेवतिका ग्राम) (No. 21, L.7) :

The village was situated in Gaya visaya. 429 Revatika is to be identified with Reworu in the Tikari Police area of the Gaya district. 430 It may have been named after a species of plant (the citron tree or Cathartocarpus fistula). 431

16. Samgohalikagrama (संगोहलिक ग्राम) (No. 43, L. 2, L. 20) :

Sarhgohalika was the name of a village. In L.2 we get the form Samgohali, while in L. 20, it is mentioned as Samgohalika- grama. 432 Sircar takes the reading to be 'Gulmagandhika-grama' in place of Samgohalikagrama. 433 But Samgohalika-grama is the correct form. We can compare Samgohali in L. 2 of this inscription with the letters appearing in L.20. The first

244 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

three letters are no doubt not fully legible, but the two remaining are surely 'lika'. Thus the name can never be Gulmagandhika, most probably it was Samgohalika. Moreover, the context of both the lines 20 and 2 is the same.

The word gohali when joined with the suffix 'sam' means 'a good gohali'. In Inscription No. 28 the word gohali has in all cases been spelt with long 'ī', i.e. gohalī. 434

17. Sāṭuvanāśramaka (साटुवनाश्रमक) (No. 37, L. 16) :

It is the name of a village. The suffixes vana and asrama are clear but the name cannot be explained due to the word 'Satu' the meaning of which is difficult to explain.

18. Vaṭodaka (वटोदक) (No. 30, L. 4) :

It is the name of a village. Vata is probably a Prakritic form of vrtta meaning 'surrounded or covered' 436 and the word udaka means 'water'. So the whole will literally mean 'a place surrounded by water'. It has been mentioned in the inscription as the abode of good people where lived a person, who bore the distinguished appellation Srideva. 437

Vatodaka has been identified with Badoh which is a small village in the Bhilsa district of the old Gwalior State, now in Madhya Pradesh. 438

(19) Vayigrama (वायिग्राम) (No. 33, L. 9 ; No. 44, L. 2) :

It has been identified with Baigram in the Bogra (Bagura) district of Bengal, now in Pakistan. 439 In Inscription No. 44 two localities named Trivrta and Srigohali are mentioned as included in Vaigrama. 440

Vayi is a Prakritic form of vayu meaning air or wind and literally Vayigrama means 'a village full of air'. We also know of a town named as Vayupura. 441

Place-names ending in Palli

Palli (पल्ली)

The suffix palli, pallī, pallaka or its diminutive pallikā is derived from √pal to go, to move. 442 It means a small village, (esp.) a settlement of wild tribes (e.g. Trisira-palli=Trichinopoly). 443 Palli has been used as meaning a den of thieves in the Uttaradhyanasutra and other Jain canonical texts, 444 the earliest portions of which are assigned to about 300 B.C. 445

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 245

The Samarahganasutradhara by king Bhojadeva, an eleventh century work, defines Palli thus :

"Where Pulindas 446 live building their huts with leafs, branches and stones etc. is called Palli and a small Palli is called Pallikā". 447

Its derivation from √pal to go, to move, fits in very well as it was an inhabitation of Abhiras, thieves and barbarians who moved from one place to another and were usually in small number.

It seems to be a Dravidian word loaned in Sanskrit. We find in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada the word palli meaning hamlet, settlement, small village and in Telugu the words Palli and Palliya denoting 'a small village'. 448

Palli 449 is changed into :

(a) bal : Asapalli, Yessabal

(b) Poli, as Trisirapalli (=Trishnapalli), Trichinopoly

(c) oli, as Ahalyapalli, Ahiroli (also Ahiari).

We have only one place-name ending in this suffix, with a slight variation which is 'palla' and is detailed below :

Erandapalla (एरण्डपल्ल) (No.I, L. 19) :

It is mentioned in the list of countries of Southern region conquered by Samudragupta. Its ruler was Damana. Fleet identifies Erandapalla with Erandol in the E. Khandesh district of the Bombay Presidency. 450 K.N. Dikshit and Y.R. Gupte agreed with this view. 451 But according to Dubreuil and K.G. Sankar, it is the same as the town Erandpalli near Chicacole on the Coast of Orissa. 452 G, Ramdas opposes Fleet's identification on the ground that Erandapalli mentioned immediately after the kingdom of Svamidatta cannot be so far away on the western coast, it must have been in the vicinity of Kalinga and Pistapura kingdom. 453 Erandapalli is mentioned in the Siddhantam plates of Devendravarman of Kalinga. 454 Banerjee counts Damana of Erandapalla among the three chiefs of Kalinga who obstructed the passage of Samudragupta through their country. 455

G. Ramdas 456 regards Dubreuil's identification also to be incorrect because Chicacole lies in Kalinga which was clearly the country ruled by Svamidatta. Erandapalli will have, therefore, to be identified with the village Yendipalli in the Golgonda

246 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Taluka of the Vizagapatam district or with the village Endapalli in Elore Taluka. 457 But if we suppose that Svamidatta was the king of Kottura alone and not of the whole of Kalinga, Erandapalli may well be identified with Chicacole. 458 Palla is the corrupt form of Palli which means an inhabitation and Eranda is the castor-oil-plant 459 It seems that the region abounded in eranda plants.

Place-names ending in Gohali

Gohali (गोहाली)

The word gohali is derived from Sanskrit gosala which is transformed into goal in Bengali. 460 It is generally spelt with long 'ī' i.e. as gohālī, 461 but in No. 43 it has been spelt with short 'i'. 462 This suffix has been used with the names of villages. These villages were known as gohalikas, 463 in a similar context the word pradesa is for villages which were not gohalis 464 These villages were probably full of cowherds. In Assam such villages are known as goālpārā.

Following are the place-names with this suffix :

1. Nitva-gohālī (नित्व-गोहाली) (No. 28. L. 3, L.9, L. 15) :

The maning of Nitva is inexplicable.

2. Srigohālī (श्रीगोहाली) (No. 44, L. 2, L. 8. L.16) :

This locality was connected with the village Vayigrama, i.e. the present Baigram. 466 The word 'Srigohali' means 'a glorious or beautiful gohali'. Likewise we have a place name 'Srinagara' in Kashmir which literally means (a glorious or beautiful city).

3. Vata-gohālī (वट गोहाली)(No. 28, L. 2, L. 6, L. 7, L. 12, L. 14) :

It was a village situated in the Palāśātta Pārsva within the Nagiratta mandala in the Daksinamsaka vithi. It has been identified with the village of Goalbhita near Paharpur. 467

Vata is perhaps the Prakritic form of vrtta meaning 'surro- unded, covered'. 468 The village may have been surrounded by a well or fence. On one hand we find another village named as 'Trivrta', 469 and on the other Vata-nagara appears as the name of a town and Vatodaka as the name of a river. 470

Place-names ending in Parsvika

Pārśvika (पार्श्विक)

It means belonging to the side. 471 This suffix signifies the

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 247

geographical situation of the locality with reference to another place.

There is only one name with the suffix, Parsvika in our inscriptions which is given below :

Palāśāṭṭa Pārsvika (पलासाट्ट पार्श्विक) (No. 28, L. 2, L. 12):

Palasatta may mean 'an atta 472 or turret of Palasa trees'. It is possible that there were many Palasa trees by the side of a hill and they may have formed a turret on the hill. The locality near such a situation may have been described as Palasatta-parsvika.

Place-names ending in Pataka

Pataka (पाटक)

Literally meaning 'a splittler or divider' it means the half or any part, or a kind of village. 473 Pataka is also the name of a land measure, 474 hence earlier pataka, pāḍaga or pāḍā may have denoted a large but private house, or settlement within a village. Gradually the village and sometimes the city also came to be called after it. 475

There is only one name with this suffix in our inscriptions which is as follows :

Svacchandapataka (स्वच्छंद पाटक) (No. 37, L. 15) :

Svacchanda in this context may mean uncultivated or wild. 476 So it must be a kind of village with large tracts of barren land.

Place-names ending in Pottaka

Pottaka (पोत्तक)

Pottaka 477 means the site or foundation of a house. It may signify here an inhabitation or locality.

We find only one name with the suffix 'pottaka' in our inscriptions which is given below :

Pṛṣṭhima-pottaka (पृष्ठिम पोत्तक) (No. 28, L. 2, L. 8, L. 14) :

It seems to be a name based on the goegraphical situation of the place. Prsthima literally meaning situated on the back- side may here signify 'a neglected place'.

248 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Place-names ending in Vihara

Vihara (विहार)

Literally vihara means 'a place of recreation or pleasure- ground'. With Buddhists or Jains it means a monastery or temple, originally a hall where the monks met or walked about. Afterwards, these halls were used as assembly halls or places of worship. The modern province of Bihar or Behar is so named on account of the large number of Buddhist monasteries in it. 478

We have only one name with the suffix 'vihara' in our inscriptions which is given below :

Lokottaravihara (लोकोत्तरविहार) (No. 32, L.I 5) :

Lokottara vihara was possibly the proper name of some local Buddhist monastery probably named after the Lokottaravadin sect of the Hinayana form of Buddhism. The Buddhist institutions alluded to in this inscription where evidently situated at or in the neighbourhood of Mandasor where the inscription was found, although no place is mentioned in the record. 479

Place-names ending in Ksetra

Ksetra (क्षेत्र)

Originally meaning an agricultural field, in which sense its use survives, ksetra came to be used as a place-name suffix as we find in the word Kurukshetra. As a suffix in composition it signified simply a 'field' for the word preceding it. For example karma-ksetra, dharma-ksetra, rana-ksetra, siddha- ksetra, suresvari-ksetra. 480

The use of this word 481 in the Rgveda points clearly to the existence of separate fields 482 carefully measured off, 483 though in some passages the meaning is less definite, indicating culti- vated land generally. 484 In the Atharvaveda 485 and later, the sense of a separate field is clearly marked, though the more general use is also found. 486 The deity Ksetrasya Pati, 487 'Lord of the Field' should probably be understood as the god presiding over each field, just as Vastospati presides over each dwelling. 488

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 249

Ksetra is changed into: 489

(a) Chhatra as Ahiksetra, Ahichhatra

(b) Chchhatra as Ahiksetra, Ahicchatra.

In Prakrit Ksetra changes to Kheṭṭa meaning 'a land for agriculture', country, village and city, etc. 490

Analogous to Kheṭṭa is the word 'kheḍa' or 'kheṭa' which means 'a city surrounded by rivers and mountains'. 491 'Kheṭa' meaning 'a small hamlet' is also found in Pantni (VI.2.126). 492 The Samaranganasutradhara defines 'Kheṭa' as the half of a city and the grama as the half of a 'Kheṭa'. 493 According to Monier Williams Kheṭa means a village, residence of peasants and farmers, small town (half of a Pura). 494

Lele 495 considers Kheṭa or Kheṭaka to be the dialectic form of the word 'Ksetra'. The original meaning of Khetaka or Kheta was an enclosure for cattle. In the course of time the pastoral camp grew into an agricultural village, and the word Khetaka came to include agricultural village. 496

Here we collect the names of fields appearing in the inscriptions of our study. These names can be attributed to the names of individuals or gods. As the proper names are a part of the names of the fields, we treat them as place-names and do not discuss them in the context of personal-names. Some of the names sound curious and at places the readings are doubtful, the fascimile of the grant supplied by the editor being blurred. It is interesting to note that all these names occur in the same inscription, i.e. Gunaighar Grant of Vainyagupta, year 188 (No. 52). Gunaighar formerly Gunikagrahara, 497 is a village about 18 miles to the north-west of the town of Comilla, a mile and a half to the south west of the P.S. Debidvar in the district of Tippera which is modern Tripur. 498 The area is predominated by Tibeto-Burman tribes. Hence some of the names are full of tribal vocabulary. 499

1. Buddhāka-kṣetra (बुद्धाक-क्षेत्र) (No.52, L.25) :

Buddhaka seems to be a Prakritic form of Sanskrit Vṛddhārka meaning 'an old or declining Sun'. 500 A field belongs to a person of this name or else the field was a place of Sun-worship.

2. Kalaka-ksetra (कालाक-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L.25) :

250 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

It is a Prakritic form of Sanskrit Kalarka (कालार्क) , 501 i.e. the dreadful Sun at the time of the destruction of the whole world. The field may be connected with Sun-worship. Another alternative is that it was the property of a man with this name.

3. Khandaviduggurika-ksetra [खंडविडुग्गुरिक क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L.26) :

The name is a little puzzling. Its possible Sanskrit form may be 'khandavidhugrahika-ksetra', i.e. a field belonging to a per- son who is the owner of house in the shape of half-moon.

4. Jolari-ksetra (जोलारी-क्षेत्र) (No.52, L.24) :

Jolari seems to be a feminine name. The word Jola is a Dravidian word meaning a water-course or river. 502 Jolari may have been a fisher-woman and the field belonged to her.

5. Mahipala-ksetra (महिपाल-क्षेत्र) (No.52, L.25) :

This field seems to have belonged to a person named Mahipala literally meaning 'a protector of the country', i.e. a king.

6. Manibhadra-ksetra (मणिभद्र-क्षेत्र) (No.52, LL.26-27) :

This field belongs to Manibhadra literally meaning 'the excellent jewel'. Manibhadra has been the name of a brother of Kubera and king of the Yakshas (the tutelary deity of travellers and merchants). 503

7. Miduvilala-ksetra (मिदुविलाल-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L. 19) :

The field belonged to Miduvilala. The word Midu is a Prakritic form of Sanskrit Mrdu 504 which means soft, delicate or beautiful. Paia-Sadda-Mahannavo 505 takes Vilala, Birala, Bidala, Bilada and Bilala as synonymous words meaning 'a cat'. According to Bhattacharya 'the word vilala is evidently derived from vila with its peculiar meaning (a large watery hollow) current in Bengal. 506 D.C. Sircar takes it to be a mechanic caste like vardhaki (carpenter). 507 We find the word Vilala occurring thrice in the Gunaighar grant (No.52) which has been translated by the editor of the grant as follows :

(a) Miduvilala-ksetra (L. 19): The field of Miduvilāla

(b) Pakkavilala-ksetra (LL.21-22) : The field of Pakkavilāla

(c) Ganesvara-Vilala-Puskarini (L.28) : the large marshy pond of Ganesvara.

All the three names have been explained according to their context in this work.

In (a) and (b) the editor takes vilala as a part of the names Midu and Pakka but in (c) he translates vilala as 'a large

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marshy (place)'. The editor should have taken either Miduvi- lala and Pakkavilala as the adjectives of the fields as in (c) or Vilala as an adjective of Ganesvara and not that of Puskarini. Vilala seems to be a part of the names Miduand Pakka which if left alone yield no meaning, but in the case of Ganesvara vilala, the word vilala seems to be an adjective of the name Ganesvara rather than a part of it. Here the word vilala seems to indicate a professional caste. It is a Dravidian word. 508 The whole sense of the name 'Miduvilala' is not clear.

