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APRIL, 1882.] IS BEZAWADA ON THE SITE OF DHANAKATAKA?
and that, concurrently the Bâzâr or open market recognized a totally different scale, based upon a coinage only plus th or jed beyond the home issues.
With the very imperfect numismatic materials extant, it would be presumptuous to pretend to fix, even approximately, the coin weights and measures obtaining in such a vague international
IS BEZAWADA ON THE SITE OF DHANAKATAKA ?
BY THE EDITOR.
In a paper read before the Royal Asiatic Society in 1880 by Mr. R. Sewell, M. C.S.,' the author argues that the town of Bezawada must certainly have been the capital of the kingdom of Dhanakachaka (Dhanakataka) mentioned by Hiwen Thsang in the seventh century; and he supports his theory by statements to which his residence on the spot naturally gave considerable weight, and which might be regarded as final by any one unacquainted with the evidence he alludes to.
The modern town of Bezawada lies on the north bank of the River Krishna, and abuts on the west side on a steep hill-the Kanaka Durgâ Konda or Indranilâdri hill; on the north and north-east are two isolated hills, and at a short distance to the east is another. The western hill comes down pretty close to the river, but is being quarried away on its southern end, along which the road passes to the west. Nearly right opposite to it, on the south side of the river, is a similar hill,-Sitânagaram Konda-and tradition says these hills were once joined, but, by some interference of the gods, a way was made between them for the passage of the River, which had previously flowed some miles to the northwards. Across the river here is now made the great Krishnâ dnikat, or dam forming the head of the canal system of the province. Lastly, a mile or so further up, on the south side, is the Undavalli hill, in which are some caves to which allusion will be made presently.
Hiwen Thsang's account of the capital of the kingdom in his time, at first sight certainly, quite answers to these surroundings of Bezawada. He speaks of a Samghârâma or Buddhist monas
Jour. R. As. Soc. N. S. vol. XII, pp. 98-109. Beal's version. Of the last portion, however, he suggests an alternative rendering, viz. "At the back of
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crossway as Mansûrah; but I could quote within narrow geographical or epochal limits, such extreme variations of weights of dinârs, dirhams and copper coins at discretion, that, if I wished it, I might prove almost any given sum to momentary demonstration, an exercise which, as a collector of positive facts, I specially desire to avoid.
tery on a hill to the east of the town, and of another very splendid one on the west, both of the Mahâyâna school. He says:
"Placed on a mountain to the east of the city is to be seen the convent called the Pûrvasila Samghârâma; on a mountain to the west of the city is the Avaraéîla Samghârâma. An early king of this country constructed a chaitya here in honour of Buddha; he bored out the river course, constructing a road through it; he made in the sides of the mountain long galleries, wide chambers connecting them one with another along the whole course of the scarp.""
Now Mr. Sewell asserts that the little hill to the north-east of the town is the site of the Pârvasila monastery. "There is," he says, "no dispute about this," and he contends that the hill to the west is the site of the Avaraéîlà, and the great cave in the Undavalli hill to the south-west is that to which, Hiwen Thsang relates that Bhâvavivêka retired to await the arrival of the Bodhisattwa Maitreya, and where he disappeared in a hole of the rock which closed behind him. So far the evidence is most plausible but if the hills on each side the town were so covered with splendid Bauddha structures, what has become of them? Surely some traces would be left.
:
On the north-east hill, indeed, are some rockhewn steps and remains of caves, both above and at the bottom. It is evident also from the abundant brick remains and some cut stone, that there were once buildings on the platform at the top. But the caves below, and what remains of them are left above, are all unmistakeably Brahmaņical and not Bauddha, and no carving or images have been found to show that
the mountain he constructed a cavern in connection with these chambers."
