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J56
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XIX.
Madhyadēsa. Madhyadēša is usually taken to be the name of the country lying between the Ganga and the Yamunā. It seems impossible, however, that this region should be meant by the Madhyadesa of our inscription, because we are told in verse 5 that Choda I ruled over the country between the Vindhya mountain and the ocean. For this reason Madhyadēša must be taken in a sense different from the usual one. It apparently denotes the region lying between the two rivers Godavari and Krishṇā, which by its natural condition bears a certain resemblance to the country between the Ganga and the Yamuna. In the same meaning Madhyadēša appears to have been used in two other passages. In the Pithāpuram pillar inscription of Prithvisvara, dated in Saka-Samvat 1108, the chiefs of Velanändu claim their origin from Indrasēna, whose capital is said to have been Kirtipura in Madhyadēša, (a city) that was the only receptacle of the bliss of the enjoyment of all pleasures (asesha-sukha-sambhogan bhāgadhey-aika-bhā[ja]nam | Madhyadēšë-bhavat tasya sthāna Kirtipuram mahat 1.' Since we know that the chiefs of Velanändu ruled over a tract of the Telugu country, it is highly probable that here also Madhyadēša is to be understood as the name of the country between the Gödāvari and the Krishnā. This conclusion is corroborated by verse 23 of the same inscription. There we read that the king Vēdura II won a victory over an unnamed Pāņdya king under orders of Vira-Choda, who conferred upon him, as a reward, one half of his crown and the Sindhuyugmāntara, the country between the pair of rivers.' The late Prof. Hultzsch was certainly right in identifying the pair of rivers' with the two rivers Krishna and Gödāvari. Sindhuyugmāntara, then, would be the same as Madhyadēša.
The second passage occurs in a verse in Rudrabhatta's commentary on the Vaidyajīvanaf : Yatr-āgata Tryambaka parvatāch=cha Godavari sindhunadēna yukta | tatr=āsti Godātaţa-Madhyadëśë Shatkhēļakākhyam nagaraṁ suramyam | The Godātaţa-Madhyadēsa of this stunza cannot be the country between the Gangā and the Yamunā, but must be looked for in the vicinity of the Gödāvari, as the region included by the Krishņā and the Godāvari.
In verse 9 we are told that Choda II set about in aid of the harassed Sultan (suraträna) of Panduva, vanquished the Emperor of Dilli (Delhi), and gave the goddess of victory together with twenty-two elephants to the king of Utkala (Orissa).
The Sultan of Panduva 'is, apparently, Iliyās Khwāja Sultān, the first independent ruler of Bengal, who in 1353 A.D. transferred his capital from Gaur to Pandua in the Mälda district, and the verse of our inscription refers to the war between him and Firoz Tughlaq, the Emperor of Delhi and successor of the well-known Muhamad Tughlaq. According to Ferishta the campaign took place in 1353 A.D. which would agree well with the statement of the present inscription, that the grandfather of Choda III, whoso date was 1401 A.D., took part in the campaign against
1 Above, Vol. IV, p. 32. * See Aufrecht, Cat. Cod. Sanser. Bibl. Bodl., p. 3184. See also above, Vol. VI, p. 132, noto 8. * The town of Shatkhētaka I am unable to identify.
4 There are altogether three places of the name of Panduva. The first is a village in the Godavari distriet, situated about 40 miles to the south-west from Dakshārama (aee v. 10), butitis quite improbable that the Panduva of cur inscription should be identical with that place which apparently in early times was only a village. In bis i s' of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Matras, Vol. I, p. 39, Mr. Sowell mentions that there is a copper-plate inscription dated in Saka 1056 which records the grant of the village of Panduva, as an agrahara to certain Brahmans, by Kolani Kötappa Nayaka, lord of Sarasipura. Another Pandua is found in Bengal in the Hügli district. It is at present a village, but in ancient times it was fortified and the seat of
Hindu rājā, but it never was the capital of a Mabomedan ruler (see Imperial Gazetteer of India, New od., YOL XIX, p. 394). For the third place of the name of Pandua in the Malda distriet, see ibid. p. 392.
