Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 14
Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

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Page 358
________________ 320 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. make much progress in this branch of research it will be necessary also to analyse the geographical lists in the Itihasas, Puranas, Kôshas, and every other available source of information. And of late years so many Sanskrit works have been edited with indexes that this task is not at all so formidable as it was not very long since, if only a few scholars would collect and arrange the passages relating to the same places and places of the same name, a great deal of light would be thrown upon the localities of many ancient geographical names. Thus, for the identification of Malaya, discussed by Mr. Keshav H. Dhruva (ante, p. 105f.)-before trying to find some name resembling Malaya in the pages of Hiuen Tsiang, it would be well to see first whether any help can be derived from other Sanskrit writings. There is a special difficulty in this case, in the fact that the Southern M a la y a is so very well known that copyists and commentators, if not original writers themselves, may have mistaken the northern for the southern district of the name. The references we do find are also very vague. In Mahabharata, vi. 353, we have a list of peoples :-" Vidêhas, Magadhas, Svakshas, Mala ya s' and Vijayas." In the Vishnu-Purana (Hall's ed.) vol. II. pp. 165-6, the same names occur in the same order; and in the Rámáyana, iv. 40, 25, we have "Sumbhas, Mânyas, Vidêhas, Malayas, and Kâsikôsalas." The Vidêhas, Magadhas and Kasikôśalas, at least are well known northern races, and the Malay as being associated with them, is in favour of the latter also being a northern people. In the Ratnakusha (Aufrecht's Catalogue, p. 3526) M a 1 a y a des a is merely named as one of the forty-eight désas, which are not there arranged in any intelligible order. In the colophon of the Berlin MS. (Chambers' Coll. No. 215) of the Sankhayanasútrapaddhita (Weber's Catal. p. 28, No. 110), the author, Ashțâkshara, is called a native of Malayadêsa. Lastly in Nepal, on the The Bombay edition has Malaja here. Among the references usually supposed to apply to the Southern Malaya, which are very numerous, there may be some which really apply only to the Northern. 3 Lassen prefers the reading of the Paris MS. which is Kaulobha, and would identify the Kulabhas with the Colubae of Pliny (H. Nat., lib. iv. c. 23); see Ind. Alterthum., 2nd ed. Vol. II. p. 215. The Kulátas are mentioned in the Brihat-Sanishita, xiv. 22, as a people in the northwest, Madras, Asmakas, Kulütas, Lahada (or Lada [NOVEMBER, 1885. upper waters of the Gandaka and Râptâ, is a district still known as Malayabhumi, whose chief town Deorâ or Malêbhum is in lat. 28°33' N., long. 83°6′ E. On referring to Lassen (Ind. Alt., 2d. ed., Vol. I. p. 75) we find that he calls this district also Pârvata,-apparently on the authority of Fr. Hamilton (Acc. of Nepal, p. 270) and in a footnote he remarks that Malaya is a non-Sanskritic name for 'hill,' but is old; and cites the Mudrárakshasa where king Malaya kê tu appears as son of the mountainking Pârvata, and his confederates are called Malaya and Kaulûbha or Kaulûta.' This is more satisfactory than the identification proposed by Mr. K. H. Dhruva with Hiuen Tsiang's Mo-lo-so, otherwise called San-po-ho. The supposed reading Mo-lo-pho, moreover, which General Cunningham prefers, is expressly cancelled by Julien as an erratum; and the other name seems to connect the district with Ch a mpâka (hodie Chambâ)* near the sources of the Ravi. Malayabhumi or Pârvata, with its capital on the Gandaka, would seem to answer best to the Malaya of the Mudrárákshasa, Mahabharata, &c., and its chief city, unless we force our texts, which should, if possi ble, be always avoided. Again, in Lassen's note just referred to, the Little Gandaki river is identified with the Ajitavati which is Julien's reading of 'O-shi-to-fa-ti, explained by Hiuen Tsiang as meaning wu-shing-'invincible.' Formerly,' the Chinese editor says, 'it was incorrectly called 'O-li-lo-po-ti-ho; in old times it was also called Hi-lai-na-fa-ti-in Chinese Yeu-kin-ho' (Hiranyavati). From this statement Lassen (Ind. Alterthum. Vol. IV. p. 686n) concludes that Hiranyavati was not the correct name of the river on which was Râ magrama, and which flowed 3 or 4 li to the north-west of Kusinagara. Klaproth (Foe-koue-kie, p. 236) had conjectured the name to be Hiranyavati or Svarṇavati. Now though the names Hiranyavati and Ajitavati have been accepted ha)," &c. and again (él. 29) in the north-east,-"Abhisaras, Daradas, Tanganas, Kulitas, Sairindhas," &c., also in the Vishnu-Purána. In Ramayana, iv. 43, 8, we have Kolaka, with the variants Kôlûta and Sailuta; conf. V, de Saint-Martin's Mem. Analyt., pp. 81-84, and Étude sur la Geog. Gr. pp. 300-303. Julien also suggests Sampaha as an equivalent of the Chinese syllables. Vie de Hiouen Thsang, p. 130; conf. Burnouf, Introd (2nd ed.) p. 76n,

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