Indian Antiquary Vol 32

SR No.: 032524
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 550
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 57

51
FEBRUARY, 1903.] NOTES ON INDIAN HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.
me. And, for these reasons, I treat the name as either Nandiaraka or Nandisaraka. It may be added that the intended name may liave been even Nândisaraka, with the long d in the first syllable; in the record, there are quite enough cases of an omission of a medial long a, to justify even that surmise.
In specifying the boundaries of Nandiaraka or Nandisaraka, the record places on the east a village (grama) named Girivili. On the south, it places a river (nali) named Madavi.12 On the west, it places the sea.13 And, on the north, it places a village (gráma) named Dêyathali.
To the localisation of this record, we are led primarily by the reference to the territorial division which is mentioned as the Kantaragrama solasatam vishaya. We should, of course, have expected that a village claimed by a charter attributed to Dharasêna II. of Valabhi, would be found either somewhere in Kathiawâr, or, if outside that territory, then at any rate somewhere close to, and probably on the north of, the river Mahi. An examination of the maps, however, has failed to produce anything tending to connect the record with those parts. And there is no doubt that it really belongs, as was indicated by Dr. Bühler, 1 to a territory which was formerly attached to and was named after, or, it may be said, was supposed, by the person who fabricated the record, to have been attached to and named after, the modern Katargam or Kattargam. This is a very large village, or a small town, close on the north of Surat, which is shewn as Katargam' in the . Indian Atlas sheet No. 23, S. E (1888), in lat. 21° 13', long. 72° 53', and as 'Katárgám' in the Trigonometrical Survey sheet No. 15 (1879) of Gujarat, in a large ben 1 of the Tapti, and on the sou.h of that river. I am not quite sure of the exact form of its modern name; for, whereas Dr. Bühler wrote it as Kattargâm, with the double tt followed by a short a, the compilation entitled Bombay Places and Common Official Words (1878) certifies it, in Gujarati characters, as Katârgâm, with a single t followed by a long d: and it is not impossible that more careful inquiries on the spot would shew that the real modern name is Katargam, with a single t and the long & both before and after it. However, the Katargam' anl Katirgim' of the maps, close on the north of Surat, is the place meant by Dr. Bähler. He has toll us that it is still known by the Sanskrit appellation of Kantaragrama. There is no other place, either in Kahiâwâr or in Gujarat, the name of which can. be taken as derived from, or as properly capable of being represented by, Kantaragrâma. And the next identification fully endorses Dr. Bühler's recognition of the identity of the Kantâragrâma of the record with Katârgam or Kattargâm.
Dr. Bühler was not able to go beyond that point. But the river Madavi of the record is certainly that river which is called Mandakini in the Chokkhakuti grant of A. D. 867, and which, as is shown by the details given in that record, 15 is unquestionably the modern Mindhola, Mindhála, or Mindhol1' river, also known as the Midagri,' which falls into the sea about five miles on the south of the Tapti, ad from the north bank of which, at its nearest point, Katargam or Kattargam is distant about nine miles.
The maps do not disclose, in the area from the coast, with the Tapti on the north and the Mindhola' on the south, to a line from Katârgâm or Kattargam to the 'Min-lhola,' 16 the existence of any names that can represent the Nandiaraka or Nandisaraka and the Girivili and Dêyathali,
13 As I have already remarked (see Vol. XXXI. above, p. 254, note 7), there is a somewhat unusual mark at the top of the ma, to the right. It does not seem to be intended for a long 4. Nor, as far as I could see when I had the original plate before me, does it seem to be part of an imperfootly formed anusvára.
The actual reading presented in the text, is samudr3, as given by Dr. Bühlor. And I know, from my own transcription, that the anusvára exists in the original, and has not been simply evolved in the preparation of the lithograph. A name Samundra might easily be imagined, as an intermediate form between an original Sanipadraka and a modern name which might appear either as 'Sondarna' (see Vol. XXXI. above, p. 363), or as 'Samadra or Samádra,' which latter name does occur in the Mehmadâbâd taluka of the Kaira district. But, in addition to other considerations, the absence of the word grama, which is attached in the other instances in the text, makes it certain that samudra, 'the sea,' really was intended.
14 Vol. X. above, p. 277.6.
15 See Vol. XXXI. above, p. 254 f.
16 Nor, it is hardly necessary to say, anywhere else.