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354
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVII.
There has been much discussion about the situation of the countries of Shi-li-ch'a-ta-lo Kia-mo-lang-kia, etc., mentioned by Yuan-Chwang in his account of the kingdom of Samatata; but no satisfactory solution seems to have been arrived at. With our present identification of Samatata we may proceed to consider their cases also. This is what we find in Beal's edition about them:
"Going north-east from this to the borders of the ocean, we come to the kingdom of Srikshetra (Shi-li-ch'a-ta-lo). Farther on to the south-east on the borders of the ocean, we come to the country of Kamalanka (Kia-mo-lang-kia). Still to the east is the kingdom of Dvärăpati (To-lo-po-ti). Still to the east is the country of Ishanapura (I-shang-na-pu-lo). These six countries are so hemmed in by mountains and rivers that they are inaccessible."
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Now, the pilgrim says that the country of Shi-li-ch'a-ta-lo might be reached by proceeding north-east to the borders of the ocean. This anomalous statement seems to have puzzled every. body, including Beal and Watters, as the borders of the ocean are never reached by going north-east from Samatata, wherever its position might have been in eastern India, and the fact that all the original copies of the Travels available, as well as, the biography of the pilgrim, give north-east as the direction, has stood in the way of emending the text to south-east. My studied opinion is that in spite of the unanimity of all the versions, north-east is a manifest mistake for south-east and the apparent unanimity arises from the mistake having originated in a very early copy of the Records.' The very qualifying phrase that the direction would lead to the borders of the ocean is sufficient for the emendation. But the emendation is confirmed by the manner in which the succeeding sentences begin. The next sentence begins thus,-"Farther on to the south-east, etc." and this would lose all force if "south-east" had not been the direction spoken of in the previous sentence. If we accept south-east and move from Comilla in that direction to the borders of the ocean, we arrive at a place called at present Chattagram (Eng. Chittagong), which was anciently called Śri-Chattala, a name still frequently used. Is there any reasonable objection to identifying Yuan-Chwang's Shi-li-ch'ata-lo with Sri-Chattala of the present times ? It is evident that it satisfies all conditions.
The second importance of the inscription lies in the fact that it throws some light on an obscure part of the history of the Pala kings of Bengal. The Bangarh plate of Mahipala I1 and the Dinajpur pillar inscription inform us that some usurpers drove Vigrahapala from the throne and that he, after losing his kingdom, took shelter in the eastern country where water abounds (désē prachi prachurapayasi). His heroic son Mahipala recovered the lost kingdom of his father. The two characteristics, water-abounding and eastern, agree, well with the present districts which composed the ancient kingdom of Samatata,-so well that it is impossible to suggest any other country which answers equally to the description; and little room is left for doubt that the eastern country alluded to was the kingdom of Samatata. The new Baghäură image inscription, which is the earliest of the reign of Mahipala, finally settles all doubts on the point. When we find that Samatata was under Mahipala so early as in the third year of his reign, we cannot but conclude that it was Samatata where Vigrahapala took shelter, suffering reverses in war with the usurper, and leaving north Bengal in the hands of the victor. The fact of the earliest inscription of Mahipala turning up in Samataia points to his having probably been crowned there and this was perhaps the loyal country used by him as the base of operations in his fight with the usurper for the recovery of his father's kingdom.
The flaka in the Bangarh plate which describes Vigrahapala's sojourn in the eastern country has been copied also in the Amgachhi plates of his great-grandson Vigrahapala III, where,
1 J. 4. 8. B., Vol. LXI, pp. 77-87 and Gaudalekhamälä, p. 91. Also Fp. Ind., Vol. XIV, page 224. 1 J. A. 8. B., 1011, p. 615.
Ind an Antiquary, Vol. XXI, pp. 97-101.
