South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

No. 5 ] BADAGANGA ROCK INSCRIPTION OF BHUTIVARMAN

Nārāyāṇa image inscription1 in the district of Tippera, and mentioning the village of Bilakinda modern Bilkenduāi close by, ‘as included in Samataṭa’, finally settles the question. With this point inside Samataṭa we can clearly see that the region north of the sea-shore in Noākhāli District, bounded by the Lauhitya or the Brahmaputra river on the west and the hills of Tippera and Sylhet on the east was the ancient pratyanta kingdom of Samataṭa. Hiuen Tsang gives the circuit of the country as 3000 li, equivalent to about 600 miles. If the Chinese traveller was even approximately correct in his measurements, we can easily visualise the extent of the kingdom of Samataṭa. A look at the map will show that the strip of land between the Brahmaputra and the hills of Tippera is nowhere more than about 40 miles broad. But we have to accommodate here a kingdom 600 miles in circuit. If the sum-total of the sides of a rectangle is 600 miles, and one of the sides is only 40 miles, the other side must be about 250 miles. We thus see that to accommodate a kingdom of the circuit of about 600 miles, we have to include within it the entire plain area, bounded by the Garo, the Khāsi and the Jaintiā Hills on the north, the hills of Kachar and Tippera on the east, the sea on the south, and the mighty river Brahmaputra on the west. That is to say, the ancient kingdom of Samataṭa comprised the modern districts of Sylhet, Tippera and Noākhāli, as well as the eastern half of the Mymensingh District, and a narrow strip from the eastern side of the present Dacca District,─an area, the circuit of which is approximately 600 miles.

The kingdom of Samataṭa thus marked off, we can easily locate Ḍavāka on the other side of the hills bordering Samataṭa on the north, in the Kapilī, the Yamunā and the Kullong valleys, i.e., the present Nowgong District. Beyond this region, to its north-west, lay the kingdom of Kāmarūpa.

The western boundary of the kingdom of Kāmarūpa is marked by the river Karatōyā from time immemorial. Not only is this boundary recognised in the Kālikāpurāṇa and the Yōginītantra, but the more authentic Chinese sources also confirm it, where the river Ka-lo-tu, i.e., Karatōyā, is placed as boundary between Puṇḍravardhana and Kāmatūpa2. In the east, the boundary of Kāmarūpa reached the frontiers of China, but was never very well defined. What separated Ḍavāka from Kāmarūpa is also not very clear

As already stated, the separate naming of these three kingdoms as pratyanta kingdoms, whose kings paid Samudragupta all manner of tributes and sought his pleasure by obedience, obeisance and personal attendance (-ādi pratyanta-nṛipatibhir = . . . . . . . . . sarvva-karadān-ājñākaraṇa-praṇām-āgamana-paritōshita) would indicate the separate existence of these three kingdoms during this period, i.e., towards the end of the reign of Samudragupta by about 380 A.D.3 In 428 A.D., a king named ‘Moon-loved’ (Chandragupta ?), king of the Kapilī country, sent an embassy to China. The capital of the country is described as situated by the side of a lake to the east of a river and surrounded on all sides by dark purplish rocks.4 This Kapilī country has been sought to be identified with the kingdom of Ḍavāka of the Kapilī valley, though it is difficult to understand why the proper name of the country should not be mentioned, and the country should be made known by the name of the river.5

It should be noted, however, that the Ḍabokā region is to the east of the river Kapilī, and is practically surrounded on all sides by dark hills, and as such, corresponds very closely to the Chinese description of the country of Kapilī. The hills of Kachar are to the south of this region, while the south and the south-west are covered by the Khāsi and the Jaintiā Hills. To the east and the north-east are the hills of Ḍabokā (the Mahāmāyā Hills) and the Mikir Hills. The direct

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^[1]Above, Vol. XVII, p. 355.
^[2] Watters’ Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, page 186.
^[3] Above, Vol. XXI, page 3.
^[4] J. B. A.S., 1898, page 540
^[5] Barua: Early History of Kamarupa, page 47.