Indian Antiquary Vol 48

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

Page 213

NOVUMBER, 1919 )
EPIGRAPHIC NOTE 3
teshamarya-jan-abhipujita-kulam Tarkkarlsity Akhyaya Sravasti-prativa(bs)ddham =asti viditam sthansıp punarjjanmanâm Yasmin-veda-erriti-parichay-odbhinna vaitana-gårhyapråjy-åvitt-&hutishu charatâm kirttibhiruv yomni fabhre vyabhrájant=@pari-parisarad-dhoma-dhômå dvijânám dugdh-âmbhodhi-prassita-vile sach-chhaival-als-chay-abhah ! Tat-prasûtascha Pundreshu Sakati-vyavadh&navân
Varendrî-man'anam gråmô Va(Ba)la-gråma iti brutah " --1, 2-4. The description embodied in the above verses, is of the place where the donee lived. 'This is a village called Bålagrâma which was sitvated in Varendri, in the Puņ('ra country. It further appears that this village must have had some connection with a place called Tarkkâri which is described as Srdvasti-prativaddha, i.e., situated within the limitof Srivasti. It should be noted that Tarkkari is mentioned in the record first, and next comes Bâlagrâma, the latter being qualified by the phrase tat-prasata, i.e., 'bora of that' wžich can only mean offshoot of, or a young colony from, Tarkkâri. The full significance of it becomes clear when we find it described as & well-known (viditai) centre of Brahmane who were ever devoted to Vedic rites. The inference seems natural therefore, that the nucleus of the Brahmanic community of Balagrâma was a settlement of Brahmans who had emigrated from Tarkkâri. Now this Tarkkâri, as has been stated above, was in Srêvesti.
But where was thin Sråvasti? Is it the same as the $rvasti of tăe Gonde district, now known as Saheth-Maketh, or different one altogether? The very fact that there is here recorded a Brahman emigration from' Sråvasti, which we find in other inscriptions too, would seem to indicate that it is identical with the Sravast of the Madhyadesa. But Messrs. Chanda and Basak hold a quite different opinion. They contend that it is to be identified with a Srêvast of the Gaudadisa, i e. Bengal, which, according to them, is mentioned in the Mataya and the Kurma Puranas. Thus the former writes in his Indo-Aryan Races, pp. 170-71: "In this record it is said that a place called Tarkkari, forming a part of Sravast!, way the original home of the Brabmons of the Bharadvaja gotra. In the Punctra country there was a village colled Bålagráma which was 'the ornament of Varendri'. Between Balagrama and Tarkkdri lay Saka 8.13 Mr. Radha Govinda Basak ..... regards Sakati as the name of a river and places Srávastî of the record within Pupra (Varendri). In the early Sanskrit literature we meet with two cities called Sråvasti-one founded by LAVA, aon of Rama (Ramayana, VII) and another by Srêvasta in Gauradeia (Matsya Purana, XI. 30). Cwningbam regarded both the Srâvastis as identical and identified Gaucadeba with the Gonda District of Oudh. But in all other texts and records Gauda is applied to Ysrendra in Bengal or to Bengal as a whole. So it seems more repsonable to identify the Gau's of the Purâna with Varendra or Bongal, and recognise in the Srêvasti of Sravasta an ancient city in Bengal which was separated from Balagrâma of this record by Sakati."
1 The reference to the paseage in the Karma is given by Mr. Bogak, EI., Vol. XIII, p. 286. cf. JRAS. 1908. p. 442. With regard to the meaning of the term Gauda see slo Pro! Bh ndarkar. Ante. 1911. p, 22, a. 75 and Grierson, Ibid., p.-161.
13 The italice are mine.