Indian Antiquary Vol 47

SR No.: 032539
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 82

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MARCH, 1918
with Nahapana. It was, however, left to Dr. Fleet to explain satisfactorily how the name Nahapana could partly through the copyist's confusion and partly through phonetic influence be easily transformed into Mambanos or Nambanos. 15 The late Mr. McCrindle has adduced strony reasons to hold that the Periplus was written between A.D. 80-89, and no scholar of repute has called this clate in question. Nahapana was thus alive circa A.D. 85, long before A.D. 124 which is the last known date for him. The capital of Nahapana's territory, according to the Periplus, was Minnagara. The work also mentions another Minnavara, but this was the capital of "Scythia " and was situated in the delta of the Indus in Sinci. The name has been taken to be a hybrid word meaning "a city of the Mins, the Scythians." Nahapana Minnagara has been identified by McCrindle with Indore, to by Pandit Bhagwânlal with Junaga lh, '7 by Mr. Schoff with Nagari north of Chitorgadh in Rajputânâ, 13 and by Dr. Fleet with Dohad in the Pach Mahâls district, Bombay Presidency.+9 It deserves to be noticed that Ptolemy. the Greek geographer, who wrote shortly after A.D. 150, refers to both these cities, and, what is more interesting, specifies both the latitude and the longitude of these as of other places. In regard to the inland Minnagara which was, no doubt, the capital of Xahapana, he gives 115' 10° and 19' 30° as its latitude and longitude, which for Barugaza are 113' 1.50 and 17' 20°.51 Minnagara was thus nearly 2' east and 2' north of Barugaza, which, we know for certain, is Broach. The only old place which fulfils these conditions is Manclasor, the ancient Dasapura. Daśapura certainly was a place of importance in Mahapana's time as it is mentioned in one of Ushavadâta's inscriptions along with such big cities as Sorpåraga, Govardhana and Bharukachha. Besides, it seems at this time to have been inhabited by some Sakas, as we see from a Násik cave inscription. I have often thought that it was impossible for Ushavadata not to have made any benefactions at the capital town of Nahapâna and that consequently one of these four cities must have been his capital. But Ptolemy's geography no longer leaves this point in doubt.
A Dašapura was the capital of Nahapana's kindgom, the other three cities, viz., Sorparaga, Govardhana and Bharukachha, must have been each the head-quarters of a district. Govardhana certainly was the principal town of an åhåra or district, as we learn from other Násik cave inscriptions of this period.5. This Govardhana is the large modern village of Govardhan-Gangapur, on the right bank of the Godavari and six miles west of Nasik. We have seen that a Junnar cave epigraph mentions an amatya of Nahapana called Ayama (Aryaman). Amátya, of course, has been used in inscriptions to signify the head officer of a territorial division. Thus Junnar seems to have been the head-quarters of the Mâmala district which is mentioned in a Kârle inscription and which has been identified with Mâva!. Nâsik inscription 14(a), as we have seen above, makes mention of Ujenî (Ujjayini), which, no doubt, was included in Nahapana's dominions and must have been the head-quarters of a division called Avanti. There was yet another district called Kâpur-âhâra which is also referred to in one of Ushavadâta's inscriptions. It was at Chikhalapadra in this division that he granted 8,000 cocoanut trees. From the mention of the cocoanuts Chikhalapadra seems to have been on the coast and most probably is Chikhali, the principal town of a tâluka in the Surat district, as suggested by Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji. Kåpura is mentioned as the name of both the district and its head-quarters on a copper-plate grant of the Traikûțaka king Dahrasena found at Pârci in the Surat Collectorate. Kåpura thus appears to correspond to the modern Surat district and was situated between the Sorpâraga and Bharukachha districts.
(To be continued.) 45 JRAS., 1907, p. 1043, n.
2
1A., CIII. 140. 17 B. G., VIII. 187. 18 Periptus, p. 180. 19 JR.S., 1912, 788.
50 IA., XIII, 359. 51 EI, VIII. 95.0. 32 See, for example, Nasik Cave Inscriptions Nos. 1 & 5, where Govardhana is mentioned as a place where an amalya was stationed.