Kuvalayamala Part 2

SR No.: 002778
Original Sutra Author: Udyotansuri
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1970
Total Pages: 368
Language: Sanskrit, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 12 MB

Page 114

INTRODUCTION
75
towards the South. He passes through the Vindhya forest (27.28 f.) which possesses camps of wild tribes (112.3-25). He crosses the river Narmadā or Revā ($ 206), on the banks of which there is a Mahāțavī. Then he comes to the Sahya mountain (134.24-30) in the valley of which he stays with a Bhilla chief in his palli (138.11 f.). Then he reaches the country of Vijayā-puravarī on the southern coast (149.6 f.). Its capital is Vijayā (-nagarī,-puravarī or-puri), quite a prosperous town and situated right on the shore of the ocean the scenes of which could be witnessed from the terrace of the palace: in fact, its southern rampartwall was washed by the waves of the ocean (173.32 f.). It is to be distinguished from Jayantī (183.19). Other towns named Jayaśrī (104.8), Śrītunga (107.16) and Jayatunga (109.26) are referred to, and they are all located on the southern shore.
The most important question is the identification of this port town Vijayā in the South. Uddyotana may not have personally visited the South, but it is quite likely that he had heard a good bit about it from the mouths of traders going to the South possibly travelling along the Western Coast. In the South of India there are some towns with their names beginning with Vijaya, such as Vijayapura, Vijayanagara, Vaijayantī; and some of them pretty ancient. The proposed identification has to fulfil certain conditions: it is located on the Western Coast, as it is reached after crossing the Sahyādri; secondly, it is situated right on the sea-shore; and thirdly, its southern wall was washed by the waves of the ocean (173.31). One is inclined to identify it with Vijayadurga in the Ratnagiri District. Very interesting information about it is noted in the Ratnagiri Dt. Gazetteer (p. 379). It was known to the European travellers as the best of the Konkan ports. It is a rocky spot surrounded by sea practically on three sides: the river Sukhanadī (as it is locally called) flowing down from Khārepāttan almost makes a good lake near the fort, and it is a safe haven for the boats plying along the Western Coast. Though the present structures belong to the Marāthā period, the port shows a good rocky base which must have been well-known and striking to the travellers along the Western Coast. It was under the rulers of Bijāpur (the former Vijayapura). Lately, I visited the place and was struck by the coincidental description in the Kuvalayamālā that the southern wall is washed by the waves of the sea. "A. HAMILTON (1710) mentions it as Gheria or Vizendruck, fortified by a strong castle washed by the sea (New Account L. 246). In 1756 Sir W. JAMES, surveying before the English attack, speaks of a very large town betwixt the fort and a hill to the South. The town seems to have been nothing but a large collection of palm-leaf huts (Lows' Indian Navy, L 133). Its great natural advantages make it probable that the mouth of Vaghotan river is one of the oldest coast settlements. There seems reason to suppose that it is Ptolemy's (150) Byzantium, a Greek corruption of Vaijayanta (see WEBER in Ind. Ant. II. ' 148). Rashid-uddin's (1310) Karoba has been thought to be Gheria (YULE in Ind. Ant. III. 209)."
About the identification Vaijayanti (mentioned in the Kadamba copper plates) and Jayantīpura (of the Vijayanagar grant) there is a difference of opinion. Some take them to be Banavasi, in the South Kanara District, while R. G. BHANDARKAR1 proposes Vijayadurga. Uddyotana, as noted above, distinguishes
1 Early History of the Dekkan, 3rd ed. Calcutta 1928, pp. 73 f,