8. Nakhaddarccarika-ksetra (नाखद्दार्च्चरिक-क्षेत्र (No. 52, L. 23) :

The expression means the field of Nakhaddarccarika.The word Nakhaddarccarika is a puzzle but it can be possibly explained as the worshipper of Naksatras, i.e. an astronomer. 509 Naksatra changes to nakkhatta 510 in Prakrit. Nakha and nakkha are identical, 511 tta in nakkhatta changes to dda in sandhi here. The word 'arccarika' means a 'worshipper'. 512 Stars were regarded as deities to whom regular worship (bhakti) was shown. The names based on stars were unknown in Vedic literature but became popular in the time of Panini and later. 513

9. Nagi-jodaka-ksetra (नागी-जोडाक-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L. 24) :

The word Nagi seems to be a feminine name of the Naga tribe meaning simply 'a naga woman'. The word Jodaka means a Yugma (two). 514 So the whole will literally mean 'the field of two Nagis'. 515

10. Pakkavilala-ksetra (पक्कविलाल-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, LL. 21-22) :

The expression means field of Pakkavilala. The word Pakka 516 means a barbarous tribe, a candala. Vilala has already been explained. 517

11. Raja-vihara-ksetra (राज-विहार-क्षेत्र) (No. 52. L. 22):

The field belonging to the royal vihara or monastery. Literally Vihara means "a place of recreation, pleasure-ground." With Buddhists or Jains it means a monastery or temple, originally a hall where the monks met or walked about. Afterwards these halls were used as temples. The province of Bihar ar Behar is also so named because of the number of Buddhist monasteries in it. 518

12. Surinasirampurniieka-ksetra (सूरीनाशीरमपूर्ण्णेक-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L. 19) :

The field of Surinasirampurnneka or the Surinasirampurnneka field. The name is inexplicable.

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13. Suryya-ksetra (सूर्य्य-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L. 25) :

The field of Suryya. The field may belong to a person named Suryya or it may be a place of Sun-worship.

14. Visnuvardhaki-ksetra (विष्णुवर्धकि-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L. 19) :

The field of Visnuvardhaki. Visnu is the first part of the name based on god Visnu. The second part of his name seems to be dropped and instead his professional epithet 'vardhakin' has been added which means 'a carpenter'. 519 In Sanchi Stupa Inscriptions we get the word 'vaḍakina' (वड़किन) which is the same as Sanskrit 'vardhakin' (वर्धकिन) and means 'carpenter'. 520 In the Anga-vijja, 521 we get the word 'vaṭṭaki' which denotes a metal worker.

15. Vaidya-ksetra (वैद्य-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L. 22) : The field of Vaidya, i.e. a physician.

16. Yajnarata-ksetra (यज्ञरात-क्षेत्र) (No. 52, L. 27) :

The field of Yajnarata. Yajna means sacrifice or worship and rata means 'given' presented, bestowed'. 522 The whole will literally mean 'given by Yajna'. The field may be a place of worship or sacrifice. Because of the performance of Yajna on a certain occasion the field came to be so named as if it was a permanent place of sacrifice or the field might have been named after a person 'Yajnarata'.

Place-names ending in Puskarini

Puskarini (पुष्करिणी)

Puskara means a blue lotus so Puskarini denotes a lotus pool. It also means a lake or pool in general. 523 The names of some localities associated with pokharas or tanks have survived to modern times.

Following are the place-names with this suffix :

1. Danda-Puskini (डण्डा-पुष्किनी) (No. 52, L. 31) :

Though the reading is Dandapuskini, it is to be corrected as Danda-puskarini. 524 Danda meaning punishment or rod seems to be a personal name here and the puskarini was named after him or else it may have been in his possession.

2. Dosi-bhoga-puskarini (दोषी-भोग-पुष्करिणी) (No.52, L 20) :

Dosi may stand for Sanskrit jyotisi meaning astrologer. 525 Bhoga may be a personal name, thus the name may stand for

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a pond of the astrologer named Bhoga. Another possibility is that bhoga signifies enjoyment. In that case the expression will signify a pond in the possession of an astrologer. 526

3. Ganesvara-vilala-puskarini (गणेश्वर-विलाल-पुष्करिणी) (No. 52, L.28):

Ganesvara was the name of the person to whom the puskarini belonged. Vilala is a professional epithet which denotes a mechanic caste 527 or it may have been the nick-name of the person. 528

Following are the place-names which have got no suffix with them.

One-word Place-names

1. Avamukta (अवमुक्त) (No. 1, L. 19) : The Inscription No. 1 refers to Avamukta as one of the countries in Daksinapatha subdued by Samudragupta . Its ruler was Nilaraja. 529 . Avamukta has not been identified with certainty. Some scholars on the basis of the similarity of names identify it with Avimukta another name of Kasi. 530 But the suggestion cannot be accepted. Avamukta of the inscription was a country in the South while Avimukta or Kasi is an eastern country. It may be considered to be situated in the Godavari district. 531 According to D.B. Diskalkar it must lay on the Eastern Ghats which lie to the west of Kanchi or Conjeevaram. 532

2. Davaka (दवाक) (No. I, L. 22) : It has been mentioned as one of the frontier states subdued by Samudragupta. According to Fleet it was the ancient name of Dacca. 533 V.A. Smith takes it as corresponding to Bogra, Dinajpur and Rajshahi districts. 534 But as these districts were not actually incorporated in the Gupta dominions, D.R. Bhandarkar suggests that Davaka corresponds to the hill-tract of Chittagong and Tippera. 535 K L. Barua identifieds it with Kopili valley in Assam. 536 Generally Davaka is identified with modern Daboka in Nowgong district, Assam. 537 It thus corresponds to the valley of the Kapili and the Yamuna rivers in Nawgong district where we still find a place called Doboka. 538

3. Kamarupa (कामरूप) (No. I, L. 22) : It has been mentioned as one of the frontier states which were subordinate to Samudragupta and whose emperors paid him

254 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

taxes and all kinds of obeisance. Majumdar 539 identifies it with Upper Assam. Kamarupa consisted of the Western districts of the Brahmaputra valley which being the most powerful state and being the first to be approached from the western side came to denote the whole valley. 540 The area of Kamarupa was estimated by the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang to have been 10,000 li i.e. 1667 miles in circuit which shows that it must have comprised the whole valley of Brahmaputra. 541 Saktisangama describes 542 Kamarupa as extending from Kalesvara to the Svetagiri and from Tripura to the Nila-parvata (which is the Niladri or Nilakuta, the name of the Kamakhya hill). According to the Yogini Tantra, the kingdom of Kamarupa included the whole of the Brahmaputra valley together with Rangpur and Cochbihar. 543 The Puranas mention Pragjyotisa, identified with Kamakhya or Gauhati, as the capital of Kamarupa. 544 The Kamauli grant of Vaidyadeva mentions Kamarupa as a Mandala of the Pragjyotisa-bhukti. 545

The Abhidhana, the Vaijayanti and the Trikandasesa in- form us that Pragjyotisa and Kamarupa were the same country. 546 In the Raghuvams'a, 547 the separate mention of Pragjyotisa and Kamarupa may seem to be a little puzzling. But we see that whereas verses 81-82 of the fourth canto refer to the king of Pragjyotisa as terrified, the subsequent verses describe the presentation of elephants and the offer of respects by the king of Kamarupa to Raghu. Thus all the four verses are inter-linked and, the context also proves that Pragjyotisa and Kamarupa were the same. 548 The Buddhist Chronicle Arya-manjusri-mulakalpa describes Kamarupa as a country of the east. 549 The Brhatsamhita 550 and the Kavyamimamsa 551 also mention it in the same direction. Chatterji remarks that the tribes living on the frontiers of Kamarupa were akin to the Man tribes of South-Western China, a wild Tibeto-Chinese people. 552

The Ahoms of the Shan Tribe came into Assam at the beginning of the 13th century due to the break-up of the Chinese empire by the Moguls and ruled till the British occupation in the beginning of the 19th century. 553

4. Kanci (कांची) (No. I, L. 19) : The earliest epigraphic mention of Kanci is to be found in this

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inscription. The inscription refers to Visnugopa of Kanci as one of the kings of Daksinapatha defeated by Samudragupta but reinstated in their kingdoms. Kanci is the same as Kancipura or modern Conjeevaram in the Chingieput district of Madras Presidency. 554 The kingdom of Kanci extended from the mouth of the Krishna to the south of the river Palar and sometimes even to the Kaveri. 555 It is also known as Kancipedu. 556 It is mentioned in several early records relating to the ancient his- tory of the Pallavas of Kanci (of about A.D. 250 to 355) 557 The Aihole inscription of Pulakesin, the Chalukya ruler in the 7th century A.D. refers to his conquest of Kancipura. 558 The earliest literary reference to Kanci is in the Mahabhasya of Patanjali. 559

The Mahabhasya en Varttika 26 to Panini IV. 2.104 mentions Kancipuraka (i.e. a resident of Kancipura). 560 Hiuen Tsang informs us that Kanci was 30 li or 5 miles in circuit, and that in the city there were eighty Deva temples and many here- tics called Nirgranthas. 561

The Puranas attach great importance to Kanci. 562 It is included in a list of seven holy cities of India. 563 The Brah- man da Purana 564 associates Kanci with Kasi, the two forming the two eyes of Siva. It is stated in the Barhaspatya sutra 565 that Kanci is a Sakta-ksetra. In the Devibhagavata 566 , Kanci is said to be a sthana of the Devi called Annapurna. 567 The Vamana Purana 568 mentions it as the best among the cities. The Skandapurana 569 counts it amongst the holy places. The Bhagavatapurana 570 and the Yoginitantra 571 also mention it. In Dasakumaracaritam 572 it is referred to as a city of the Dravida country.

Kanci is full of temples and shrines. Siva Kanci and Visnu Kanci form the western and eastern parts of the city, while the Jaina Kanci is known as Tiruparutti-Kunram. 573 Of the temples at Conjeevaram, the most famous are the Kamaksi temple with a Cakra placed in front of the deity, the Vaikuntha Perumal temple of Visnu and the Shiva temple of Kaila- sanatha. 574

Apart from its religious significance Kanci has been a famous centre of learning. The Pallava ruler Mahendravarman, the author of the Mattavilasa-Prahasana; Bharavi, the author

256 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

of the Kiratarjuniyam and Dandin, the author of the Dasakumar- acaritam are said to have flourished here. 575

The famous Buddhist dialectician Dinnaga came here to satisfy his intellectual and spiritual thirst and about the middle of the fourth century A.D., the brahmana Mayurasaraman, who founded the Kadamba line came here for getting recognition in Vedic learning. 576 The Adi-guru Sankaracarya established here the famous Pitha known as Kamakotipitha. 577 Literally Kanci means a 'girdle'. It seems to have been so named because it is situated like a girdle round the sea.

5. Kasi (काशी) (No. 28, L. 6) :

It is mentioned in Inscription No. 28. According to the inscription a vihara at Vata-gohali was inhabited by the disciples of the Nigrantha preceptor (Sramanacarya) Guhanandin, belonging to the Panca-stupa section (nikaya) of Kasi. 578 Evidently Vatagohali was a seat of Jain monks who had their major seat at Kasi.

The name Kasi is derived from the root Kaś 'to shine'. The Skandapurana 579 says that the city of Kasi became famous by that name because it sheds light on (the way to) nirvana or because, that indescribable refulgence, viz. god Siva shines forth here. 580 B.C. Law connects it with Ti-miao meaning 'read sprouts', a Chinese translation of the word and this links it with a certain kind of grass. 581 It has been known for centuries under five different names, viz., Varanasi (modern Banaras), Kasi, Avimukta, Anandakanana and Smasana or Mahasmasana. 582

The earliest mention of the Kasis as a tribal people occurs in the Paippalada recension of the Atharvaveda. 583 Varanasi was the capital of the people of Kasi. 584 Thus it seems that geographically Kasi represented a larger area than Varanasi, the latter being the capital of the former. But in medieval times the position became just the reverse. Varanasi comprehended the entire district and Kasi generally represented only a small place. In a grant of Maharaja Vinayakapala we get a reference to a village of Jikkarika situated in the Pratisthana-bhukti, and attached to Kasi-para-Pathaka which belonged to Varanasi visaya. 585 Kasi para-pathaka represented the site of the ancient city of the Kasi. 586 The Vividhatirthakalpa 587 also mentions

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 257

Kasi as a janapada in the Varanasi City.

The ancient kingdom of Kasi was bounded by Kosala on the north, Magadha on the east, and Vatsa on the west. The Chedis and Karusas lived to their south. 588 At the time of Buddha, the kingdom of Kasi was absorbed by the kingdom of Kosala. 589

We know that Lord Buddha gave his first discourse near Kasi in the Deer Park at Sarnath. Kasi was an important Buddhist centre and was a seat of monastic establishments in the time of Asoka. 590 During the period of Gupta rule it was on its way to become a strong centre of Siva worship with the mahalingas set up in different parts of the city. 591 The Puranas include the region in the Gupta empire. 592

It was a great centre of trade and commerce. Patanjali in his Mahabhasya 593 mentions Kasi cloth. The Buddhist literature gives us many accounts of the merchants of the city. 594

Kasi has been a place of much importance for Hindu pilgrimage. Its religious importance has been discussed at length in the Kasikhanda of the Skanda Purana. Lord Siva never leaves it, hence it is known as Avimukta. A man who dies here is believed to get emancipation. 595

6. Kosala (कोसल) (No. I, L. 19) :

It is spelt both ways with the dental as well as with the palatal sibilant. It is included in the list of the Daksinapatha kingdoms whose kings were conquered but reinstated by Samudragupta. At that time Mahendra was its ruler. It has been identified with South Kosala corresponding to modern district of Raipur, Sambalpur and Bilaspur of M.P. and Orissa. 596 Its old capital was Sripura (modern Sirpur),40 miles north-east of Raipur. 597 It is the same as Maha-kosala 598 which forms the largest unit among the three component parts of the State of Madhya Pradesh.599 The recent excavation at Eran has thrown a flood of new light on the early history of eastern Malwa and Mahakosala between the period 1900 B.C. and A.D. 600. During the Gupta period several Brahmanical temples were built in this region. In the early medieval period i.e. from A.D. 600 to 1200, the Chandellas and Kalachuris were the two chief ruling dynasties in the Mahakosala area. In the period of Muslim rule followed by Maratha supremacy, many forts and fortresses were built

258 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

by the ruling chiefs 600 in different parts of Mahakosala. Daksina Kosala is mentioned in the Ratnavali (Act IV) as having been conquered by Udayana, king of Vatsa. 601

N.L. Dey 602 identifies Daksina Kosala with Tosali of Asoka's inscription (Tosala) at Dhauli, which is situated near Bhuvaneshwar in the Puri district, Orissa. Sylvain Levi suggests an Austric origin for this wold. 'Kosala changing to Tosala is an apparent variation of the initial due to the formative prefix' 603 in the Austric languages. The country of Tosala also, like Kosal, had two divisions : Uttara Tosala and Daksina Tosala. 604 Daksina Tosala consisted of a mandala of the name of Kongoda. In some cases by mistake the reading Daksina kosala is given in place of Daksina Tosala. 605 But it is clear from other evidence that Tosala and Kosala were two separate entities. The puranas mention them separately. 606 The Kavyamimamsa also makes a separate reference to the two. 607

7. Kottura (कोट्टूर) a (No. 1, L. 19) :

It is mentioned as one of the Southern kingdoms conquered by Samudragupta. Its ruler was Svamidatta. It has been identified by N. Dubreuil with Kothoor in Ganjam. 608 Banerjee counts Svamidatta of Kottura among the three chiefs of Kalinga who obstructed the passage of Samudragupta through their country. 609

According to Fleet Kottur (from Kottapura) being a very common Dravidian name, may be looked for in any Kottura of note, in a mountainous part of Southern India, e.g. possibly Kottur in the Coimbatore district, at the foot of one of the passes in the Anaimalai Hills. 610 R. Sathianathaier proposes to identify Kottura with Kottura near Tuni (E. Godavari dis- trict) and maintains that Samudragupta did not pass through Orissa, Ganjam and Vizagapatam 611 There is another Kottura in the Vizagapatam district. 612 But the generally accepted view is to identify it with Kothoor in Ganjam.

