Paninian Studies

SR No.: 269664
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: Ashok Aklujkar
Total Pages: 47
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 4 MB

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discovery in Ceylon in the other accounts of Candra's achievement, but the Tibetan accounts specifically state that Candra found the equivalent of the VP āgama after he left Simhala or Ceylon (4.6).
However, while we can dismiss the idea of a Tri-kūţa understood to be associated with Ceylon, we cannot easily dismiss the Tri-kūta associated with Rāvana's Lankā. The sīkā author mentions Rāvana and rakşas immediately after the statement of identification we are discussing. It is probable, therefore, that the Tri-kūta he had in mind was the one that figured in the descriptions of Rāvaņa's kingdom. This observation leaves only two alternatives open to us: (a) that the sīkā author is correct in his statement of identification about parvata, but wrong in connecting the identified (Tri-kūta) parvata with Rāvaņa; and (b) the sīkā author does not understand Rāvana's Lankā to be Ceylon but a region near an historical Tri-kūta. Both these alternatives dictate that we determine independently which mountain or mountains can historically claim the name Tri-kūta.
4.9 Our attempt to determine this will of course be confined to mountains (c) and (d) of the list given in 4.7, for the available evidence does not lead us in any other direction. Of them, (d) is a suspect candidate for its claim to the name Tri-kūta has not generally been accepted by specialists of ancient and medieval Indian geography. Gupta (1973:246-47), agreeing with V. S. Ramachandra Murty's article in volume II (p. 45) of the Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, concludes that there is little evidence to support the identification of Kotappakonda with the Tri-kūta mentioned in historical records.
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