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Ramagiri In Jaina Literature
V. V. MIRASHI
The location of Rāmagiri described in the Meghadūta of Kalidasa has
1 recently become a matter of keen controversy. Many years ago, while editing the Meghadūta, Prof. H. H. Wilson suggested that it might be identical with Rāmțek, about 28 miles north of Nagpur, but beyond stating that the hill was covered with buildings consecrated to Rāma and was periodically visited by numerous pilgrims, he did not substantiate the identification with any evidence. Besides, his identification of Māla with Māldā in the Bilaspur District of Madhya Pradesh, and of Amrakūta with the Amarakantak hill where the Narmadā takes its rise, are not in accordance with the description of those places in the Meghadūta. Prof. K. B. Pathak accepted this identification of Rāmagiri with Rāmțek near Nagpur in his first edition of the Meghadūta but in his second edition of that work published in 1916 he proposed to identify the place with the Rāmgarh hill in the Central Provinces as the place intended by the poet owing to its extreme proximity to
1 Kālidāsa describes Mäla as a table-land situated to the north of
Rāmagiri, while Maldā in the Bilaspur district lies southeast of Ramtek. Amrakūta cannot be Amarkanţak; for the poet describes in the Meghadīta that the Cloud-messenger saw the Narmadā after flying considerable distance from Amrakūta with great speed. (at Ticare ai acestui: i patient etc.) Amarkanţak is, on the other hand, the source of the Narmadā.
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