8. Kurala (कुराळ) (No. I, L. 19) :

It has been mentioned as one of the kingdoms of Daksinapatha subdued by Samudragupta. Its ruler was Mantaraja. Fleet suggests that Kauralaka is a mistake for Kairalaka, denoting the well known province Kerala in the South of India. 613 D.R. Bhandarkar 614 identifies this Kerala with the Sonpur

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 259

territory in C.P. round about Yayatinagara where the author of the Pavanaduta locates the Keralas. Barnett identified it with modern village Korada in South India. 615 Kurala is taken by Kielhorn 616 to be the same as Kunala mentioned in the Aihole inscription of Pulakesin II 617 and identified with the Kolleru lake between the Godavari and the Krishna. 618 But DR. Bhandarkar 619 objects to this view on the ground that the Kolleru lake must have been included in the kingdom of Verigi mentioned later on 620 in the same list in the inscription. G.Ramdas 621 seems to be right when he observes that Kurala must be the plain country of the Ganjam district to the north-east of the Mahendra hill now chiefly occupied by the Oriyas.

9. Nepala (नेपाल) (No. I, L. 22) :

It is mentioned as one of the border states which accepted the subordination of Samudragupta. Some take it to refer to Tippera 622 which is doubtful. 623 The city is said to have been founded by Ne rsi who performed his religious services at the junction of the Bagmati and Kesavati and who also ruled over the country. 624 The Nepala valley originally contained a lake called Naga Basa or Kalihrada, in which lived Naga Karkotaka. It was fourteen miles in length and four miles in breadth 625

The former name of Nepala was Slesmatakavana. 626 The famous temple of Pasupatinatha on the western bank of the Bagmati river, is situated about three miles north west of Kathmandu in the town of Devipatan said to have been founded by Asoka's daughter Carumati. 627 The Saktisangama Tantra describes the country of Nepala as placed between Jaṭesvara and Yogini. 628 Sircar equates Yoginipura with Delhi and Jatesvara with Jalpesvara, the famous Siva of the Jalpaiguri district in North Bengal. 629

Nepala was a buffer state in the 7th century A.D. In the 8th century A.D. she shook of its domination by Tibet. 630 According to the Deopara inscription, Nanyadeva, the ruler of Nepala, is said to have been defeated and imprisoned with many other princes by Vijayasena, about the middle of the 12ih century A.D. 631

10. Palakka (पलक्क) (No. I, L. 20) : It has been mentioned as one of the kingdoms of Southern

260 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

India whose kings were first conquered and then released by Samudragupta. Its ruler was Ugrasena. Palakka has been identified with Palakkada, the capital of a Pallava viceroyalty and was situated in the Nellore district. 632 Law is inclined to identify Palakkada with Palakaluru in the Guntur taluka. 633 Allan and G. Ramdas locate it in the Nellore district. 634 Smith places Palakka in the Nellore district. 635 Dubreuil, however, identifies Palakka with a capital of the same name which was situated to the South of the Krishna and which is mentioned in many Pallava Copper Plates. 636 The kingdom of Palakka might have extended westwards beyond the region now occupied by the districts of Auddepal and North Arcot. 637 It was perhaps situated to the west of Kanci on the Eastern Ghats. 638

11. Pratyanta (प्रत्यन्त) (No. 1, L. 22) :

It is mentioned in Inscription No. 1 that the kings of frontier (or border) states 'Samatata, Davaka, Kamarupa, Nepala and Kartrpura' gratified the imperious commands of Samudrgupta, by giving all (kinds of) taxes and obeying (his) orders and coming to perform obeisance. 639 We also find a reference to Pratyanta in the Girnar Rock Edict No. 2 of Asoka. 640

Law 641 contrasts between Aryavarta and Pratyanta. He takes Pratyanta to mean the Mleccha country and quotes the Amarakosa, Divyavadana, Abhidhanachintamani and Smrti- candrika. 642 But in the inscription 643 the contrast is between Daksinapatha and Aryavarta while the word Atavikaraja breaks the link between Aryavarta and Pratyanta. Moreover, all the border states mentioned in the inscription could not have been Mleccha and inhabited by Kiratas. 644 The word Pratyanta and its substitutes in the Asokan edicts also refer to the frontier states.

12. Samatata (समतट) (No.1, L. 22) :

It is one of the frontier kingdoms which offered their sub- mission to Samudragupta. 645 Sen 646 remarks that Samudragupta reduced the king of Samatata to the rank of a subordinate prince who had to part with most of his powers and was 'allowed to rule over a much reduced dominion as a vassal of the emperor'. Retaining only the control of its internal administration, he had to pay various kinds of taxes to Samudragupta, attend his durbars, render obeisance to him and gratify

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 261

his imperious commands. 647 Samatata is the only territory in Bengal to be referred to in the Allahabad Prasasti. 648 The first epigraphic reference to Samatata is to be found in this inscription. 649 Literally the name means 'the shore country' or 'Level country'. 650 'Samatata in the Gupta period denoted a territory lying to the east of the Brahmaputra'. The Brhatsamhita mentions it as a country situated in the East. 651 The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang proceeded from Kamarupa southwards and after a journey of 1,200 or 1,300 li (6 li- 1 mile) reached the country of Samatata. According to him, this country was on the seaside and was low and moist and was more than 3,000 li in circuit. 652 From Samatata, the pilgrim journeyed towards the West for over 900 li and reached Tanmolihti, 653 or Tamralipta, the modern Tamluk in the Midnapur district. 654 Samatata, therefore, must have been the South-eastern part of the Bengal presidency corresponding to the Dacca, Faridpur, Backerganj, Jessore and Khulna districts. 655

It is known from the Baghaura Inscription 656 that the Tipperah district was in Samatata. The Arya-Manjusri Mula- kalpa states that Samatata was situated to the east of the Lohitya. 657 The Yadavaprakasa equates Bhaurika with Samatata. 658

Epigraphical evidence, however, shows that Samatata comprised the districts of Comilla, Noakhali and Sylhat. 659 Its capital Karmmanta has been identified with Bad-Kamata, 12 miles west of Comilla district. 660 After the rule of the Guptas, Samatata was successively under the Khadga, Candra, Varman and Sena dynasties. 661

13. Vengi (वेंगी) (No. 1, L. 20) :

Inscription No. 1 mentions it with its king Hastivarmman who was subjugated by Samudragupta. It seems to be an abbreviated form of Vehgipura by dropping the suffix Pura. 662 It is identified with Vegi or Pedda-vegi, a village near Ellore Taluka between the Krishna and the Godavari rivers. 663 Banerjee describes it as one of the Pallava kingdoms of South. 664 But the capital of the Pallavas was Kanci. Vengi was the capital of theChalukyan kings 665 and was also known as Vengai-nadu. 666

262 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

Names of Localities

1. Avadara (अवडर) (No. 46, L. 10):

Kaivartti-sresthin is mentioned as the resident of Avadara. 667 Avadara is the only geographical name mentioned in the inscription. It appears to have been a locality near modern Supia, in Old Rewah State, from where the inscription has been found. The name is difficult to explain.

2. Himavacchikhara (हिमवच्छिखर) (No. 36, L. 5, L. 10) :

Literally meaning 'the peak of the Himalayas' it has been identified with Barahachatra (Varahaksetra) in Nepal, 668 which is the same as the Kokamukha tirtha mentioned in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. 669 The original temples of the gods Kokamukha and Svetavaraha referred to in the record 670 along with Himavac-Chikhara, were situated at this place. 671

3. Nasti (नष्टी) (No. 5, LL. 4-5) :

The second part of the word is not legible. It seems to have been the name of a town in the Sukuli desa. The meaning of the word is not clear. It must have been a place near Sanchi in the Madhya Pradesh.

4. Pancakulyavapaka (पंचकुल्यवापक) (No. 37, L. 16) :

The Damodarpur Copper Plate Inscription of the time of Bhanugupta (No, 37) records that one kulyavapa of land was purchased to the north of Pancakulyavapaka. Literally it means 'a plot of land five kulyavapas in area : It seems to refer to a village or locality comprising five kulyavapas of land. 672 A kulyavapa is 'an area of land requiring one kulya measure of seed grains to be sown' . 673 This land measure differed in different ages and localities. Maity 674 gives this area of five kulyavapas in terms of modern measurements as follows :

5 Kulyavapas (कुल्यवाप)= 1 pāṭaka =192-240 bighas =72-88 acres and believes the lower figures to be more correct.

5. Paraspatika (परस्पतिका) (No. 37, L. 16) :

It seems to be the name of a locality. The metathesis of two letters 's' and 'p' seems to have worked here. Its correct Sanskrit form should have been 'Parapastika'. The word 'prapasti' means a house, habitation or abode. 675

6. Trivrta (त्रिवृता) (No. 44, L. 2, L. 8, L. 15) :

In L. 2, two localities named Trivrta and Srigohali have been

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 263

mentioned as connected with the village named Vayigrama. 676 Literally it means 'surrounded or covered by three sides'. It seems that when the locality was founded the city was surrounded by some natural boundary on its three sides. This may have been in the form of rivulets or streams or hillocks.

Tribal place Names

Following are the place-names which have tribal associations without any mention of the specific boundary :

1. Aryavartta (अर्यावर्त्त) (No. 1, L. 12) :

Samudragupta is stated to have violently exterminated many kings of Aryavarta such as Rudradeva, Matila, Nagadatta, Chandravarman, Ganapatinaga, Nagasena, Achyuta, Nandin and Balavarman. 677 We also find references to Aryavarta in other epigraphic records. 678

Literally Aryavarta 679 means 'the abode of the Aryas, or excellent or noble people'. The word 'Arya' here is significant.

It has been interpreted in two ways : some scholars derive the word Arya from the root √Ar, to plough, and suggest that the Vedic Aryans were so called because they despised the pursuits of agriculture and remained shepherds and hunters. 680

"If Arya were purely a racial term, a more probable derivation would be Ar, meaning strength or valour, from √ar to fight, whence we have the name of the Greek war-god Ares, areios, brave or warlike, perhaps even arete, virtue signifying, like the Latin virtues, first physical strength and courage and then moral force and elevation". 681 "Intrinsically, in its most fundamental sense, Arya means an effort or an uprising or overcoming. The Aryan is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that stands opposed to the human advance." 682 Wilson says that a variety of ancient designations of which 'Aria' is a component element (cf. Ariana) are connected with the term Arya. The Zend name for the country to the west of the Indus was 'Eriene-veejo', that is the Sanskrit Aryavarta. 683

In defining the boundaries of Aryavarta, Vasistha and Baudhayana in their Dharmasutras lay stress on the word Arya and explain it to mean śiṣṭa. Patanjali also in his Maha-

264 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

bhasya first explains the meaning of sista in order to draw attention to the cultural basis of the name Aryavarta. He remarks that correct conduct is found in Aryavarta and then mentions its boundaries. 684

In the Brahmana period the centre of Aryan culture and civilization shifted to the Gangetic Doab "Aryavarta came to be treated as conterminous with the region between the Ganga and Yamuna. 685 In the Taittiriya Aranyaka 686 special honour is assigned to those who dwell between the Ganga and the Yamuna. In the Sutra period Aryavarta extended from the hills of Central Rajasthan to the hills of Central Bihar. 687

At the time of Patanjali, 688 Aryavarta was bounded on the north by the Himalayas, on the south by Pariyatraka, on the west by Adarsavali and on the east by Kalakavana (Rajmahal hills) 'Black Forest' or rather Kanakhala, near Hardwar. 689

Thus it seems that Aryavarta bore a sacerdotal sense and denoted a particularly limited area where Aryan institutions were the basis of social order. 690

What was originally called Aryavarta was later named as Madhya-desa and Aryavarta came to include the whole of Northern India. This is related to the gradual spread of Arya- nism. 691 Brahmavarta and Brahmarsidesa lost their identity in the Madhya-desa and combined with Pracya, Praticya and Udicya (Uttarapatha) became the equivalent of Aryavarta. 692 Both Udicya and Pracya were taken as the home (loka) of standard Sanskrit both in Panini's time and earlier. In the time of Patanjali, Aryavarta came to be regarded as the home of the Sistas (persons proficient in the Sastras) whose language set the norm. 693

By the second century A.D., the last limit of the composition of the Manu-smrti, the wider outlook of Aryavarta was popular. It was the name of the tract extending from the Eastern to the Western Ocean, and bounded on the north and south by the Himalaya and Vindhya respectively. 694 This is supported by the Kavyamimamsa of Raja Sekhara. 695 Rajasekhara speaks of the river Narmada as the dividing line between Aryavarta and the Daksinapatha. 696 In Inscription No. 1, L. 29 Aryavarta is contrasted with Daksinapatha, 'the southern region'. 697 The wider sense of Aryavarta is also supported by

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 265

references in the Abhidhana Chintamani 698 and the Rajatarangini.699

2. Kakanadabota (काकनादबोट) (No. 5, L. 1; No.23, L.2) :

In both the inscriptions, we find reference to a grant to the Arya Samgha or the Community of the faithful, at the great Vihara, or Buddhist convent of Kakanadabota, 700 for the purpose of feeding mendicants and maintaining lamps.

D.C. Sircar takes 'Kakanadabota' to be the old name of Sanchi. 701 Fleet is of the view that the Kakanadabota convent is the Great Stupa itself. According to him the word Bota is another form of Pota (पोट) which means 'the foundation of a house'. 702 Fleet further writes that the name 'Kakanada' lit. 'the noise of the crow' was the ancient name of Sanchi it self which is proved by its occurrence in two inscriptions in Mauryan characters found at Sanchi. 703

Thus, it is clear that Kakanada was the ancient name of Sanci in the Bhopal State, now Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, well-known for its Buddhist topes. 704 The word 'bota' is thus a surplus and joined by 'Kakanada' will refer to the great stupa itself. Its form Pota meaning the foundation of a house is untenable bacause the word 'vihara' in that very sense appears in the inscriptions. The word 'bota' has been used here in the sense of an ascetic cult. 705 It is a Prakrit word which has been used here to refer to 'the Buddhist cult'. Thus the relevant expression means 'in the holy great vihara of the Buddhist cult (assembly) at Kakanada'.

