Two Notes on the Ancient Geography of India

·期刊原文
Two Notes on the Ancient Geography of India

BY J. Ph. Vogel
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
1929.01, pp. 113-116

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p. 113

(a) Kantakasela = K

In recent years explorations of great importance have been
conducted on a Buddhist site in the Palnad taluk of the
Guntur district of the Madras Presidency, lastly under the
superintendence of Mr. A. H. Longhurst, of the Archaeological
Survey of India. The site in question which comprises several
ancient mounds is situated in the midst of wooded hills on
the right bank of the river Kistna or Krishna, the Kannapenna
or Kannavanna (Skt. Krishnavarna) of Pali literature, at a
distance of some 15 miles from Macherla and on the border of
the Nizam's dominions. One of those mounds is known by the
name of Nagarjunikonda. Mr. Longhurst claims it to be the
most important Buddhist site hitherto discovered in Southern
India.

The discovery of several. ruined stupas and monasteries,
of remarkable pieces of sculpture in a late Amaravati style,
and of numerous Brahmi inscriptions fully confirms Mr.
Longhurst's estimation. The inscriptions, more than thirty in
number and all composed in Prakrit, refer to the same Ikkhaku
(Skt. Ikshvaku) dynasty which is also mentioned in the
Jaggayyapeta inscriptions discovered by Dr. Burgess in
February, 1882. On palaeographical evidence they may be
assigned to the third century of our era. A paper containing
transcripts and translations 0f these interesting records of
Buddhism will shortly be published in the Epigraphia
Indica.(1)

In the present note I only wish to draw attention to one
point which relates to the ancient topography of Southern

1. A preliminary account of the discovery will be found in
the Annual Report on South-lndian Epigraphy for the year
ending 31st March, 1926, Madras, 1926, pp. 4 and 92 f., and
for the year ending 31st March, 1927, Madras, 1928, pp, 71 f.
Some of the statements made here regarding the contents of
the inscriptions require correction in the light of more
minute study. Cf. also Annual Bibliography of Indian
Archaeology for the year 1926, Leyden, 1928, pp. 14-16.

p. 114

India. Among the Prakrit inscriptions found on the site of
Nagarjunikonda there are two of considerable length, each of
which was incised on the stone floor of an apsidal shrine.
One of these two inscriptions is of peculiar value for the
ancient topography. It records that a chetiyaghara-evidently
the apsidal temple in question--with a floor of stone slabs
and with a cetiya had been founded by an upasika, named
Bodhisiri, on the Siripav[v]ata (Skt. Sriparvata),(1) on the
east side of Vijayapuri in the monastery at Culadham[m]agiri.
Besides, the inscription enumerates a number of pious
foundations which were due to the same donor. Now among the
latter we find the following: Kamtakasele(2) mahacetiyas[s]a
puv[v]adare selamamdavo, "at Kantakasela a stone shrime at
the eastern gate of the Great Cetiya (Skt. Caitya)."

There can be little doubt that the locality indicated here
by the name of Kantakasela must be identical with the
K oo mentioned by Ptolemy
(vii, 15)(3) immediately after the mouths of the Maisolos
River. It follows that this river has been rightly identified
with the Kistna.

Several of the Nagarjunikonda inscriptions refer to a
Mahacetiya, the ruins of which are represented by a mound now
called Ubagutta or " Owl Mound ". In all probability this is
the same stupa which is mentioned in connection with
Kantakasela.

As to the exact position of Kantakasela we shall have to
await the further results of Mr. Longhurst's excavations. If

1. According to Tibetan tradition Nagarjuna spent the last
part of his life in a monastery called Sriparvata.
2. The vowel-sign over the s has the appearance of an o
stroke. But in these inscriptions the rendering of the vowel
marks is far from accurate. Moreover, if we compare the names
of other localities which occur in this passage, viz.
Culadham[m]agiri, Mahadham[m]agiri, Devagiri, Pu[p]phagiri,
and Puv[v]asela, there can be little doubt that the correct
form must be Kantakasela, and not sola.
3. Variant readings are Cantacasila, ssilla, Canticosila,
and Cantacosyla. Cf. Louis Renou, La geographie de Ptolemee.
L'Inde (vii, 1-4), Paris, 1925, p. 8.]

