North Indian Inscriptions

PART A

  (1) The first group comprehends some renowned localities extending over a vast are from Pāṭaliputra (Patna) in the north-east of India to Nasik and Karhāḍ, places in the former Bombay Sate, in the West. Therefore it is obvious that Bhārhut attracted visitors not only from its vicinity but that pilgrims even from distant places flocked to the shrine or supported subscriptions to contribute to the embellishment and ornamentation of the monument. Important localities to be identified are :

Karahakaṭa, probably the modern Karhāḍ, in the district of Sātārā, Bombay       State, about forty miles north of Kolhapur. The name reappears in the       Kuḍā Buddhist cave inscription (List No. 1055) as Karahākaḍa, and seems       to be the ancient form of the later Karahaṭaka, Karāḍ, the capital of one        of the branches of the Śilāhāra family.^[1]

Kosambi (Sk. Kauśāmbī), modern Kosam, on the left bank of the Jumna, about   thirty miles to the west of Allahabad ; according to the Mahāparinibbānasutta   it was one of the great Indian cities at the time of the Buddha, famous as   capital of the Vatsas or Vaṁsas.^[2] To Kosambī our inscriptions refer only   once (A 52). The nun Dhamarakhitā, inhabitant of Venuvagāma, is called   Kosabeyikā (Kauśāmbeyikā) “native of Kosambi”.

Nasika,^[3]the modern Nasik on the Godāvarī, 117 miles by train to the     north-east of Bombay, a celebrated place of pilgrimage, known to           archaeologists on account of some old cave-temples.

Paṭaliputa (Pāṭaliputra), modern Patna, the capital of Magadha in Maurya and Gupta times, founded by Ajātaśatru of Magadha as Pāṭaligāma in cr. 483 B.C., the last year of Buddha’s life. A description of the town as the residence of the Maurya Chandragupta has been given at the end of the fourth century B.C. by the Greek ambassador Megasthenes. For excavations see L. A. Wadell, Report on Excavations at Pāṭaliputra Calcutta 1903 ; D. B. Spooner, Mr. Ratan Tata’s Excavations at Pāṭaliputra ASIAR., 1913-14, pp. 53-86.^[4]

Purika, according to the Khila-Harivaṃśa (Viṣṇuparvan XXXVIII, 20-22) a town between two ranges of the Vindhya mountains. The Paurikas or Paulikas are enumerated by different Purāṇas in the list of people in the Deccan after the Daṇḍakas and before the Maulikas And Aśmakas.^[5]

Bhojakaṭa, second capital of Vidarbha (Berar) ;^[6] probably to be identified with Bhojpur in Bhopal, six miles to the east south-east of Bhilsa. The Bhojpur topes have been described by Cunningham (‘Bhilsa Topes’) and some relic bowels with inscriptions have been found there (List No. 676-678).
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^[1] Hultzsch, IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 228, note 20; Cf. Nunda Lal Dey, The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediӕval India, 2nd ed. 1927, p. 92 ; Shafer, Robert, Ethnography of Ancient India, Wiesbaden 1954, pp. 93 f. (Nr. 176).
^[2] Cf. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, I, pp. 692 ff.; Nunda Lal Dey, l.c.pp. 96 f.; BI. Pp. 127 f.
^[3] Cf. Bimala Churn Law, Geography of Early Buddhism, London 1932, p. 57; Nunda Lal Dey, l.c.p. 139, and p. 147, under Pañchavaṭī ; BI. P. 128; Nāsika is found in the enumeration of people of the west of India in the Purāṇas, see W. Kirfel, Die Kosmographie der Inder, 1920, p. 75.
^[4] For further references see Nunda Lal Dey, l.c.pp. 151 ff.; Malalasekera l.c. Vol. II, pp. 178f; BI. p. 129.
^[5] Cf. Kirfel, l.c.p. 75; Nunda Lal Dey, l.c.p. 162; Law l.c.p. 65; BI. P. 130; Hultzsch, IA., Vol. XXI, p. 234, note 55, remarks: “On a town of this name, which is referred to in the great epic, sec Bohtlingk and Roth’s Sanskrit-Worterbuch, s.v. At the time of the Śilāhāras, Purī was, the capital of the Koṅkaṇ ; IA., Vol. XIII, p. 134. Another Purī in Orissa is well-known by its shrine of Jagannātha, IA., Vol. XX, p. 390”.
^[6] Nunda Lal. Dey, l.c.p. 33, and 224; Law, l.c.p. 62; BI. P. 131; Shafer, l.c.p. 91; Hultzsch, IA., Vol. XXI (1892), p. 229, note 32.