Fleet is wrong in translating the word Kakanada to mean 'the noise of the crow'. 706 K.P. JayaswaPs rendering 'the praise of the Kakas' 707 is more to the point. We know of the Kakas, an autonomous community mentioned in the Allahabad Inscription of Samudragupta. 708 In Eastern Malwa we have two ancient place-names connected with the Kakas. One is the hill now called Sanci hill (the ancient) Kakanada. The other is an ancient village called Kaka-pura, some 20 miles north of Bhilsa, and full of ancient monuments. 709

3. Uttara Kuru (उत्तर कुरु) (No. 22, L. 7) :

A person named Samkara is described in the inscription as born in the region of the north, the best of countries, which resembles ( in beautitude) the land of the Northern Kurus. 710

266 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

The Kurus had two branches, the northern and the southern. Uttarakuru or the country of the Northern Kurus, is supposed to be a region beyond the most northern range of the Himalaya mountains, and is described as a country of everlasing happiness. 711 We have discussed in details, the Kurus, in the section on tribes. The Brhatsamhita 712 mentions it as a country situated in the North. In the later period the Uttarakurus had only a mythical or legendary existence.

4. Vanga (वंग) (No. 20, L. I) :

In this inscription, king Candra, "on whose arm fame was inscribed by the sword, when in battle in Vanga countries, is stated to have kneaded back with his breast the enemies who, uniting together, came against him". 713 This is taken by scholars 714 to be the first epigraphic mention of Vanga. The Vangas here mean the 'Vanga country' the eastern Bengal of modern times. Bajpai is of the opinion that the Vangas of the Meharauli Pillar Inscription of Candra (No. 20) are the people living in the Makaran coast of Baluchistan. 715 But the Vangas here denote country and not the people. Moreover, the victory of king Candra over the Vanga countries has no connection with his conquest of the Vahlikas. Both are separately mentioned in his campaign. In Sanskrit the tribal name in the plural is regularly used to indicate the country inhabited by the tribe. 716 The Vanga countries are also referred to in the Mahakuta Pillar Inscription, 717 but in the inscriptions after the 9th century A.D. the word Vangala is usually mentioned. 717

The earliest mention of the Vangas along with the Magadhas is in the Aitareya Aranyaka. 719 The name is also found in the Baudhayana Dharma-Sutra 720 where the Vangas are mentioned as impure people. 721 But the Drama Tratijna-Yaugandha-rayana' (Act II), ascribed to Bhasa and probably not older than the 4th century A.D., suggests that the ruling families of Bengal were regarded as equals to those of Northern India for intermarriage with the royal family of Malava. 722

The people of Vanga are stated to have fought in the Kurukshetra war 723 and, in course of his expedition Bhisma is said to have defeated Samudrasena of Vanga. 724 The Kasika mentions Vangaka to explain Panini's sutra (IV.3.100) denoting

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 267

loyalty of the citizen to the state. 725 Panini mentions Vangi (the lady of Vanga Janapada) along with Avanti, Kuru and Yaudheyi. 726 Patanjali also refers to the Vangas by way of illustration. 727 Kautilya makes similar references to the country. 728 The Bhagavata Purana also mentions it as a country. 729 Kalidasa states that Raghu after conquering the Sumhas, 730 defeated the Vangas with his force. 731 The Kavyamimamsa mentions Vanga as a janapada situated in the east. 732 The Brhatsamhita also mentions it in the east along with Upa-Vanga. 733 ,

According to the Mahabharata 734 Vanga, son of Bali, had established this country. The AmarakoSa 735 mentions Vanga as a synonym of Ranga (lead), but lead is not available in Bengal and is found in abundance in Malaya, Pegu and East Indies. People in other parts of India may have received lead through the people of East Bengal. Susruta also uses Vanga in the same sense as Amara does 736

R.C Banerji 737 , on the basis of the Ablur Inscription of the Kalacuri king Bijjala 738 takes Vanga and Vangala as two distinct people or tribes. This view has been correctly refuted by S.B.Chaudhuri 739 who concludes that Vangala was within Vanga and hence was not altogether a separate geographical entity as is maintained by some.

The confusion may be due to the fact that the geographical location of the Vanga country changed in different periods. The same country Vanga was known as Vangala with the addition of the Prakrit suffix 'ala' 740 which was transliterated by the Muslims as Bangalah (pronouncing Bangala) in their script 741 and this was changed into Bengal by the English people.

The Yadavaprakasa equates Vanga with Harikeli 742 but the Kalpadrukosa, a work of the seventeenth century states that Srihatta is Harikeli. 743 The commentary of Yasodhara on the Kamasutra refers to Vanga as situated to the east of the Brahmaputra. 744

References

1-200

1. Fz. p. 879, col. 2.

2. iv. 42, 1; VII, 34, 11; 84. 2; X. 109, 3; 124, 4 etc., vide Vg. Vol. II, p. 223.

268 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

3. Atharvaveda, X.3.12; XII, X. 8; XIII, I, 35; Vajasaneyi Samhita, IX.23; XX. 8; Taittiriya Samhita, i, 6, 10, 3; iii, 5/7, 3; V. 7.4.4. Taittiriya Brahmana, 1,2, 1, 13, etc. Maitrayanl, Samhita iii, 3, 7; 7.4, 8. 6; iv, 6, 3 ide Vg. Vol. II, p.

4. Manu, VII, 157 : अमरकोष 2 8.17 223.

5- अमरकोष 3.3.184

6. A.S. Altekar, (Kz)2 (2nd edn.), p. 202.

7. GJ. XV, p. 257; GJ. XVI. 276.

8. Ed. by T. Ganapati Shastri, 18.7 :

नगरं वर्जयित्वान्यत् सर्वं जनपद समृत:।
नगरेण समं कृत्सनं राष्ट्रं देशोअथ मंडलम् ।।

9. Samarahganasutradhara, ed. by T.G. Shastri, 10.83 :;

नवग्रामसहस्त्राणि नवति (श्च?) प्रचक्षते ।
चतुः षषिटमपि ग्रामन् ज्यायो राष्ट्रं विदुर्बुधा: ।।

10. Ibid., 10.84

दशार्धं च सहस्त्राणि ग्रामाणां त्रिशती तथा ।
ग्रामाश्च्तुर्शीतिश्च माध्यमं राष्ट्रमीरितम् ।।

11. Ibid., 10.85

सहस्त्रमेकं ग्रामाणां तद्वच्च शतपंचकम् ।
द्यना च ग्रामपंचाशत् कनीयो राष्ट्रमुच्यते ।।

12. Ibid., 10.87 Ed. D.N. Shukla, Hindi Trans., p. 108.

राष्ट्रेश्वेवं विभक्तेषु यथाभागं विधानवित् ।
निवेशयेत् पुराण्येशु सप्त सप्त यथागमम् ।।

13. N.L. Dey, NX. Preface, p. 2.

14. Wg. II Band (Volume), p. 363.

15. GJ. XXIV, p. 260 : GJ. XV, p. 257 : GJ. IX, p. 304 vide A.S. Altekar, (Kzj 2 , pp. 201-202.

16. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 55.

17. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, part II, p. 34.

18. Fy. Vol. I, p. 116.

19. Yx. p. 150 Cf., IJ. Vol. XIII, pp. 88-89.

20. H.C. Raychaudhuri, Az. p. 454.

21. Jx. pp. 77-78, f.n. 15; GJ. XXIII. 57. 'The grant in question records that Anantavarman's grandfather Gunavarman ruled over Devarastra, which must have been the kingdom of the same name conquered by Samudragupta, and is identical with a taluka in the Vizagapa-tam district. Although it is treated separately from Pistapur in the emperor's Allahabad inscription, the plate of Anantavarman indicates that he was ruling over Davarastra, and Pitapur was the chief city of the kingdom.

22. D.B. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part, II, p. 34.

23. IJ. Vol. XIII. p. 89

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 269

24. No. 28, LL. 2-3 :मूलानागिरट्टप्रावेश्यनित्वगोहालीषु....

No. 28, LL. 8-9 :मूलानागिरट्टप्रावेश्य-नित्वगोहालीत:....
No. 28, L. 15 :मूलानागिरट्टप्रावेश्यनित्वगोहालीतो....
Cf. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 117.

25. L. 8. v. 11

सर्व्वेषु भृत्येष्वपि संहतेषु, यो मे प्रशिश्यान्नि खिलान्सुराष्ट्रान् ।
आं ज्ञातमेक: खलु पर्णदत्तो, भरास्य तस्योद्वहने समर्थ: ।।

26. L.9. V. 12 :

एवं विनिश्चत्य नृपाधिपेन, नैकानहोरात्रगणान्स्वमत्या ।
य: संनियुक्तोअर्थनया कथंचित्, सम्यक्सुराष्ट्रावनि-पालनाय ।।

27. Ibid., verses. 11, 12

28. L. 9, V. 13 :

नियुज्य देवा वरुणं प्रतीच्यां, स्वस्था यथा नोन्मनसो बभूवु: ।
पूर्वेतरस्यां दिशि पर्णदत्तं, नियुज्य राजा धृतिमांस्तथाभूत् ।।

29. H.D. Sankalia, Pz. p. 9.

30. Ibid., p. 50.

31. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 178, L. 11.

32. Ibid-, p. 177, L.8. Cf. B.C. Law, Yx., p. 298.

33. D.C. Sircar, Oz. p. 33.

34. :काव्यमीमांसा, सप्तदशोअध्याय: p. 236 ,

35. Brahatsamhita XIV :V. 19, p. 121.

36. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 183. Dasakumaracarita, Chapter VI.

37. S.B. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 152.

38. Adikanda, Ch. XII : Ayodhyakanda X, Kikindhyakanda, XLI

39. I.I.I.

40. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 298 ; Chaudhuri, Jx. pp. 152-53

41. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 298.

42. Ibid., p. 154.

43. Fz. p. 759, col. 3.

44. A.S. Altekar, (Kz) 2 , p. 202.

45. Ibid., GJ. XXV, p. 265.

46. GJ. XV, pp. 129 ff. 'When the Mitakara on Yaj. I. 319 states that only a king can make the grant of land and not a bhogapati, it is obviously referring to the head of this large territorial division' vide Ibid.; Altekar, (Kz) 2 , p. 202 f.n. 2.

47. A.S. Altekar, (Kz) 2 , p. 202.

48. Ibid., p. 203.

49. N.L. Dey, NX. Preface p. i.

50. K.K. Gopal, JJ., March and June 1963, p. 81.

51. (Dx) 1 , p. 216, L. 6.

52. CJ. Vol. XV, pp. 104-117 : GJ. XX, p. 61.

53. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 243.

54. Visnu Pur ana, II, pp. 134, 170 :Dey, NX. p. 161.

55. R.C. Majumdar, Cg. Vol. I, pp, 24-25.

56. B.C. Sen, (Kz)1 p. 104.

270 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

57. VII, 18.

58. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 p. 104,.

59. XIV, p. 119, V. 7: उदयगिरिमद्रगौडकपौण्ड्रौत्कलकाशिमेकलाम्बष्ठा:

60. Kavyamimamsa Saptadasho adhyay p.235

61. N.L. Dey, NX. pp. 161-162 . B.C. Law, Yx. p. 247.

62. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 248.

63. Fz. p. 997, Col. I : from वि+सि to extend.

64. IV. 2.52-54

65. V. S. Agrawala, Jy. p. 37.

66. IV. 2.52.

67. V.S. Agrawala, Jy. pp. 497-98.

68. IV. 2.52-54.

69. IV. 2.54.

70. V.S. Agrawala, Jy. p. 498.

71. A.S. Altekar, (Kz) 2 , p. 208.

72. R.C. Majumdar, Cg. Vol. I, p. 23.

73. HJ. 1910, p. 195, 204.

74. XJ. No. 66, p. 45, ff.

75. गया-वैषयिके-रेवतिका ग्रामे....

76. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 219.

77. R.L. Mitra's S. 1878 : Cunningham's Mahabodhi, 1892 : Ex. Vol. XII. (also his article in LJ. 1903, LXXII, No. 3, pp. 1-11) : B.M. Barua's Gaya and Buddha-Gaya, Vols. MI, 1934 : J.C. Ghosh's article in NJ. Vol.XXIV, 1938, pp. 89-111 :P.V. Kane's (Zx) 1 . Vol. IV, 1953, pp. 642-79 : Sircar, Oz. pp. 224-30 : For a Chinese Inscription at Buddha-Gaya : HJ.X, pp. 339-40. NJ. Vol. XL. Part I, 1954, pp. 1-7.

78. Rgveda X. 63.17 : X.64.17.

79. I. 14.4.

80. Kane, (Zx) 1 . Vol. IV, p. 645.

81. Ch. 112, 4-5, for story of Gayasura, see Kane, (Zx)1 . Vol. IV, pp. 656-57.

82. S. p. 17.

83. Rgveda I. 22.17.

84. निरुक्त - 12.19 : त्रेधा निधाते पदम् । पृथिव्यामंतरिक्षे दिवीति शाकपूणि: । समारोहणे विष्णुपदे गयशिरसि इति और्णवाभ:।।

Aurnavabha is believed by scholars to have flourished between 700 and 500 B.C. : See B.C. Sircar, Oz. pp. 229.

85. Sircar, Oz. p. 226.

86. Ibid., p. 227.

87. Ayodhyakanda, Ch. 107.

88. V. Ch. 15.

89. Ch. 34.

90. Ch. 107.

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 271

91. IV. Ch. 11.

92. Ch. 76.

93. XII. 87-88.

94. Vayu Pur ana, ch. 105 ff. etc.

95. D.C. Sircar, Oz. p. 224. Cf. M.S. Pandey, Bg. p. 122.

96. M.S. Pandey, Bg. pp. 122-23.

97. Ibid., p. 121.

98. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 64.

99. Ch. 84, verses 82-98 : ch. 87. verses 8-12 : ch. 88, 14.

100. Ayodhyakanda, 107, 13.

101. Vayu Purana, II, chs. 105 ff : 'Gaya-mahatmya' : Kurma Purana, 30.45-48 : Brahma Purana, 67.19, Agni Purana, 109. Cf. D.C. Sircar, Oz pp. 225-26.

102. It has been discussed in detail by Kane in his History of Dharmasastra Vol. IV., pp. 662-79, L.S.S.O.' Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers, Gaya Vol. Ill, 1906, pp. 59-72.

103. विज्ञापिता इह खादा (टा) पार-विषये...

104. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 110.

105. Ibid.

106. महाखुषापर D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 288, f.n. 5.

107. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 230.

108. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 107.

109. Majumdar, Cg. Vol. T, p. 25 : Law, Jx. p. 188, f.n.4.

110. JJ. XIX, p. 224 'Yadavaprakasa on the Ancient Geography of India'.

111. Vol. I, chap. XXIII, v. 196.

112. Xy. p. 262, col. 2, see कोटीवरिस.

113. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 106.

114. Abhidhanachintamani, 390.

115. Trikandadesa, 32.

116. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 pp. 106-107.

117. Ibid., p. 106 : UJ, 1896, p. 112 : LJ (NS), Vol. V, pp : 215-16.

118. Fz. p. 926, col. 3, Cf. Bharatavarsa.

119. S.M. Ali, (Ox) 1 , pp. 7 and 52.

120. 3.3. 56.

