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SINDHU-DEĆA OF JAINA LITERATURE IS TĪRABHUKTI : 223
geographical position of Vaiśāli and Kundapura correctly; they simply used Sindhu-deśa or Sindhu-vişaya as a synonym for Tirabhukti. Our explanation for this is as follows:
The oldest term for North Bihar was Videha. From the Gupta period (fourth-fifth centuries A.D.) onwards it came to be known as Tirabhuktis, which literally means 'the Province or Country situated on the Banks (of Rivers)'. In poetry synonyms are freely used. Hence
the Province or Country of Rivers' could also be called Sindhu-desa or Sindhu-vişaya, because one of the words for river is sindhu.?
A confirmation of the explanation offered above is available when we find that the Jaina Uttara-Purana (75) places the territory of Cetaka near Rājagsha, the capital of Magadha
"कदाचिच्चेटको गत्वा ससैन्यो मागधं पुरम् ।
राजद्राजगृहं बाह्योद्याने स्थानपुरस्सरम् ॥२०॥" This means that these were neighbouring states.
Thus, in our opinion, the Digambara Jaina writers did not believe that Vaiśālī lay in Sind or the Indus valley or on sea-coast or in Central India. Its placing in Sindhu-deśa or Sindhu-visaya instead of Tirabhukti was only a literary nicety.8
In our opinion Tirabhukti was transformed into Sindhu-deśa or Sindhu-visaya in the following manner :
तीरभुक्ति = (791) artefato = नदीतीरभुक्ति = a(at)fto = a punti = fere or for at or feryfaqt.
6 Cf. the legends on the seals discovered at Vaiśāli (modern Basarh,
Muzaffarpur District, Bihar State) which give this word, Archaeo
logical Survey of India Annual Report, 1903-04, p. 109. 7 Vide V. S. Apte's Sanskrit-English Dictionary. 8 Elsewhere (An Early History of Vaiśäli, Delhi, 1962, pp. 228-237) we
have discussed in detail as to how the Jainas forgot Vaiśāli and Kundapura (Kundagrāma) completely and what measures have been taken by the Vaiśāli Sangha, a premier cultural organisation of Bihar, for the revival of this Jaina tirtha and centre.
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