India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

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

Page 78

70 INDIA. AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
and Paramayona. Further, it would seem that Sāgala which was formerly the capital of Madda became afterwards the capital of a Yona kingdom. The Pali texts also speak of the two lands of Sindhu and Sovira, each of which is described as a great centre of trade and commerce. Here Sindhu, also mentioned as a kingdom, may be easily identified with the province of Sind on the Arabian Sea. In the Mahāgovinda Suttanta Sovīra has been described as a kingdom with Roruka as its capital. It was probably situated between the Indus and Jhelum. The story of Serissaka in the Peta and Vimänavatthus definitely tolls us that the way of the caravan merchants(Satthavāhā) from Anga and Magadha to Sindhu-Sovira lay across a great desert, which was no other than the desert in Rajputana. Some rivers and ranges of hills had to be crossed with difficulty (nadiyo pana pabbatānam ca duggā),1 The desert is described in the Vaņņupatha Jātaka as a sandy dosert, sixty leagues in extent (satthiyojanikam marukantāram). Among the rivers that had to be crossed the commentary mentions the Candabhāgā (Chenab) by name, Immediately after Allasanda and Marukantāra, the Mahāniddēsa (pp. 155, 415)
1 Vimånavatthu, p. 78.
Jätaka, 1, p. 107; p. 109: vampu vuouw www.vwg välukamagge ti attho.
8-Vimänavatthu commentary (vii, 10), p. 338.