121. In the Vedic times we said, "जीवेम शरद: शातम्"

See समा: (Cf. Summer) for year : "माँ निषाद ! प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगम: शाश्वती समा:, उत्तररामचरित २.५; काव्यमीमांसा, तृतीयोअध्याय पृ.१८ The use of वर्ष (वर्षा) is very popular now-a-days. Vasanta was also used : 'कति वसन्ता: यापिता: भुवि ?'

122. D.C. Sircar, Oz. p. 197.

123. XJ. No. 66, pp. 34, 54.

124. D C. Sircar, Oz. p. 197.

125. Monghyr Plate of Devapala, GJ., XXVIII, p. 304 ff.

126. I, 31,24-28 '.... कृमेस्तु कृमिलापुरी

272 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

127. 99, 18-22.

128. III. 74.

129. Sy. D.C. Sircar, "The City of Krmila" ; M.S. Pandey, Bg. p. 159.

130. (Dx) 2 Vol. I, pp. 604-06.

131. D.C. Sircar, Sy. pp. 275-76.

132. Ibid.

133. M.S. Pandey, Bg. p. 159.

134. Vol. II, p. 642 (Pt. II, Pali Text Society)

135. M. S. Pandey, Loc. cit., p. 159.

136. D.C. Sircar, Oz. p. 196.

137. Ibid., p. 197.

138. D.C. Sircar, 'The ancient city and district of Krmila', JJ.XXVI, June 1950, No. 2 : Abhidhanacintamani, V. 558.

139. लाट-विषयान्नागावृत-शैलाज्जगति प्रथित-शिल्पा:।।

140. H.D. Sankalia, Pz. p. 9, Cf. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 114.

141. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 114.

142. Ibid.

143. GJ. XXIV, Pt. Ill, July 1937, p. 110.

144. Ibid., IX. pp. 278-80, LJ. Vol. VIII, p. 292; Dey, NX. p. 114.

145. Pali Lalarattha

146. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 287.

147. Ibid.

148. D.C. Sircar, Oz. p. 79 : Saktisangama Tantra, Book III, Chapter VII. v. 55.

अवन्तीत: पश्चिमे तु वैदर्भाद्दक्षिणोत्तरे । लाटदेश: समाख्यातो....

149. Qy. pp. 38, 152-53.

150. Fz. p. 900, col. 2.

151. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 114.

152. वैव्यवैषयिक

153. Xy.p. 822, col. 2.

154. VI. 1.2 (Arthasastra); Manu, VII, 155-57.

155. K.K. Gopal, JJ. March to June 1963, pp. 83-4.

156. H.D. Sankalia, Pz. p. 43.

157. No. 28, LL. 1-2. दक्षिणांशकवीथेय-नागिरट्ट- मांडलिक...

158. Fz. p. 775, col. 3.

159. D.C. Sircar, Hz., p. 360, f.n. 1.

160. No. 52, L. 7

....उत्तरमांडलिक-कांतेडदक-ग्रामे...

161. (Dx) 1 . p. 21.

162. If connotation is the same as in Mauryan period. See Altekar, (Kz) 2 , p. 206. Rajjukas who may correspond to the modern Divisional Commissioners were also known as PradeSikas.

163. (Dx) 1 . p. 161 : The word viaya means a district, L. 7 '

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 273

164. स्वविषयेअस्मिन्नेरिकिणे कारित: । स्वभोगनगरैरिकिण-प्रदेशे ।।

165. Ay. p. 141.

166. (Dx) 1 , p. 21.

167. PJ. Vol. XIV, 1935, p. 29

168.

विप्रैरथान्यैर्वर्णौंर्वा भोग्यो ग्राम उदाहृत: ।
एको ग्रामणिको यत्र सभृत्यपरिचारक: ।।
कुटिकं तद्विजानीयादेकभोग: स एव तु ।
जनै: परिवृतं द्रव्यं क्रय-विक्रयकारिभि: ।।


169. PJ. Vol.xiV, 1935, p. 29.

170. See the inscription, (Dx) 1 , pp. 20-21.

171. (Dx) 1 , pp. 160-61.

172. Ibid., PJ. Vol. XIV, 1935, p. 29 : See editor's note.

173. Ibid., 'For a certain large division, the administrator is given as his salary the revenues of a nagara. Anybody, therefore, who governed a division in which Eran was an important city or even the Capital city, with the revenues of which allotted to him as assignment instead of salary, would be entitled to describe it by the term as svabhoga'.

174. (Dx) 1 , pp. 160-61.

175. Ibid., p 18, see also f.n. 2.

176. एरिकिण-एरकण-एरण |

177. Fz. p. 232, col. I. In vernacular it is known as Er.aka.

178. Ibid. p. 496, col. 2.

179. (Dx) 1 , pp. 32-33, f.n. 7.

180. Aitareya Brahmana, viii, 10.

181. xxxiv, 11.

182. See Mleccha in the Chapter on the 'Names of the Tribes'.

183. Fz. p. 875, col. I.

184. Vg. Vol. II, pp. 220-21.

185. viii, 12.4.5. Cf. Sankhayana Srauta Sutra, XVII. 16, 3.

186. Airavata : from Iravat, a descendant of Iravat : name of a naga or mythical serpent, Atharvaveda VIII, 10.29. Name of Indra's elephant (considered as the prototype of the elephant race) : produced from ocean. See Fz. p. 234, col. 2.

187. No. 35, LL. 2-9.

188. Fz. p. 1005, col. 1 : Vithi is perhaps formed from Vvi : cf. I. vita : In Punjabi language vitha means a place in between the two things. Vithi is that which possesses a vitha. We know the formation of a street it possesses the row of houses on both the sides and place in between is named as Vithi.

189. No. 28, LL. 1-2:

स्वस्ति (।।) पुण्ड्रवर्धनादायुक्तक: आर्य्यनगरश्रेष्ठि-पुरोगञ्चा -धिष्ठानाधिकरणम् दक्षिणांशकवीथेय-नागिरट्ट-मांडलिक पलाशाट्टपार्श्विक...

190. No. 28, LL. 1-2.

191. BJ. Vol. IX, Oct. .1927, Pt. I. Earnest P. Horrwitz, Bx. p. 300.

274 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

192. Fz. p. 582, col. 2, V.S. Apte; Gz. Vol. II, p. 958.

193. ed. by T.G. Sastri, 10/12 : ed. D.N. Shukla, Hindi Trans, p. 1.3.

194. Baudhayana Dharma-Sutra, i, 1,2. 13 vide Vg. I, p. 336. Aitareya Brahmana, IV, 17, 8 : Chandogya Upanisad, VIIl, 6, 2. vide Vg. II, p. 141.

195. No. 43, LL. 22-23

पश्चिमेन गुल्मागंधिका-ग्राम-सीमानाभि (श्चे ) ति कुल्यबा (वा) प (मे) को गुल्मागंधिकायां पूर्व्वेणाद्यपथ:।

196. No. 1, L. 20 : सर्व्वदक्षिणापथराज-ग्रहण-मोक्षानुग्रहजनित- प्रतोपान्मिश्र महाभाग्यस्य

197. No. 1, LL. 19-20 :कौसलक महेन्द्र-महाकान्तारकव्याघ्रराज कौरालकमण्टराज- पैष्टपुरकमहेन्द्रगिरि-कौटूरकस्वामिदत्तैरण्ड-पल्लकदमन-काञ्चेयकविष्नुगोपवमुक्त-कनीलराज- वैङ्गयेक-हस्तिवर्म्म-पाल्लकोग्रसेन-दैवराष्ट्रक-कुबेर-कौस्थलपुरक-धनञ्जय-प्रभृति-सर्व्वदक्षिणापथ राज....

198. D.C. Sircar, Hz. pp. 193 and 195.

199. Ibid., p. 178.

200. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 205, L. 11.

201-400

201. Deccan is the anglicised form of 'Dakkhan' which is a corruption of the original Daksjnapatha.

202. i, 1, 2, 13.

203. X. 61, 8.

204. Vg. Vol. I, p. 337.

205. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 52 : B.C. Law, Yx. p. 14.

206. Dey, NX. p. 52.

207. JJ. XIX, p. 214, Yadavaprakasa on the 'Ancient Geography of India'.

208. काव्यमीमांसा सप्तदशो अध्याय पृ. २३६:

माहिष्मत्या:परतो दक्षिणापथ:। यत्र महाराष्ट्रमाहिषकाश्मकविदर्मकुन्तलक्रथकैशिक- सूर्पारक काञ्चीकेरलकावेर-मुरलवनवासक-सिन्हलचोडदण्डकपाण्डयपल्लवगाङ्गनाशिक्य-कोङ्कणकोल्लगिरिवल्लर-पृभतयो जनपदा:।

209. i, 53, 7 : 58, 8 : 131, 4 : 166, 8 : iil. 15. 4 : iv. 27.1 etc. vide Vg. Vol. I, p. 538.

210. TaittiriyaAranyaka, I. 11, 18, 31, 4.

211. Amita Ray, Xg. p. 47.

212. Ibid.

213. B. p. 285 note : p. 523 Tamil : Purai "house, dwelling, small room, Malyalam : pura 'house(esp. thatched house), but, room... Sanskrit pura ... cf. AmaraKoSa, 3.3.184 gives the meaning of Pura as house, city etc.

214. Alois Walde : Wg. II Band (Volume) : Manfred Mayrhofer : A.I. 1953.

215. H.R. Hall, Tz. 1952, pp. 190-91.

216. A.S. Altekar, (Kz)2, p. 225.

217. Taittirly? Brahmana, i, 7,7, 5 : Aitareya Brahmana, i, 23 : ii. 11 : Satapatha Brahmana, iii, 4, 4, 3 : vi, 3, 3, 25 : xi, I, I, 2, 3 : Chandogya Upanisad, VIII, 5, 3 etc. vide Vg. Vol. I, p. 538.

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 275

218. Fz. p. 635, col. 2-3. Cf. V.S. Apte, Vol. II, p. 1031 : अमरकोष, पुर् 2-2.I : अमरकोष पुर (न) 3-3-184

219. Samarangariasutradhara (ed.) T. Ganapati Shastri, 10/1 : (ed.) D.N. Shukla, p. 103. I

पुरस्य त्रिविधस्यापि प्रमाणमथ कथ्यते ।
प्राकारपरिखाट्टालद्वार रथ्याध्वभि: सह ।

220. Ibid., 10/2, (ed.) D.N. Shukla, p. 103. 1 1

ज्येष्ठं तत्र चतुश्चाप सहस्त्रं पुरमिष्यते ।
मध्यं द्वाभ्यां सहस्त्राभ्यामेकेन व्यासतोअधमम् ।।

221. T. Burrow, (Mg) 1 , pp. 82, 86 : V.S. Apte, Vol. II, p. 1031 : full of filled with

222. पूः (=पुर्) अमरकोष 2.2.1

223. पुर (=पुरम्, नपु.) अमरकोष 3.3.184.

224. BJ. Vol. IX, Oct. 1927, Part I., Ex. p. 300.

225. H.D. Sankalia, Pz. p. 72, f.n. 1. Pura originally, as the author of Mirat-e-Ahmadi, supplement, says, was a suburb, or a place colonised by a Muslim king or his officer.

226. N.L. Dey, NX., Preface, p. 2.

227. V.S. Agrawala, Jy. p. 66.

228. Taittiriya Samhita, VI. 2, 3, 1 : Kathaka Samhita, xxiv. 10 : Maitrayam Samhita, iii, 8.1.

229. Aitareya Brahmana, i, 23, 2 : Gopatha Brahmana, ii, 2, 7.

230. Vg. Vol. II, p. 141.

231. (Dx) 1 , p. 47.

232. M.S. Pandey, Bg. p. 116 ; GJ. XVII, pp. 310-27.

233. According to Prof. K.C. Chattopadhyaya, the vrddhi in Candra pura is grammatically incorrect. The vrddhi is desirable only in the first letter.

234. No. 17, LL. 3-4, verse 5 :

ते देश-पार्थिवगुणापहृता: प्रकाश मद्ध् वादिजान्यविरलान्यसुखान्यपास्य ।
जातादरा दशपुरं प्रथमं मनोभिरन्वागतास्सुत-बन्धु-जनास्समेत्य ।।

235. (Dx)1 , p. 80.

236. No. 17, L. 19.

237. No. 17, LL. 16-17, verse 29 II

तस्मिन्नेवक्षितिपति-व्रि (वृ) षे बन्धवर्म्म्ण्युदारे,
सम्यकूस्फ़ीतं दशपुरमिदं पालयत्युन्नतान्से ।
शिल्पावाप्तैर्द्धन-समुदयै: पट्टवायैरुदारं,
श्रेणीभूतैबर्भवनमतुलं कारितं दीप्तरश्मे: ।।

238. No. 17, LL. 20-21.

239. (Dx)1 , p. 79 ; B.C. Law, Yx. pp. 280-81.

240. (Dx)1 , pp. 79-80.

241. B.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 410, L. 2.

276 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

242. No. 17.

243. XIV, p. 120, V. 12 : आकरदेशावर्तकदशपुर गोनर्दकेरलका: ।। It mentions that this city in South.

244. Pt. I, V. 48.

245. (CJ) 1 . Vol. IV, p. 99, L.2.

246. (Dx) 1 , p. 79, see f.n. 2.

247. Ibid.

248. Ibid.

249. HJ. Vol. XV, p. 195.

250. Ibid.

251. (Dx) 1 , p. 70, L. 5.

252. Ibid., p. 71, see translation, LL. 5-7.

253. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 319, L. 5, Ibid., f.n. 8 : Ibid., f.n. 9 : Sircar translates :

"चेन्द्रापुरक-पद्मा-चातुर्विद्य-सामन्य-ब्राह्मण-देवविष्णुर्देवपुत्रो...।"

as="The brahmana Devavisnu who is the son of Deva and belongs to the community of the Chaturvedins of (the locality called) Padma in (the town called) Indrapura", Jagannath, Proceedings of Indian History Congress, Lahore, 1940, p. 59.

254. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 319, f.n. 8.

255. No. I. LL. 19-20 :

कौसलक महेन्द्र-महाकान्तारकव्याघ्रराज कौरालकमण्टराज- पैष्टपुरकमहेन्द्रगिरि-कौटूरकस्वामिदत्तैरण्ड-पल्लकदमन-काञ्चेयकविष्नुगोपवमुक्त-कनीलराज- वैङ्गयेक-हस्तिवर्म्म-पाल्लकोग्रसेन-दैवराष्ट्रक-कुबेर-कौस्थलपुरक-धनञ्जय-प्रभृति-सर्व्वदक्षिणापथ राज....

256. Fleet (Dx) 1 , p. 69.

257. Fz. p. 166, col. 3 : Ibid, p. 167, col. 1 : We find the form Indra- vat but in some cases (Ijlgveda iv, 27, 4 and x. 101, 1) we find the form Indravat, i.e. associated with or accompanied by Indra.

258. Indrapura Indraura Indor.

259. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 318., No. 27.

260. (Dx) 1 , p. 68.

261. Ibid.

262. N.L. Dey, NX. p. 96, also see p. 95.

263. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 97.

