Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 359

330 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
Kosar people famous for their truthfulness. Mr. K. G. Sesha Aiyar1 takes Satiyaputra to be the equivalent of Atiyaman, chief of Kutiraimalai with his headquarters at Takaḍur, now in Mysore. Mr. P. J. Thoma, however, gives reasons for identifying it with "Satyabhumi" of the Keralolpatti, a territory which corresponds roughly to "North Malabar including a portion of Kasergode Tāluk, South Canara."2
Keralaputra (Ketalaputo or Chera) is "the country south of Kupaka (or Satya), extending down to Kanneti in Central Travancore (Karunagapalli Taluk). South of it lay the political division of Mushika." It was watered by the river Periyar, perhaps identical with the Churņi of the Arthasastra on the banks of which stood its capital Vañji (near Cochin) and at its mouth the seaport of Muziris (Kranganur).
Ceylon was known in ancient times as Parasamudra as well as Tamraparņi (Greek Taprobane). Tambapaṁni,
6
1 Cera kings of the Sangam period, 17-18
2 JRAS, 1923, p. 412, B. A. Saletore is, however, inclined to disparage the authority of the Keralolpatti (Indian Culture. I. 668). But Kirfel points out (Die Kosmographie Der Inder, 1920, p. 78) that Satiya (variants Satiratha, Sanipa) finds mention in the list of southern Janapadas, along with the Mushakas, in the Jambukhanda section of the Mahabharata (Bk. VI.). For other views see, Ind. Cult., Vol. II, 549 ff.; Aiyangar. Com. Vol., 45-47. Mr. M. G. Pai suggests that 'Satiya' corresponds to Śantika of the Markandeya Purāṇa, 58.37, and the Brihat Samhita, xiv, 27, and included South Kanara. Cf. Setae of Pliny, (Bomb, Gaz. Gujrat, 533).
3 JRAS, 1923, p. 413.
4
P. 75. Cf. Suka samdesa (Aiyar, Cera kings, 94).
5 Greek Palaesimundu, see Ray Chaudhuri, Ind. Ant., 1919, pp., 195-96. commentary on the Kauṭiliya, Ch. XI; Rāmāyaṇa, VI. 3. 21 (Lanka described as sthita "pare samudrasya").
On reading Law's Ancient Hindu Polity (p. 87 n.) I find that the identification was also suggested by Mr. N. L. Dey. The equation Parasamudra = Palaesimundu is not less plausible than the equations Satavahana = Śalivahana ; Kataha Kaḍāram = Kiḍāram = Kantoli (cf. Dr. Majumdar, Suvarnadvipa, 56, 79, 168).
6 For other names of Ceylon see "Megasthenes and Arrian" published by Chuckerverty and Chatterjee, 1926, p. 60 n. For a short history of the island