Tulsi Prajna 1992 04

SR No.: 524570
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1992
Total Pages: 130
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 6 MB

Page 101

Vol. XVII, No. 1
'SURASTRA' (Surat), MADHYARASTRA (Mewar), GURJARĂȘṬRA etc. formed by adding the word 'RASTRA'. 'GANGARAŞṬRA' would corrupt into GANGĀRĀŢA and GANGĀRĀṚHA gradually. Then the word 'Ganga' would be dropped for the sake of brevity. For example, people use the word 'TEERASTHA' for 'GANGA TEERASTHA'. The old Sanskrit name for TIRHUT is "TIRABHUKTI". Here too, the word 'Ganga' is gone and "TIRA"alone is retained. GANGĀRĀṚHA too has become "RĀṚHA" for the same reason. We can infer from the statement of Megasthenes that 'RARHA' was a separate kingdom at that time. Megasthenes says this kingdom was so powerful that it was never defeated by any enemy and other kings dared not attack it for fear of the elephant troops of the Gangaridae. He has also mentioned that when Alexander reached the bank of the Ganga and heard about the might of the Gangaridae, he retreated from that very place. That Alexander desisted from war for fear of the prowess of the Bengalis, may or may not be acceptable to a person, but it is testified by Megasthenes himself. We are not introducing a new, tutored
witness. "'1
If the name Gangārāḍhi (et) is challanged as fictitious, that too is answered by Chatterjee: "When we find that people of the region which was called Gangari dae by Megasthenes are known as the Radhis (ra) now, we deem it alone sufficient to establish the historicity of the GANGARADHI. But we are not relying upon this proof alone in using the term GANGĀRĀDHI (t), It is known to many that there is a collectian of rare Indian books known as Mackenzie's collection. There is little possibility of their being printed and published and they are neither available to all. Yet they contain new, strange historical items. Wilson has published a list of those books and some select pieces of historical information, vide page 82 of that book. It is mentioned there that ANANTAVARMA, also known as KOLAHALA, was king of GANGĀRĀDHI who conquered KALINGA. We find that inscribed on stone. We have not manufactured the name GANGARADHI." Kolahala was, Chatterjee adds, the founder of the Ganga dynasty of Orissa. The ruler of that dynasty built the temples of Puri and Konark and resisted the onslaught of the Muslim invaders for about three hundred years. The truth about the Gangaridae will come to light in due course. What the long quotations reveal is the general trend of the Bengal elite. Hemchandra Raychaudhury, Niher Ranjan Roy, Radha Kumud Mukherjee and Ramesh Chandra Majumdar proceeded with the same spirit as it would be sinful in Bengal to deviate.
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