264. समतट-डवाक-कामरूप-नेपाल-कर्तृपुरादिप्रत्यन्तनृपति भि: ।

265. V.A. Smith, Gx. p. 302, Cf. H.C. Raychaudhuri, Az. (4th ed.), p. 457.

266. UJ. 1898, p. 198.

267. D.B. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, part II, p. 39 : JJ. I, p. 257.

268. PJ. Vol. XIV, 1935, pp. 30-33.

269. Ibid., p. 30.

270. Cf. Purusapura -- Peshawar - Pashaur There is still a small town named Karor in the triangle formed by

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 277

the rivers Chenab and Sutlej.

271. E.G. Sachau, J. ii, 6.

272. PJ. XIV, p. 30.

273. R.C. Majumdar, Cg. Vol. I, p. 50.

274. Ibid.

275. JJ. Vol.6, p. 53: महा-नौ-हस्त्यश्व-जयस्कन्धावारात् क्रीपुराद्....।

276. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 94.

277. R.C. Majumdar, Cg. p. 50.

278. D.B. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. Impart II, p. 36.

279. Ibid.

280. Wx. p. 74, f.n. 1.

281. JJ. 1, p. 254; Calcutta Review, 1924, p. 253 note.

282. D.B. Diskalkar, Iz. p. 37.

283. $ Fz. p. 297, col. 1.

284." Pargiter, M. p. 279 : Chaudhari, Jx. p. 64.

285. Dey, NX. p. 111.

286. If two similar syllables come together in Sandhi, one is dropped.

287. Fz. p. 1261, col. 3.

288. H.D. Sankalia, Pz. p. 54; Boethlingk and Roth, 1282 : Abhidhana. IV, 2386.

289. Pz. p. 55.

290.

कौत्सश्शाब इति ख्यातो वीरसेन: कुलाख्यया ।
शब्दार्थ-न्याय-लोकज्ञ कवि पाटलिपुत्रक ॥


291. दण्डैर्ग्राह्यतैव कोत-कुलजं पुष्पाह्वये क्रीडता-

292. Girnar, Rock Edict No. 5, L. 7 (Hultzsch) p. 9 : .....पाटलिपुते च बाहिरेसु च ।


293. विविधतिर्थकल्प पृ.६८

तच्च पाटला (पाडलि) नाम्ना पाटलिपुत्रं पत्तनमासीत् ।
असमकुसुमबहुलतया च कुसुमपुरमित्यपि रूढम् ।।

294. 6.2.4 : प्रासादवातायनसंश्रितानां नेत्रोत्सवं पुष्पपुराङ्गनानाम् ।

295. 2.3 ; and 4.16.

296. 3.78 :

तदिदं दिव्यं नगरं मायारचितं सपौरमतएव ।
नाम्ना पाटलिपुत्रं क्षेत्रं लक्ष्मीसरस्वत्यो: ।।

297. All. S.I. of Samudragupta (No. 1) L. 6 : सत्काव्य-श्री-विरोधान्... Cf. परस्पर विरोधस्य तस्य राज्ये कथैव का । संगतं श्री सरस्वत्योरपि येन प्रवर्त्तित्तम् ।। GJ. I., p. 209.

298. काव्यमीमांस, दशमोअध्याय: पृ. १४३

श्रूयते च पाटलिपुत्रे शास्त्रकारपरीक्षा ।
अत्रोपवर्षंवर्षाविह पाणिनि पिन्गलाविह व्याडि:।
वररुचिपतन्जलि इह परीक्षीता: ख्यातिमुपजग्मु: ॥

278 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

For the grammarians, see : Jy. p. 12.

299. Verse 782. Cf. 'Nandapura'. Bg. p. 135.

300. V.S. Agrawala, Jy. pp. 11-12.

301. VII. 3.14.

302. Mahabhasya, I. 1.2. 'Anusonam Pataliputram'.

303. Kasika, IV. 2.123. 'Ropadhetoh Pracam' : Jy. p. 75.

304. JJ. Modi, QJ. Vol. XXVI. "Ancient Pataliputra" p. 461.

305. GJ. XVII, p. 321.

306. Rock Edict 2, L.2.

307. B.C. Law, Yx. Satiyaputra, pp, 186-87: Keralaputra, pp-163-64. Dr.Pandey in the Historical Geography and Topography of Bihar, pp. 136-37 writes "No other city of ancient India known to us had a name ending in putra".

'The illustrious city, i.e. the city par excellence', Majumdar, Cg. Vol.1. p. 273.

308. U.K. Roy, Lz. p. 93.

309. Watters, Vy. 11-87.

310. U.N. Roy, op. cit., p. 93.

311. QJ. XXVI, p. 462, f.n.4.

312. QJ. XXVI, p, 463 : There is some difference in the description : see Vividhatirthakalpa, pp. 67-71 ; U. by Samuel Beal (1884), Vol. II, pp. 82-85 ; 'Legendary Origin of Patna', HJ. Vol. Ill, pp. 149-50; U.N. Roy, op. cit., p. 93.

313. Bg. pp. 135-36 ; B.C. Law, Yx. pp. 249-50.

314. Vayu Parana, ch. 99.319 : GargI Samhita, lines 9-12; NJ. (1928 ) p. 401; UN. Roy, Lz. p. 92.

315. U.N. Roy, Lz. p. 92.

316. Ibid., pp. 95-106.

317. S.C. Vidyabh.ushan, Cy. p. 349.

318. V.A. Smith, Gx. pp. 310-11. Also see for further details QJ. XXVI, pp. 464-68.

319. QJ. Vol. XXVI, p. 468.

320. No. I, L. 20. सर्व्वदक्षिणापथराज-ग्रहण-मोक्षानुग्रहजनित- प्रतोपान्मिश्र महाभाग्यस्य...

321. GJ. XXIII, pt. Ill, July, 1935, p. 97 : B.C. Law, Yx. p. 182.

322. D.B. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part II, p.36 : GJ XII, p. 2 : B C. Law, Yx. p. 182.

323. IJ. XIII, pp. 85-90 : N.L. Dey, NX. p. 157.

324. GJ. XXIII, p. 57.

325. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 77, also see f.n. 15 : B.C. Law Yx. p. 182.

326. No. I. L. 20.

327.

कलिन्गा महिषाश्चैव महेन्द्रनिलयाश्च ये ।
एतान् जनपदान् सर्वान् पालयिष्यति वै गुह:॥

see IJ. XIII, pp. 85-90. ,

328. IJ. XIII, pp. 85-90, ,

329. Ibid.

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 279

330. रघुवंश, चतुर्थ सर्ग श्लोक ४३,

गृहीतप्रतिमुक्तस्य स धर्मविजयी नृप: ।
श्रियं महेन्द्रनाथस्य जहार न तु मेदिनीम् ।।


331. IT. XIII, pp. 85-90.

332. B.C. Law, Yx. p. 182.

333. Fleet, (Dx) 1 , pp. 113, 116, 132, 138.

334. Ibid., 113, f.n. 2.

335. Fz. 525, col. 1.

336. Agrawala, Jy., p. 65.

337. Fz. 534, col I.

338. Vg. Vol. I, p. 432.

339. Samaranganasutradhara by T.G. Shastri, 187; Hindi trans. D.N. Shukla, (ed.) p. 99.

340. Ibid 10/79-81 : Hindi trans. D.N. Shukla, p. 108.

341. Vg. Vol. I, p. 539.

342. Hopkins, Jour, of the Amer. Orient. Soc., Vol. 13, 77, 174.

343. N.L. Dey, NX. Preface, p. 2.

344. No. 44, L. I : स्वस्ति (॥) पञ्चनगर्य्या भट्टारकपादानुध्यात: । कुमारामात्यकुलवृद्धिरेतद्विष्याधिकरणञ्च.... ॥

345. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 356, f.n. 2 Pancbibi may have come through Prakrit Pancanaari modified to Pancanari.

346. No. 52, L. 28 : पूर्वेण चुडामणिनगरश्रीनौयोगयोर्म्मध्य जोला ।

cf There are two possible explanations : 'Between Cudamaninagara and Srinauyoga', or between the nauyogas (places for parking boats) of Cudamani and Nagarasri...Hz., p. 344, f.n. 4. The second explanation is more plausible. If we take the first explanation then it may mean 'at the town of Cudamani', the ephithet sri is then ill construed with nauyoga. Moreover, we know from line 29 of the inscription, nauyoga as an epithet for Pradamara. So nauyoga is the epithet here and Cudamani and Nagarasri are two place-names here.

347. Fz. p. 401, col. I.

348. No. 52, L. 29 :

349. Xy. pp. 514-15 :

पड (पट) वस्त्र, कपड़ा
पडमा (पटवत्) पटवाला, वस्त्रवाला

Pala-boat : It denotes the boats which are coered with cloth to control the fast wind and thus this covered cloth acts as its protector (pala) against the wind.

350. Fz. p. 243, col. 2-3.

351. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 289, L.12.

352. ibid : प्रा ....तृकटक-वास्तव्य-छन्दोग-ब्राहमण-वराहस्वामिनिदत्तं (त्तम्) (1).

353. From √वस to live. Fz. p. 947, col. 3; Ibid., Cf. वासा a sleeping or a bed-chamber, modern बासा for Hotel and restaurant, usually used by Marwaris.

280 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

354. No. 40, L. 1 :जयस्कन्धावारानन्दपुरवासकात्...।

355. (Dx) 1 , p 257. Fleet translates 'situated at Ayodhya' which is wrong. Vasaka is a 'place-name termination' here Cf. No. 5, L. 6 (ftwaravasaka), No. 40, L. I Anandapuravasaka'.

356. No. 39, LL. 10-11 : आयोध्यक-नानागोत्रवरणतप:

स्वाध्याय-मन्त्र-सूत्र-भाष्य-प्रवचन-पारग ....


357. काशी खण्ड 23.7 :

काञ्च्यवन्ती द्वारवती काश्ययोध्या च पञ्चमी ।
मायापुरी च मथुरा पुर्य: सप्त विमुक्तिदा: ।।

358. Adipurana, XII. 78 : विनीतजनाकीर्णा विनीतेति च सा मता । 359. p. 24 : अ उज्झा अवज्झा कोसला विणीआ, साकेयं । इक्खागूभूमि रामपुरी कोसल त्ति ।।

360. B.C. Law, Yx.p. 67.,

361. Asiatic Researches, XX, p. 442.

362. Sarga, XIII, V. 79 : XIV, V. 13.

363. Loc. cit, p. 24 : Hemakosa quoted by N.L. Dey in his NX. p. 174

364. Pathak, Dy. p. 55.

365. Narain, Fg. Appendix, IV, p. 175; NJ. XIV, 402.

तत: साकेतमाक्रम्य पन्चाला माथुरास्तथा ।
यवनाश्च सुविक्रान्ता: प्राप्स्यन्ति कुसुमध्वजम् ॥

The other reading quoted by Dr. V. Pathak is :

तत: साकेतमाक्रम्य पन्चालान् मथुरांस्तथा ।
यवनाश्च दुष्टसुविक्रान्ता: प्राप्स्यन्ति कुसुमध्वजम् ॥

Pathak refers to the verse as appearing in the Brhatsamhita, which is obviously a mistake.

366. Cunningham, Sz. p. 405.

367. Dey, NX. p. 14.

368. Ramayana, I. 5.6 : V. Pathak, Dy. p. 50.

अयोध्या नाम तत्रास्ति नगरी लोकविश्रुता ।
मनुना मानवेन्द्रेण पुरैव निर्मिता स्वयम ॥

369. B.N. Puri, Ax. pp. 12-13.

370. Ibid., p. 14.

371. Muktikopaniad, ch. I.

372. Dey, NX. p. 14.

373. B.N. Puri, Ax. pp. 14-15.

374. No. 5, L. 6 : ईश्वरवासकं पन्चमण्डल्यां प्रणिपत्य ददाति... ।

375. (Dx) 1 . p. 31.

376. GJ. II, p. 99.

377. XIV, V. 15 :

तुम्बवनकार्मणेयकयामोदधितापसाश्रमा ऋषिका: ।
कान्चीमरुचीपट्टनचेर्यार्यकसिन्हला ऋषभा: ॥

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 281

378. No. I, L. 21 : Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part II, p. 35.

379- HJ., 1926, p. 229.

380. Diskalkar, Iz., p. 35.

381. GJ., XVII, p. 362 : R.D. Banerji, Fy. Vol. I, p. 115.

382. No. 28, L. 25, V. 5 :

विन्ध्याटवीष्वनम्भस्सु, शुष्क-कोटर-वासिन: ।

कृष्णाहिना (कृष्णाहियो) हि, जायन्ते देवदायं हरन्ति ये ॥

383. Fz. p. 373, col. I.

384. i, 44, 10 : 114, 1 : ii.12.7 : x.146, 1 : 149, 4 etc. Av. iv. 36, 7-8, V, 17, 4 : VI, 40. 2 etc. Vajasaneyl Samhita, iii, 45 : xx. 17 etc.

385. Chandogya Upanisad, VIII, 6, 2.

386. Vg. Vol. I, p. 244.

387. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 144.

388. Jaiminlya Upanisad Brahmana, iii. 13, 4.

389. Vg. Vol. I, p. 245, Cf. Baden Powell, Village Communities in India, 85.

390. iv, 2, 22.

391. Samaranganasutradhara(ed.)T.G. Shastri, 10/83-87.

392. Ibid., 10/79

393. Ibid., 18/2-4.

394. Dey, NX. Preface, p. 2.

395. Pandey, Bg. p. 161.

396. GJ.XV, p. 71.

397. Ibid., II, p. 105, No. 74.

398. Sircar, Hz. pp. 290-91 f.n. 4 : Konow thinks that there is reference to the village Bharadi.

399. B.C. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p.' 108.

400. Xy. p. 312.

401-600

401. The reading is checked by me.

402. Fz. p. 396, col. 1.

403. It has been variously explained by scholars : (i) Sircar, Hz., p. 337 f.n. 3 "The peak of the Himalayas" (ii) Basak, : GJ. XV, p. 140. "The Summit of the Himalaya" (iii) Sen, (Kz) 1 , "the top of a snowy mountain" The explanation of Sircar is more explicit-

404. D.C. Sircar, Hz. p. 337, f.n. 3; Oz. pp. 217-23.

405. See note 403.

406. No. 36, LL. 5-8 : अनेन श्रेष्ठिरिभुपालेन विपितं... दातुमिति ।

407. Sircar, Hz. p. 348 : LL. 8-9 : i.e. No. 37 in the list.

408. Nos. 34 and 36, Sircar also agrees to it. Sircar, Oz. p. 218.

409. Xy. p. 373, col. 3, col. 2. cf. (for man) in Nepal and Kashmir; (language).

282 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

410. No. 37, L. 8 : Cf. Sircar, Hz. p. 348, f.n. 3.

411. R.C. Majumdar, Cg. Vol. I, pp. 24,400 and note 3.

412. Oz. p. 218; Hz. p. 337, f.n. 3.

413. Xy. p. 300, गोट्ठ (गोष्ठ) = गौवाडा, गयों के रहने का स्थान । 414. Fz. p. 631, col.' 2.

415. No. 43, L. 22 :पश्चिमेन गुल्मगन्धिका-ग्राम-सीमा-नभि (श्चे) ति कुल्यबा (वा) प (ए) कोगुल्मगन्धिकायां ।

416. Fz. p. 360, col. 2.

417. Ibid., p. 345, col. 3. The word gandhika has been used as the name of a country for gaodika, see also p. 346.

418. Sircar, Hz. p. 344, f.n. 3.

419. Sen, (Kz)1 , p. 493. 'Ambila-gramagrahara' is mentioned in the Nandapur grant.

420. Ibid., pp. 493-94.

421. Xy. p. 17.

422. Fz. p. 6.

423. Sircar, Hz. p. 360, f.n.l.

424. No. 15, L. 5 :ख्यातेअस्मिन ग्रामरत्ने कुकुभ इति जनै: सधुसंसर्ग-पूते ।

425. (Dx) 1 , p. 66.