p. 115

we are right in identifying it with Ptolemy's K  o-
 we may be sure that this place was situated on the
right bank of the Kistna and at a considerable distance up
that river. Ptolemy calls it an E'urropiov, i.e. " an
authorised sea-coast mart ".(1) We may assume that it was an
important port in the second century of our era when such a
vivid trade was carried on between the Roman Empire and
Southern India. This sea-borne commerce, testified by hoards
of gold coins of the Roman Emperors, accounts for a thriving
population of merchants at Kantakasela and indirectly for the
existence of the great monuments which once adorned that
place. For it was especially among the wealthy commercial
classes that the Buddhist religion found many devotees.

(b) THE BINDUKA RIVER

In Richard Schmidt's Nachtrage zum Sanskrit-Worterbuch in
Kurzerer Fassung von Otto Bohtlingk, an important lexi-
cographical publication which has lately been brought to
completion. we find on page 133 the following entry: "Kandu-
Kabinduka f. N. pr. eines Flusses, Festgr. 16."

I do not know which " Festgruss " is the one referred to
by the author. Anyhow, the name Kandukabinduka is, I believe,
due to an error made by Buhler in editing the two Sarada
prasastis found in the temple of Siva-Vaidyanatha at Baijnath
(the modern form of Skt. Vaidyanatha) or Kiragrama in the
Kangra district of the Panjab.(2)

The river-name was supposed by Buhler to occur in Prasasti
ii, verse 10; which he transcribed and translated as follows
(3):-
sailasyankac calitva ruciranavayah Khelativa sahelam Kulya
Kanyeva yatra sphuradura(4)-lahari Kandukabindukakhya Kira-

1. E. H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire
and India. Cambridge, 1928, p. 107.
2. Cf. Cunningham, Arch. Survey Report, vol. v, pp. 178 ff.;
plates xliii and xliv, and Fergusson, Hist. of Inian and
Eastern Architecture, revised edition, London, 1910, vol. i,
pp. 297-301.
3. Ep. Ind., vol. i, pp. 97 ff.
4. Evidently a misprint for -uru-.

p. 116

gramo 'bhiramo gunagananilayo vartate 'dhitrigartam so 'yam
rajanakena prabalabhujayuja raksito Laksmanena. " There is in
Trigarta the pleasant village of Kiragrama, the home of
numerous virtues, where that river called Kandukabinduka,
leaping from the lap of the mountain, with glittering waves
sportively plays, thus resembling a bright maiden in the
first bloom of youth (who jumping from the lap of the nurse
gracefully sports). That (village) is protected by the
strong-armed Rajanaka Lakshmana."

Buhler's reading of the verse is unobjectionable, but the
word binduka must, in my opinion, be connected with the
preceding and not with the following compound.(l) In other
words, we ought to read the second pada:
kulya kanyeva yatra sphuradurulaharikanduka Bindukakhya. The
river is compared with a playful maiden, and the waves of
that river are likened with the playing-balls which she
tosses up and down. We would, therefore, propose the
following rendering of the passage in question: "Where that
river called Binduka, leaping from the lap of the mountain,
with sparkling wide waves resembling playing-balls merrily
plays, like a bright maiden in the first bloom of youth."

It was rightly recognized by Buhler that the river so well
described by the poet is the modern Binnu, on the left or
east bank of which the village of Baijnath is situated. It is
one of the feeders of the Bias (ancient Vipasa or Vipas)
which, flowing through deeply cut river-beds, have given the
hill- district of Kangra its ancient name of Trigarta.

From the modern form "Binnu" it is evident that the
ancient name of the river was "Bindu(ka)" and not
Kandukabinduka. The forms Binoa and Binwa used by Moorcroft
and Cunningham respectively do not agree with the local
pronunciation. The Kangra District Gazetteer in its latest
edition (Lahore, 1926, p. 10) has "Binnun".
------------------------------
1. Cf. Annual Report Arch. Survey of India for the year 1905-6,
pp. 17 ff., plates v and vi. The correct date of the inscrip-
tions must be Saka 1126. corresponding to A.D. 1204.