Epigraphia Indica Vol 12

Author(s): Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 95

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. XIf.
of Nepal up to the janction of the Brahmaputra, beginning from the Karatoys up to the Dikkaravisinf, its boundaries being, to the north, the Kajagiri; to the west, the Karatoya, to the east, the Dikshu; to the south, the confluence of the Brahmaputra with the Lakshā.
This description of Kimarapa is also found in a few other sacred compositions. I think that what is meant is not the political territory, but a scriptural region, rendered sacred by the location of Kamakhyā (the presiding deity of Kamarupa) in the centre. Similarly, such boundaries are given in the second chapter of the Manu-Sanhita of Aryävarta, Brahmävarta. eto. Moreover the boundary line given in the Yoginitantra does not stand the test of a close historical scrutiny. The Yoginitantra contains the name of Visvasimha, the founder of the Koch kingdom which is now limited to Koch Bihar, and he was a contemporary of Babar and Humayan. In his days much of the territory included within the boundary of Kamarüpa as defined in the Yoginttantra especially what fell in East Bengal including Sylhet, had long come under the jurisdiction of the Pathans and the Moghuls. Now when Yuang Chwang entered Kamarupa, he crossed a large river Kalotus by name, and this can only be the Karatdyå of the Yoginitantra, Now from the fact that the western boundary of the Tantra coincided with the political bound ary of Kämaropa, which can be inferred from Yuan Chwang's statement, the conclusion has been somewhat hastily drawn that the Tantra was also right with regard to the remaining boundaries; at least for the days of Bhaskara varman.
As to the popular notion about Bhagadatta's place in Western Sylhet or Eastern Mymensingh, the fact that more than one spot, widely apart from each other, are being identified as such, throws a doubt on the matter. It would seem that the name of Bhagadatta, who Aourished about 5,000 years ago, must have been somewhat vaguely applied to casual invaders from Kamaripa in the middle ages, who came down the Brahmaputra and pitched their camps for a time in those spots and returned without gaining any permanent footing.
This explanation is also supported by the fact that even in the Yoginitantra the name Srihatta ooours more than once in such a way that an independent political entity seems to be indicated, though within the sacred precints of Kamarupa.!
The copper plates now under consideration contain the most ancient record that has hitherto been discovered in the province of Assam, and are also by far the most important document of all that relate to the ancient history of the great kingdom of Kämäripa of Pragjyotisha. It contains the names of as many as twelve kings (and of most of their queens also), who, even if we reckon as much as foar kings on a century, must have ruled over Kåmarüpa from the middle of the fourth to the middle of the seventh century A.D. The names of the last five of them occur in the Harshacharita, and thus the one corroborates the other, although there are small literal
* Näpalasya Käscharadrin Brahmaputranya sangamami
Karatöyan samarabhya yanad Dikaravaninin II uttarasy as Kaijagirih Karatoga tu palchimi I tirthafreshtha Dilskunadi püredsyan, girikanyake il dakahini Brahmaputrasya Lakshāyaḥ sa mga mãoadhi 1
Kamarüpa iti khyātaḥ sarvafästros hu witchitah | Yöginitantra, Patals XI.
• Mr. Watters commenting on this writes (Yuang Chwang, Vol. II, p. 187) "The river Kalota' of the T'ang Shu may be the large river of the prosent passage which is possibly the Brahmaputra." This view has not been rectified by his editors. .
Although the people of Dacon, Mymensingh and even of Sylhet have resented the inclusion of their districts within Assam, they gladly include thempelves within the spiritual boundary of Kimarüps, because this means a share in some privileges, such as the right to eat pigeons, ducks and tortoise, which the people of Western Bengal do not est. -. • Uchchheim, VII, p. 246, in the Ninaya Bagara Press edition, Bombay, 1892 and p. 295 in Führer's edition Bombay, 1909.