India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bimlacharan Law

Page 69

GEOGRAPHY
1 61 beautiful and prosperous town. The way to the city of Pundravardhana from Kajangala must have been through the place now covered by the district of Malda. This is precisely the route from North Behar to Pundra indicated in the Mahābhārata (ii, 30.21-22).
Vanga ? finds mention in the Mahāniddesa (pp. 155, 415) as an important centre of trade and commerce, and in the Bhagavatī sūtra and Pali chronicles as a country or kingdom. In the Mahābhārata (ii, 44.9), Vanga is placed contiguous to Anga. It is evident even from the Pali canonical texts that Varganta or western oxtremity of Vanga bordered on AngaMagadha. According to the Pali chronicles, the district of Lāla (equated with Lāța of Western India) was situated between Vanga on one side and Kalinga on the other. Thus the name Vanga in its earlier denotation may be taken to have represented central Bengal extending as far west as the eastern end of Kajangala. Subsequently, say from the time of the Imperial Guptas, Vanga, as might be ascertained from the Mahābhārata (ü, 30.23), came to denote Eastern Bengal proper, practically identical with Hiuen Tsang's Samataţa. Suvaņņakūta mentioned in the Makāniddesá
ID R. Bhandarkar in J. 2 For details, vide B. O. Law, Ancient Indian Tribes, vol. u, Oh. I. 8 Dipavamsa, p 54; Mahāvamaa, p. 56.