Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 34

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
habitat in India of these foreign tribes, before they migrated southward or eastward. This Ahichchhatra is no doubt identical with the 'O-hi-chi-ta-lo' of the Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang. Cunningham has identified this place with Râmnagar, about 22 miles north of Badaun, in the United Provinces. But this identification does not seem to be correct, as Yuan Chwang distinctly states that the country of Ahichchhatra "is naturally strong, being flanked by mountain crags." This description does not at all suit the position of Ramnagar, which is on the Gangetic plains, and is not surrounded by hills. On the contrary, it perfectly agrees with what we are told in the Kadamba and Sinda inscriptions, viz., that it was in the Himalayan range. The Jaina works? also mention one Ahichchhatra as the capital of Jaigala, which in the Mahabharata is once placed near Mâdreya, which was situated between the Chenâb and the Sutlej". The Jangala, i.e., the jungly country near Mâdreya, can only be the southern part of the Himalayas, where Ahichchhatra must consequently be located. To speak more clearly, there appear to have been at least three Ahichchhatras in northern India. One, as seems from the Mahabharatalo, was to the north of Pañchâla. And this may now be represented by the ruins near Râmnagar, as Cunningham says. This may also be the Adisdara (for Adisadra) of Ptolemy which was in the Prasiakêll, i.e., the Prâchya, country. The second was Adeisathra 2 of the same Greek geographer, which must have been in the Adeisathroi territory, though, curiously enough, he disjoins one from the other. This, I think, is the same as the Adhichhatra of a Pabhosa inscription13. The third, as just shown, was in the Himalayas, is to be identified with Yuan Chwang's O-hi-chi-ta-lo,' and was probably the only Ahichchhatra flourishing in the medieval times.
[JANUARY, 1911.
Now, the question arises: what was originally the name of this mountainous territory? The southernmost limit of it is formed by what is called the Siwâlik (properly Sawâlakh) range. At present it is supposed to run parallel to the Himalayas for about 200 miles from the Beas to the Ganges. But in the olden days it must have covered a far wider region. Two inscriptions found at Gaya mention one Aśokavalla as the lord of the kings of the Sapâdalaksha mountains and as the overlord of a tributary named Purushottamasimha of the Kamâ, i.e., Kamâun, country, Another inscription of this king has been found in Gadhwâl. A reference to these hills is found also in the Mughal Emperor Babar's autobiography. Munshi Devi Prasad of Jodhpur informs me that according to Babar's account, this range commences with the Indus and runs through many parts of Kashmir, such as Pakhli and Sahmanak. The same bills are called Hindukush in Kâbul, and after turning a little southward run straight off to the east. This range, says Babar, was called Sawalakh, because it contained no less than 125,000 hills. This whole hilly region must, therefore, widely speaking, be supposed to have been originally known by the name of Sapâdalaksha, but in particular it included the districts of Kamâun, Gadhwâl, Kângda, Hoshiarpur, and so forth, in fact, all that part of India between the Chambâ State and Nepal. As foreign inroads extended southwards, it embraced also a portion of the sub-montane region along this line. This also explains
Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Beal, Vol. I, p. 200.
Ancient Geography of India, Vol. I., p. 359 ff.
7 Weber's Die Sk. and Pr. Handschriften der Berliner Bibliothek, pp. 562 and 854.
8 Bhishmapartan, Cap. IX. v. 39; see also v. 56 of the same parvan and Uddyogaparvan, Cap. LIV. v. 7. Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, Vol. I, p. 185.
1 Adiparvan, Cap. 138, vs. 76-7. On the strength of this adhyaya, it is asserted that Ahichchhatra was the capital of north Pañchala. But this is not actually borne out. Ahiohchhatra is here called the capital, not of north Pañchala, as it would have been stated, if it had really been so, but of Ahichchhatra-vishaya. In fact, north Pañchala or Panchala proper was the country between the Ganges and Jamna. This agrees with what Rajasekhara says in the Bala-Ramayana, Aot V. v. 86.
11 Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII., pp. 352-3; vide also Kasika on Papini I. 1-75, where both Ahichchhatra and Kanyakubja are included in Prachya.
13 Ep. Ind., Vol. II., p. 243.
12 Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII., p. 361.
14 Ind. Ant., Vol. X., pp. 342-6; Jour. Bomb. As. Soc., Vol. XVI., p. 358.