426. Ibid., p. 66 : CJ. Vol I, p. 21 ff.

427. No. 52, LL. 7-8 : परिभोगाय विहारे (च) खण्ड-फ़ुट्ट-प्रतिसंस्करणाय उत्तरमाण्डलिक-कान्तेडदक-ग्रामे सर्वतो भोगेनाग्रहारत्वेनैकादश-खिल-पाटका: पन्चभि: खण्डैस्ताम्रपट्टेनातिसष्टा: ।

428. No. 52, L. 27 : उत्तरेण नादडदकग्राम-सीमेति ।

429. No. 21, L. 7.

430. Pandey, Bg. p. 130 ; Bengal Village Directory, Vol. XXVII p. 166.

431. Fz. p. 887, col. 3.

432. Sircar, Hz. pp. 352-54. See the transliteration in LL. 2 and 20.

433. Ibid., p. 354, L. 20.

434. Ibid., pp. 360-61. See the transliteration. While in this inscription it is clearly with short 'i':

No. 43, L. 2 संगोहालिषु Cf. No.28 L3 नित्वगोहालीषु :L.9 L.15 नित्वगोहालीतो L.7 वटगोहालीतो L.12 वटगोहाली : = (Hz/p. 360).

435. Vatodaka=Vata+udaka.

436. Fz. p. 914. col. 3.

437. No. 30, LL. 4-5 : वटोदके साधुजनाधिवासे । श्श्रीदेवइत्युर्ज्जितनामधेय: ॥

438. GJ. XXVI, p. 117, f.n.l. . Compare Agodaka (Agrodaka) on coins=Agroha : Prthudaka=Paoha.

439. Sircar, Hz. p. 355; Oz. p. 218 : Sen, (Kz) 1 ,.?. 109.

440. No. 44, L. 2 : वायिग्रामिक-त्रिवृता-श्रीगोहाल्यो:...।

441. Fz, p. 942, col 3.

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 283

442. Ibid., p. 610, col. 2.

443. Ibid., घोष आभीरपल्ली स्यात-अमरकोष 2.2.20.

444. Illustrated Ardhamagadhi Dictionary (IA) HI/528 : Abhidhanarajendra, V. 729, vide Pz. p. 53.

445. Winternitz, By. II, 434.

446. Barbarians Fz. p. 638, col I.

447. विधाय कुटिकां यत्र पत्रशाखा तृणोपल्लै: । पुलिन्दा: कुर्वते वासं स्वल्पा तु पल्लिका ।।6।। Samaranganasutradhara, of king Bhojadeva (ed.) by T. Ganapati Shastri, Vol. 1, 1924, 18.6.; (ed.) by D.N. Shukla, p.99.

448. (Mg)1 , "Non-Aryan Influence on Sanskrit", p. 384.

449. Dey, NX. second edition, 1927, Preface, p.l.

450. UJ. 1898, pp. 369-70.

451. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, part II, p. 33.

452. GJ. XII, p, 212.

453. JJ. I. p. 682.

454. Fy. Vol. I, p. 116.

455. Ibid., p. 116.

456. JJ. I.p. 682.

457. Majumdar, Pg. p. 145.

458. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part II, p. 33.

459. Fz. p. 232, Col. I, Cf . निरस्त पादपे देशे एरण्डोअपि द्रुमायते Eranda seems to be a non-Aryan word.

460. Sircar, Hz. p. 360, f.n. 1 : Fz., p. 367, col. I from Sanskrit gosala=a cow-stall. Another Prakrit form is gosala see p. 303, col. 3 : it has been used here to denote a country : GJ. XX, p. 60.

461. No. 28, LL. 3, 7, 9, 12, 15.

462. No. 43, L. 2.

463. No. 28, L. 18 :उपरि-निर्दिष्ट-ग्राम-गोहालिकेषु... ।

464. No. 44, L. 24 : एषु यथोपरि-निर्दिष्टक-ग्राम-प्रदेशेष्वेषां ।

465. The reading has been checked by me.

466. No. 44. L.2. वायिग्रामिक-त्रिवृता (T)-श्रीगोहाल्यो:...।

467. Sircar, Hz. p. 360, f.n. I : (Kz.) 1 , p. 117.

468. Fz. p. 914, col. 3.

469. No. 44, L. 2.

470. Fz. p. 914, col. 3.

471. V.S. Apte, Gz. Vol. II, p. 1015 : पार्श्वें भव: ठक ।

472. Xy. p. 25.

473. Fz. p. 614, col. 3 : Apte, Gz. Vol. II, p. 1008.

474. Sircar, Hz. p. 342, f.n. 4.

475. Sankalia, Pz. p. 56.

476. Fz. p. 1275, col. 2.

477. Ibid., p.65, col. I.

284 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

478. Ibid.; p. 1003, col, 3.

479. GJ. XXVII, p. 13, see No. 32, verses 18 and 11.

480. Fz. p. 332. col. I.

481. Vg. Vol. I, pp. 210-11.

482. X.33.6.

483. i, 110, 5.

484. i, 100,18 : ix. 85,4 : 91. 6 : Maitrayani Samhita, ii,2,ll. The wider sense of 'place' also occurs V. 2, 3: 45, 9 : VI, 47, 20 etc., and often later.

485. iv, 18, 5 : V, 31, 4 : X.I. 18 : XI, 1,22 : Taittiriya Samhita, ii, 2,1,2 : Chandogya Upanisad, VII, 24,2 etc.

486. Atharvaveda ii, 29, 3 : XIV, 2,7 : Satapatha Brahmana i, 4, 1 : 15.16 etc.

487. Rgveda, IV. 37,1,2 : VII, 35, 10 : X. 66, 13 : Atharvaveda, ii, 8, 5.

488. Macdonell, vedic Mythology, p. 138.

489. Dey, NX. Preface, p. 2.

490. Xy. p. 279, col. 2-3.

491. Ibid., col. 2.

492. Hindi and Gujarati Khera, Agrawala, Jy. p. 66.

493. T.G. Shastri, (ed.) 10/79 : for Hindi trans. D.N. Shukla, p. 108 :

नगरस्य विभागो अयं यथवद् समुदीरित: ।
खेटं तदर्थविष्कम्भमाहुर्ग्रामं तदर्थत:।।79।।

494. Fz. p. 340, col. 2.

495. K.L. Lele, Studies in the historical and cultural geography and ethnography of Rajaputana, Poona Univ. Thesis, 1962 , p. 84.

496. Vide, Ibid., see Paul Whelly, VJ. II, 37.

497. JJ. VI, p. 52.

498. Ibid., p. 45.

499. Ibid., p. 45 "These words mostly non-Sanskritic in origin, survive in modern dialects through a millenium and a half, with very little change in their form or meaning".

500. Fz. p. 1011, col. I.

501. We also find a kind of 'Sun' known as Lolārka.

502. S.K. Chatterji, Hg. pp. 65-66.

503. Fz. p. 775, col. I.

504. Xy. p, 690, col, I; p. 668, col. 3.

505. Ibid., p. 799, col. 2 : p. 636, col. I : p. 635, col. 3 Cf. Fz., p, 985 col. 2 : vilāla=a yantra or machine, bilala=a cat :

cf. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 93 : Vilala=Sk,. an instrument, a machine : cf. bilala=a cat used as a totem or a combination of bil and al.

506. JJ. VI, p. 49.

507. Hz. p. 335, f.n. 3.

508. T. Burrow (Mg) 1 , 'Non-Aryan influence on Sanskrit', p, 384 : bidala, birala ('Cat')i Tamil, Malayalam : veruku, Kannada : berku.

509. Cf. Vaidya-ksetra, ahead-

510. Xy. p. 378, col. 3.

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 285

511. Ibid. , See णक्ख (नख)

512. from √अर्च = पूजायाम

513. Agrawala, Jy. p. 190.

514. S.K. Chatterji, Hg. Part I, p. 65. Yugma-setu for Jora-Sako.

515. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 94.

516. Apte, Gz. Vol. II, pp. 944-45. Cf.पक्कण: पक्कश:

517. See, notes 505 and 508.

518. Fz. 1003, col. 3 : Monier Williams, Buddhism, pp. 68, 81.

519. Sen, (Kz) 1 . p. 93 : Sircar, Hz. p. 343, note. 8.

520. GJ. II. p. 389. No. 311 : also see p. 369.

521. अंगविज्जा, Introduction, p. 47.

522. Fz. p. 871, col. 3.

523. V. S. Apte, Gz. p. 1036, Col. II.

524. Sircar, Hz. p. 345, f. n. 2 : JJ. VI, p, 56, f . n. I.

525. Ibid., p. 344, f. n. I. Cf. Xy. p. 482 : दोसज = दोष का जानकार, विद्वान

526. Sircar, Hz. p. 344, f. n. I. "

527. Ibid., p. 345, f. n. I.

528. Cf. see Pakka-vilala in the place-names ending in ksetra. 529 No. I, L. 20.

530. Kane, (Zx) 1 , Vol. IV, p. 626.

531. H. C. Raychaudhuri, Az. p. 453, also see note 5.

532. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part II, p. 33, see in Kanchi.

533. Ibid., p. 39.

534. Ibid.

535. Ibid., p. 39 : JJ. p. 257.

536. Barua, Zz. p. 42 : Law, Yx. p. 216.

537. B. C. Law, Yx. p. 216.

538. Pg. p. 142 : see f. n. I ; D. C. Sircar, Hz. pp. 265-66, f.n. 4.

539. Pg. p. 142.

540. Cunningham, Sz. p. 500

541. Ibid.

542. Sircar, Oz. pp. 86-87 : Saktisangama Tantra, Book III, ch. VII, V. 10.

543. Ibid., p. 87 : Law, Yx. p. 226.

544. Dey, NX. p. 87 ; Puri, Ax. pp. 85-88.

545. GJ. II, p. 353, LL. 48-49 ; Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 172.

546. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 172, see also f. n. 3; JJ. XIX, p. 214.

547. रघुवन्श महाकाव्यम, चतुर्थ सर्ग श्लोक 81-84.

548. B. S. Upadhyaya, India in Kalidasa, p. 63.

549. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 172.

550. Brahatsamhita XIV, 6, p. 119.

551. Kavyamimamsa Adhyaya 17, p. 235.

552. Chatterji, Hg. pp. 77-78.

286 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

553. Dey, NX. p. 87 : Puri, Ax. p. 85.

554. R.C. Majumdar, Pg. p. 145 ; Law, Yx. p. 161

555. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part II. p. 33.

556. B. N. Puri, Ax. p. 31.

557 GJ. Vol. 6, p. 84 : GJ. Vol. I, p. 2 : GJ. Vol. VIII, p. 24. Cf. R. Gopalan, Gy. (1928)

558. ---- for more details : Puri, Ax, p. 31 ; R. D. Banerji, Fy. Vol. I, p. 116.

559. Puri, Ax. p. 31.

560. Kielhorn, (ed.), Mahabhvsya, Vol. II, p. 298.

561. Beal, U. Vol. II, p. 230

562. Kane, (Zx) 1 , Vol. IV, pp. 711-12.

563. अयोध्या माया मथुरा काशी कान्ची अवन्तिका । पुरी द्वारवती चैव सप्तैते मोक्षदायक || ;See Dy. p. 52 note

564. IV, 19, 15.

565. III. 124.

566. Kane, (Zx) 1 , Vol. IV, p. 712.

567. VIII. 38.8.

568. XII. 50 : पुष्पेषु जाती नगरेषु कान्ची नारीषु रम्भाश्रमिणा गृहस्थ:

569. Ch. I, 19-23. "

570. X. 79, 14.

571. I. 17.

572. Law, Yx. p. 161.

573. Puri, Ax. p. 33, B.C. Law, Yx. p. 162.

574. Kane, (Zx) 1 , Vol. IV, p. 712 : Law, Yx. p. 162.

575. Puri, Ax. pp. 33-34.

576. R. S. Tripathi, Zx. p. 454 : Oy. 1936, pp. 304-7.

577. Puri, Ax. p. 34.

578. No. 28, L. 6 : वटगोहाल्यामवास्याङ्काशिक - पन्चस्तूपनिकायिक - निग्रन्थश्रमणा-चार्य्य - गुहनन्दि - शिष्यप्रशिष्याधिष्थितविहारे....।

579. Kasikhanda, 26. 67 : 30. 5.

580. Kane, (Zx) 1 , Vol. IV, pp. 624-25.

581. Law, Tg. p. 102.

582. Kane, (Zx) 1 , pp. 624-25.

583. Law, Yx. p. 46 : Vg. Part I, p. 153, f. n. I.

584. Law, Yx. p. 46. Banarasi or VaranasI was named so as it confined the area between Varana and AST rivers : Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 60 : Dey, NX. p. 95.

585. HJ. Vol. XV, pp. 138-141, LL. 9-10 :

प्रतिष्ठान-भुक्तौ वाराणसी-विषय-सम्बद्ध-काशी- पारपथके प्रतिबद्ध-तिक्करिका ग्राम....।

586. Chaudhuri, JX. p. 61.

587. Pt. I, p. 72 : अस्त्यत्रैव दक्षिणे भारतार्धेमध्येखण्डे काशि जनपदालंकृतिरुत्तर-वाहिन्या त्रिदशवाहिन्याअलंकृतधनकनकरत्नस्म्रद्धा वाराणसी नाम नगरी-सामद्भुतानां निधानम्

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 287

588. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 60.

589. Dey, NX. p, 95.

590. Puri. Ax. pp. 38-39.

591. Ibid., p. 39.

592. Ibid.

593. Kielhorn, (ed.), Mahabhasya, Vol. II. p. 413

594. Law, Yx., p. 47.

595. Kane, (Zx) 1 , Vol. IV. p. 624 ff.

596. Sircar, Hz. p. 265, f. n. I : Chaudhuri, Jx. pp. 64-66 : GJ. Ill, pp 351-54 : GJ. XI, p. 184.

597. Sircar, op. cit., p. 265, f. n. I : Chaudhuri, op. cit. p. 64.

598. R. D. Banerji, Fy. Vol. I, p. 115 : Dey, NX. pp. 103, 117.

599. K. D. Bajpai, 'The Cultural Heritage of Mahakosala' vide FJ. No. 28, July 1965. (Ministry of Education, Govt. of India), p. 37.

