Indian Antiquary Vol 24

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 87

MARCE, 1895.]
BOOK-NOTICE.
8S
IDENTIFICATION OF NAGAPURA
IN THE KONKAN. The copper-plate grant of the Silhára king, Anantadeva, contains, among other names, those of the following sea ports in the Kônkan :--Sri Sthanaka, Nagapura Surpäraka and Chemuli. In regard to the identification of Någapura the late Hon'ble K. T. Telang (ante, Vol. IX. page 44) remarks: - "About N&gapur, I can only suggest it as probable, that it may be identical . with a village near Alibag - between Alibag and Révadands-named Nâgânv, which is substituted by syncope for Någagånv, or Någagrama, the same as Någapur. Or, may not Någapur have something to do with Någothạên? In any case the modern Nagpur of the Bhonsles is not to be thought of. I have not found the Nagapur of our plate referred to anywhere else."
That his conjecture regarding the identification of Nagapur with the modern Nagany is the oorrect one, I think there can be no doubt. Amongst the mahatmyas of the Sahyadri Khanda, of the Skandapurana, there is one on Nagapura,
called also Någapuri (see page 505, Bombay edition). That this Någapura is to be identified with the modern Någånv appears probable froiu the description given in the Skandapurund. According to this account it is situated west of the Sahyddri mountains, ver. 8; in the country called the Konkan, ver. 9; near the sea and the river Aghabi, ver. 4. This description answers to the modern Negev, situated south-east of Alibag, in the Kolab& District (see Bombay Gazetteer on Kolaba, page 351). It is between the sea and a creek, which I understand from local inquiry, is called among other names, Aksi, from a village of that name on its bank, between Någany and Alibeg. It is probable that Aksi is but a corruption of Aghasi. The ruins of temples, inscribed stones and in the neighbourhood point to the fact that, in ancient times, it must have been a port of some importance. The above considerations make it very probable that the Nâgapura of the copperplate is the same as the Någapurs of the Skanda. pardna and the modern Nagánv.
J. E. ABBOTT.
NOTES AND QUERIES. HINDU ASPECT OF PRAYER.
the evening. To the South dwell the prêts Vedas and Sutras declare that a Hindu should (ghosts) and rolkshasas (demons), therefore they turn his face in the morning either towards East do not look there, but face it while dining and or North, when performing religious ceremonies, offering cakes to the manes of the dead. worship, or repeating prayers; and to the West in
K. RAGHUNATHJI in P. N. and Q. 1883
BOOK-NOTICE.
A KANNADA-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, by the RevD.F. whose work we are now noticing, would seemn.
KITTEL, B. G. E. M. Mangalore; the Basel Mission ingly give it a literary history from only about Book and Tract Depository; 1894. Large 8vo.,
A. D. 900; from which point of view he divides Pp. 1., 1752.
its life into three periods, - (a) the ancient or The Kanarese language, -the original true ver- classical period, from, he says, at least the tenth nacular, and still mostly the actual vernacular, of to the middle of the thirteenth century A. D., the territory in which lie the districts of Belgaum, when it was elaborated to a high degree of polisl, Bijapur, and Dharwar, and parts of Sholapur and refinement, and clearness of expression, by the North Kanara, of the Bombay Presidency, the Jains; (b) the mediæval period, onwards to about Kolh&pur and other Native States of the so-called the end of the fifteenth century, when the use of Southern Marath& Country, the Bellary District of it was continued, in a somewhat less precise and the Madras Presidency, Mysore, and the southern unambiguous manner, by the Lingayat and other portions of the Nizâm's dominions, - has hardly Saiva writers; and (c) the modern period, from received from European scholars the recognition then to the present day. during which the verand attention which it deserves. It is the most nacular dialect, as now written and spoken, has mellifluous of all the Indian vernaculars, and the been developed, by liscarding the more high-soundrichest in capability and force of expression. It ing antique terminations, and, especially in the probably surpasses all the others in bulk and conversational branch, by adopting freely from value of original composition. And it has an Sańskpit, Hinduståni, and Markthi. And no antiquity to which, apparently, none of them can | doubt it is true that the literary life of the langmake any pretensions in forms approximating to wage did begin in earnest at about the point of those whioh they now have. Mr. Kittel, indeed, time selected by Mr. Kittel; the high state of