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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
POLITICAL HISTORY passage, from the Rāmāyaṇa, which gives an account of the travels of the emissaries sent by Vasishṭha to bring Bharata back to Ayōdhyā from Girivraja, the capital of the Kēkaya country. It runs as follows: Yayur=madhyēna Vāhlīkān Sudāmānaṁ cha parvatam | âThey went through the Vāhlīka1 country to Mount Sudāman, viewing Vishṇupada and also the Vipāśā and the Śālmalī.â If we read carefully the second half of this Chapter, namely, Chapter 68, we note that the emissaries of Ayōdhyā crossed the Ganges at Hastināpura, thereupon with their faces turned towards the west reached the Pañchāla country after passing through Kuru-Jāṅgala, thence entered the city of Kuliṅgā, from there repaired to the river Ikshumatī sacred to the Ikshvāku ancestry, and thereafter to Mount Sudāman passing through the Vālhīka country, from there viewing Vishṇupada, the Vipāśā and the Śālmalī. From there the emissaries finally reached Girivraja, their place of destination. This Girivraja, the capital town of the Kēkaya country Cunningham identifies with Jalālpur of the Gujarat District, Panjab, now in Pakistan, the ancient name of which was Girijāk.2 And this identification has been approved by F. E. Pargiter in his translation of the Mārkaṇḍēya-Purāṇa.3 The whole passage is of great significance; first, because Vishṇupada is here mentioned not alone, but along with Vāhlīka-just the two localities which are mentioned also in the Meharauli inscription, showing clearly that this is just the Vishṇupada we are in search of; and, secondly, because the passage provides us with the clue that these places were in the close proximity of the Vipāśā, which, we know, is the modern Beas, where it is joined by another river, which must therefore be the Śālmalī. Thirdly, it is worthy of note that this Ikshumatī was much to the south-east of the Beas. It cannot thus be identified with the Oxus near Balkh as one scholar4 has thought fit to do. Besides, the Oxus was never considered sacred to the Ikshvāku ancestry. The old name of the Oxus, again, was Vaṅkshu.5 If the Ikshumatī of the Rāmāyaṇa has to be located, it had better be identified with the Ikshu mentioned in the Purāṇas6 as having sprung up from the Himālayas along with the Vipāśā and others. In this connection, it is desirable to notice another passage, namely, one from the Mahābhārata, which, though referred to in the Petersburg Lexicon was first quoted and brought to the attention of scholars by J. C. Ghosh. The passage runs as follows:
ētad=Vishṇupadaṁ nāma dṛiśyatē tīrtham =uttamam |
It will be seen from this description that not only the Vipāśā but also Kāśmīra was 1 It is worthy of note that Vāhlīka or Bālhīka is the reading found in the three recensions of the Rāmāyaṇa namely of Bombay, Madras (Kumbhakonam) and Bengal (Calcutta). The Madras and Bengal recensions specify
various readings, but nowhere is the reading Vāhīka given for Bālhīka. On the other hand, be it noted that the
latter gives the reading Sudāsāṁś= instead of Sudāmāṁś= (II. 70. 17), immediately following Bāhlīkān. See, in this
connection, our articles in IC., Vol. III, pp. 511 and ff. and Jour. Andhra Hist. Res. Soc., Vol. X, pp. 86 ff. This is
controverted by D. C. Sircar in his paper printed in Festschrift Prof. P. V. Kane, 1941, pp. 469 and ff. But the
latter’s view has been substantially refuted in (Miss) Padma Mishra’s article on Vāhīka and Bālhīka published in
IC., Vol. VIII, pp. 85 and ff. See also O. Stein’s Round the Meharauli Inscription in NIA., Vol. I, pp. 196-98.
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