600. Ibid., p. 39.

601-744

601. Dey, NX. p. 104.

602. Ibid., p. 104.

603. A. C. Woolner, 'Prakrit and Non-Aryan Strata in the Vocabulary of Sanskrit', vide Kz. p. 70.

604. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 72.

605. Ibid., p. 72 : also see f. n. 6 : GJ. VI, p. 141, L. 21.

606. Sircar, Oz. p. 34. तोशला कोशलाश्चैव त्रैपुरा वैदिशास्तथा ।

607. काव्यमीमांसा सप्तदशो अध्याय: P- 235

यत्रांगकलिंगकोसलतोसलोत्कल ....।

608. Banerji, Fy. Vol. I, pp. 115-16, Law, Yx p. 167.

609. Banerji, Fy. Vol. I, pp. 115-16.

610. (Dx) 1 , p. 8.

611. Majumdar, Pg. p. 146, f. n. I.

612. Vizagapatam District Gazetteer, I, 137 : Law Yx. p. 167.

613. (Dx) 1 , p. 7, f. n. I. The reading has been checked by me and is found to be 'Kauralaka.

614. JJ. I, p. 252.

615. Calcutta Review, Feb. 1924, p. 253 note : Cf. Raychaudhuri, Az. pp. 452-53.

616. GJ. VI. p. 3, f. n. 3 : Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, part II, p. 35.

617. Diskalkar, Iz. p. 130, v. 28.

618. Cf. Sircar, Hz. p. 265, f. n. I.

619. Diskalkar, Iz. p. 35.

620. No. I, L. 20.

621. JJ. Vol. I, p. 685.

622. LJ. 1837, p. 973.

623. Law, Yx. p. 113.

624. Daniel Wright, Ey. p. 89 : Regmi, K. pp. 4-5, 11-12.

625. Dey, NX. p. 140.

626. B. C. Law, Yx. p. 113

288 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

627. Law, Yx. pp. 113-14.

628. Sircar, Oz. p. 77

629. Book III, ch. VII. v. 36 : "जटेश्वरं समारभ्य योगिन्यन्तं महेश्वरि। नेपाल देशो देवेशि...।"

630. Law, Yx. p. 113.

631. GJ. I, p. 309.

632. Majumdar, Pg. p. 145 : Sircar, Hz. p. 265, f. n. I : JJ. Vol. I, p. 686; Raychaudhuri, Az. p. 453.

633. Law, Yx p. 179 : Pandey. Wx. p. 74 f. n. I.

634. Smith, Gx. p. 301.

635. JJ. I., p. 686.

636. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part. II, p.34.

637. Ibid..

638. Ibid., p. 33, See Kaficl.

639. No. I.L. 22 : समतट-डवाक-कामरूप-नेपाल कृत्तर्पुरादि-प्रत्यन्तनृपतिभि: ....।

640. LL. 2-3 : एवमपि प्रचंतेषु (प्रत्यन्तेषु) यथा चोडा पाडा सतियपुतो केत (र) लपुतो आतंबपंणी अन्तियको योनराजा....।

641. JJ. XXV, No. I, pp. 110-12.

642. Ibid.

643. No. I, L. 20.

644. JJ. XXV, pp. 111-2.

645. No. I, L. 22: समतट-डवाक-कामरूप-नेपाल कृत्तर्पुरादि-प्रत्यन्तनृपतिभि: ....।

646. Sen, (Kz) 1 , pp. 208-09.

647. No. I, LL. 22-23 : सर्व्व-कर-दानाज्ञाकरण-प्रणामागमन-परितोषित-प्रचंड-शासनस्य ।

648. Sen, (Kz) 1 , p. 209.

649. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 165.

650. Ibid., p. 166 : Law, Yx. p. 247 : 'It was so called because the rivers in it had 'flat and level banks of equal height on both sides'.

651. Brahatsamhita Chap. XIV, p. 119 v. 6.

652. Vy. Vol. II, pp. 188-89.

653. Ibid., p. 189.

654. Padmanath Bhattacharya, UJ. 1920, January, Part I, "To the East of Samatata", pp. 2-3.

655. Ibid., 'This is the locality shown as Samatata in the map appended, to Waiters' volumes by V.A. Smith.

656. GJ. XVII, p. 353 : Chaudhuri, Jx., p. 167.

657. JJ. XIX, p. 214.

658. JJ. XIX, Yadavaprakasa on the Ancient Geography of India p. 214.

659. Dey, NX. p. 175 : LJ, 1915, pp. 17-18.

660. JJ. I., 256 : Law Yx. p. 257.

661. Law, Yx. pp. 257-58.

662. Ibid., p. 200.

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 289

663. Ibid.; Majumdar, Pg. p.145 : Bombay Gazetteer, Vol I, Pt. II, p. 280; Raychaudhuri, Az. p. 453.

664. Banerji, Fy. Vol. I. p. 116.

665. Diskalkar, Iz. Vol. I, Part II, p. 33.

666. Law, Yx. p. 200.

667. No. 46, LL. 10-11.

668. Sircar, Hz. p. 337, f.n. 3.

669. Sircar, Oz. p. 222. ,

670. No. 36, LL. 5-10.

671. Sircar, Oz. p. 222.

672. Maity, Ix. p. 38.

673. Sircar, Ly. p. 165.

674. Maity, Ix. p. 41.

675. Apte, Gz. Vol. II, p. 1000 Cf. प्रपस्त्यमदितिं सिन्धुमर्कैं: स्वस्तिभील सख्यय देवीम Rgveda. 4.55.3; 8.27.5

पस्त्यावत् is called a householder in Veda, Rgveda, I. 151. 2 : 2.11.16. In the Kirtikaumudl; we find the word पस्त्यम् used for a house, habitation or abode : पस्त्यं प्रयातुमथ . . . Kir. K. (Bombay) 9.74.


676. No. 44. L. 2 ': वायिग्रामिक-त्रिवृता-श्रीगोहाल्यो:...।

677. No. 1. L. 27 :

रुद्रदेव-मतिल-नागदत्त-चन्द्रवर्म्म-गणपतिनाग-नागसेनाच्युत-नन्दि-वर्म्मांद्यनेकाय्यवित्तर्राज-प्रसभोद्धरणोद्धृतप्रभावमहत:....।


678. GJ. Vol. I. p. 93; XIII. pp: 17-27; XVIII; p; 51, verses 28-35.

679. Arya+avarta. Avarta is a crowded place where many men live close together or it can mean an 'abode' : Fz.p. 156; Apte, Gz. Vol. I, p. 356.

680. Kewal Motwani, , Manu Dharma Sastrcg VA;' Sociological and Historical Study", p. 374.

681. Ibid., p. 374. I? .1

682. Ibid.

683. Wilson, Ariana Antigua, London, pp. 121-22, Jx.p. 133, f.n.L

684. Law, "Aryavarta" JJ. XXV, No. I, pp. 114-15. Baudhayana Dharmasutra I.I. 5-6,2.9-10, 1.1.25 : 1.2.6,1.3-7, 1.8 : Mahabhaya on Panini VI.3.109, II.4.10.

685. Law, JJ. XXV, No. 1, p. 120 : Vg. II, p. 125 Cf. Baudhayana, II, 2.16:

प्रागदर्शनात्प्रत्यक्कालकवनाद्दक्षिणेन हिमवन्तमुदक् पारियात्रमेतदार्यावर्त्तम् । तस्मिन् य आचार: स प्रमाणम् । गंगायमुनयोरंतरमित्येके ।

686. II.2.

687. Vg. Vol. II, p. 125 : see Madhya-desa.

688. Mahabhasya on Panini, VI. 3.109 : II.4.10 : Dey, NX. p. 12.

689. See on Kanakhala, Hultzsch, HJ. 34, 179.

690. B.C. Law, JJ. XXV, NO. I, p. 121.

290 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

691. Rangaswami Aiyangar, Rajadharma, p. 50 : Sircar, Oz. p. 172, f.n. 3.

692. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 8.

693. Agrawala, Jy. p. 39.

694. Manu smrti, 2, II, 22 :

आ समुद्रात्तु वै पूर्वादासमुद्रात्तु पश्चिमात् ।
तयोरेवांतरमं गिर्यो: आर्यावर्त्त विदुर्बुधा: ॥

695. राजशेखर काव्यमीमांस अध्यय १७ प.२३५

पूर्वापरयो: समुद्रयोर्हिमवद्विन्ध्ययोश्चान्तरमार्याकर्त्त: ।

696. Balaramayana, Act 6, V.S. Apte's Rajasekhara, his life and writings, p. 21.

697. Cf. (Dx) 1 , p. 13, f.n. 5.

698. Bhavanagar edn. p. 397.

699. राजतरंगिणी-कोश p. 14:5.152, 1.313, 1,341,6.87.

700. No. 5, L. 1 : No. 2, L. 2 : काकनादबोट-श्री-महाविहारे...।

701. Sircar, Hz. p. 281, f.n.3.

702. (Dx) 1 , p. 31 also see f.n.I.

703. Ibid., p. 31 :

(i) काकणाये भगवतो पमण लठि "the measuring staff of (Buddha), the Divine one, at Kakanada".
(ii) "सपुरिसस गोतिपुतस काकनाद - पभासनस कोडिन गोतस " : "(the relics) of the virtuous Prabhasana of Kakanada, the Gotiputra, of the Kaundinya gotra".

704. Cf. Dey, NX. p. 83 : Sircar, Hz. p. 280.

705. Cf. Xy. p. 639 :

बोटिय (बोटिक) : दिगम्बर जैन सम्प्रदाय, वि. दिगम्बर जैन सम्प्रदाय का अनुयायी ....
"बिडियसिव भूईयो बोडियलिंगस्स होइ उप्पत्ती ...

706. (Dx) 1 . p. 31

707. NJ. Vol. XVIII, 1952, Pt. II, p. 212.

708. No. I, L. 22 : (Dx) 1 , pp. 8,14.

709. Jayaswal, 'The Kakas... their location" NJ, Vol. XV1IT, 1932, Pt. II, pp. 212-13. P. 212 'Kakapura is situated on a river and a hill opposite the village by the road has two square temples and a few Gupta Sculptures. A large number of pillars and Sati memorials cover the plain in front of the temple hill. Medieval inscriptions are also in evidence. They with the temples testify to the continued importance of the place, from the Gupta to the medieval period.

710. No. 22, LL. 6-7.

711. (Dx) 1 ,p. 260, f.n. 4.

712. XIV.V. 24 :

उत्तरत:कैलासो हिमवान् वसुमान् गिरिधनुष्मांश्च ।
क्रोन्चो मेरु कुरवस्तथोत्तरा क्षुद्रमीनाश्च ।।

713. No. 20, L. I : यस्योद्वर्त्तयत: प्रतीमुरसा शत्रून्समेत्यागतान्वंगेष्वाहववर्तिनोअभि-लिखिता खड्गेन कीर्तिभुजे ।

Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions 291

714. Law, Tg. p. 265 : Chaudhury, Jx. p. 181 : though it occurs in another earlier inscription (GJ. XXI, 85ff) but the reading is disputed Ibid., p. 181, f.n.4.

715. Bajpai, Ry. p. 358.

716. Panini 4. 2. 81; Jz. p. 72.

717. GJ. Vol. V.

718. IJ. Vol. II, p. 755 : Law, Yx. pp. 268-69.

719. ii. 1.1 : Vg. Vol. II, p. 237.

720. i,l,14.

721. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 179.

722. Chatterji, Hg. Vol. I. p. 76.

723. Mahabharata, VII, 159.3.

724. Chaudhuri, Jx. p. 180.

725. Jy. p. 432.

726. IV, 1. 176-78 : Agrawala, Jy. p. 91.

727. IV. 1.4, Keilhorn's edition, II, p. 282.

728. Artha-Sastra (Shamashastri, ed.), p. 82.

729. IX, 23.5.

730. Raghuvansha 4.35

731. Ibid., 4.36.

732. काव्यमीमांसा अध्यय ३ प. ३२:

अथ सर्वे प्रथमं प्राचीं दिशं शिश्रियुर्यत्रांगवंग सुह्मब्रह्मपुण्ड्राद्या जनपदा: ।

733. XIV.p.119. verse 8:

आग्नेयां दिशि कोशलकलिंगवंगोपवंगजठरांगा।
"Upa-Vanga is commonly identified with some portions of the Gangetic Delta'. Chaudhuri, Jx., p. 182.

734. आदि पर्व अध्याय १०४ श्लोक ५२-५५

तां स दीर्घतमांगेषु स्पृस्टवा देवीमथाब्रवीत ।
भविष्यन्ति कुमारास्ते तेजसादित्यवर्चस: ॥५२॥
अंगो वंगकलिश्च पुन्ड्र: शुह्मश्च ते सुता: ।
तेषां देशा: समाख्याता: स्वनाम कथिता भुवि ॥५३॥
अंगस्यांगोअभवद्देशो वंगो वंगस्य च स्मृत: ।
कलिंगविषयश्चैवकलिंगस्य च समृत: ॥५४॥
पुण्ड्रस्य पुण्ड्रा: प्रख्याता: सुह्मा: सुह्मस्य च समृता:
एवं बले: पुरा वंश: प्रख्यातो वै महर्षिज: ॥५५॥


735. 2.9.106 P- 348. In Punjab bangles are called 'Vanga'. Firstly they might have been made by Vanga (lead). Sikhs still use Kara made of lead as a mark of their religion.

736. Jz. Introduction, p. 47.

737. IJ. Vol. II, pp. 755-56.

738. GJ. V.p. 257.

292 Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions

739. Chaudhuri, Jx. pp. 184-85.

740. The derivation of Abul Fazl 'vanga+al (Sanskrit ali 'dike'), Majumdar, Cg. Vol. I, p. 19, seems to be incorrect : Sircar, Oz. 'Bengal', p. 132).

"The prakrit suffix 'āla' gives the same sense as "vat' or "ālu" in Sanskrit : Cf. Jaḍāla=Sansk.Jaṭāvat : Jo-hāla=Jyotsnavat : Sihāla= Śikhāvat. See R. Pischel Grammatic der Prakrit Sprachen, 402, 505. The term 'vangāla' may thus represent Vangavat, applied to a country inhabited by the Vangas. Also see Madhava Campu, 26. Vide Jz. भूमिका p. 46 :

"अस्ति तावद् वंगनामा देश: यस्मिन पारावारसदृश्य पद्मावती-पभृतय: तरंगिण्य: समुल्लसन्ति । यत्र च पावनो ब्रह्मपुत्रनामा महानदो मज्जन्जन्तून्पावयति । तस्यायमीश्वर: प्रभूतसेनात्मजो वीरसेनाह्वय: । वंगालक्षोणिपालस्त्रिभुवनजनतामीतकीर्तिप्ररोह: ।"

741. Sircar, Oz. p. 131 .

742. JJ. XIX, X p. 214 ff. : IJ. VII, p. 411.

743. Ibid., pp. 219-20 : Sircar, Oz. p. 125.

744. वंगो लोहित्यात्पूर्वेण , of Yasodhara on Vatas. Sutra (VI. 5.25, p. 294) ed. by Damodara Gosvamin : IJ. II, 755 ff. Chaudhuri, Jx., p. 187.

End of Chapter Place-Names and their Suffixes

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