North Indian Inscriptions

PART A

Vedisa (Sk. Vaidiśa, P. Vedisa, Vedisagiri), modern Besnagar,^[1] 2½ miles to the north of Bhilsa in Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), at the fork of the Bes (Bias) and the Betwa rivers; known from the pillar inscription of Heliodoros, the Greek ambassador from Taxila, sent to the king Kāsīputa Bhāgabhadra (Cf. List No. 669). The name is derived from the river Vidiśā (Bes, Bias), mentioned in the Purāṇas as one of the rivers originating in the Pariyātra mountain^[2] together with the Vetravati (Betwa) ; the Vaidiśas appear ibid. in the lists of the Vindhya population.^[3]

(2) Suggestions can be made regarding the following places: Asitamasā, supposed by Cunningham to have been situated on the bank of the Tamasā or Tonse river in Rewa, Central India.^[4]

Kakaṁ di,^[5] is known from grammatical Sanskrit literature^[6] as well as from Buddhist and Jain sources. The Kāśikā on Pāṇini IV, 2, 123 cites the name as that of a place in the East, quoting the derivation Kākandaka “inhabitant of Kākandi”. In the SnA. p. 300 Sāvatthī (śrāvastī) is said to have originally been the residence of the Ṛishi Savattha, “just as Kosambī was the abode of Kusumba and Kākandī that of Kākanda” (yathā Kusubassa nivāso Kosambī Kākanadassa Kākandī). Hultzsch^[7] referred to the mentioning of Kākandī in Jain literature (Paṭṭāvalī of the Kharataragachha, IA. Vol. XI, p. 247). The exact location of the town is not known.

Naṁdinagara has been identified with Nandigrāma = Nandgaon in Oudh, eight or nine miles to the south of Fyzabad,^[8] or with Nandner (near Tonk);^[9] but these identifications are not very probably, as the town is more often quoted in early Brāhmī inscriptions than any other,^[10] besides Ujenī (Ujjayinī). Is it a second name for some important place in central India? According to the dictionaries nandināgarī means a particular kind of writing, and nandināgaraka a particular written character. ─A town Nandipura occurs in a Jain cosmographical list after Kauśāmbī.^[11] Benākaṭa cf. A 49a.

Bhogavaḍhana (Sk. Bhogavardhana), a place met with in several early Brāhmī inscriptions,^[12] and known from Sanskrit literature. The exact location is unknown^[13]. The Purāṇas place the country between Aśmaka and Koṅkaṇa^[14]. Majumdar^[15] summing up what is known says: “From some of the Purāṇas it seems that this place has to
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^[1] Nunda Lal Dey, l.c.p. 29 (Bessanagara), p. 35 (Bidisā); Law, l.c.p. 35; BI., p. 132; Malalasekera, l.c. Vol. II, p. 922. For a sketch of Besnagar by Cunningham sec Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India, ed. by Sir A. Cunningham, Vol. X, Pl. XII; for a description of the remains, ibid., pp. 36-46. In the ‘Monuments of Sāñchī’, Vol. I. p. 2, the following note is given : “The city was not confined to the fork between the two rivers but extended at last two-thirds of a mile to the river Beś”. Cf. ASIAR., 1913-14, p. 186.
^[2] Kirfel, l.c.p. 65.
^[3] Kirfel, l.c.p. 76.
^[4] Law, l.c.p. 56 ; Nunda Lal Dey, l.c.p. 202 (Tamasā); BI. p. 125; Kirfel, l.c.p. 65 (Tamasā).
^[5] Malalasekera, l.c. Vol. I, p. 558; BI.p. Law, l.c.p. 27.
^[6] Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v.
^[7] IA., Vol. XXI (1892), p. 235, note 59.
^[8] BI. p. 128; Law, l.c.p. 31; Nunda Lal Dey, l.c.p. 131. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dict. gives Nandigrāma as name of a village near Daulatabad.
^[9] Majumdar, Sāñchī, Vol. I, p. 299, referring to Bühler.
^[10] Cf. List s.v. Nadinagara, Nādinagara, Naṁdinagara and derivatives Nadanagarikā, Nadinagarikā, Nādinagarikā, Naṁdinagāraka, Naṁdinagarikā, Naṁdināgārikā.
^[11] Kirfel, l.c.p. 226.
^[12] Cf. List s.v. Bhogavaḍhana, Bhogavaḍhanaka and Bhogavaḍhaniya.
^[13] BI. p. 130 f.
^[14] Kirfel, l.c.p. 75.
^[15]Sāñchī, Vol. I, p. 300.