Indian Antiquary Vol 48

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

Page 72

68
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ MAY, 1919
mint but the situenay Fre
to follow the Paurâmic convention in this case. It is well on the surface that he does not quite attempt the historical surroundings of the age of Raghu, as a comparison of this progress with the corresponding section of the Râmâyaņa or the Mahâbhârata will abundantly show. It is in all probability, the third course that he has adopted in this case, and has tried to depict the political surroundings of his own age. On this assumption it is that those scholars who have investigated the question have ascribed to Kalidasa the particular historical periods to which they ascribe him, rejecting as untenable the traditional age of Vikramêditya of Ujjain. It will appear in the course of our study of the history of the Huns, that this settlement so far, at any rate, as it rests upon Kalidasa's reference to the Hûnas, is anything but the crucial test that it is but too readily taken to be.
The Geographical Data of Kalidasa. • Let us examine the test a little more closely. Kalidasa leads Raghu from Trikata by the landway to Parasika which must be Fars (ancient Persia) from which the name has descended to the whole country. The specific mention of the landway suggests that the usual way was the waterway. If Raghu came from Aparânta, (the Bombay Coast) he must have crossed the Vindhyas near the west end through his own Anûpa, and Trikāta must be located in the Western parts of Central India, the roadway must then go across the margin of the desert to Sukkur, and thenee by way of the Bolan Pass to the Kojak Amran mountains, winding round them to Girishk, and thence across to South Persia along the Helmand, that is, the region of Persia hallowed by the early activity of Zoroaster and his patron Darius Hystapes. Then follow some points of detail which indicate accurate knowledge of the characteristics of the Persians and the Parthians before them. They were both of them essentially horsemen, and. the Parasikas are described in the poem. When they were defeated, and they resolved to surrender, the usual custom among them was to take off their turbans, throw them round their necks and appear as supplicants. Whether the term " Apa nita Sirastråna" conveys all this it would be hard to say, but it seems unmistakably to indicate this peculiarity of the Persians. Both Persians and Parthians were alike bearded men, as the poem says.
Having conquered these, Raghu starts northwards as if to uproot the kings of the northern people--among whom figure only two, the Hanag and Kambojas. As a clear indication of what this north means we are given the specific hint (in sloka 67) that the banks of the Sindhu were reached. The word Sindhu is more likely to be a misreading, as six manuscripts out of the nine have Vankou instead of Sindhu. The most popular and authoritative commentator among these, Mallinåtha, adopting the reading Sindhu, gives the meaning a nada in Kashmere, meaning a westward flowing river, according to his own definition. He has been driven to this by the obvious unsuitability of the ordinary significance of the word Sindhu. It is very likely that the correct mading is Vanksu. If it is so, what is Vanku? This is usually identified with the river Oxus, which is derived from the term Vaksu or Vamkbu. The Oxus is a long river the sources of which lie not far from the Pamirs, and its course then lay across the whole width of Mid-Asia from the Pamirs to the Caspian Sea. The Vankşu is not the Oxus, however, but is the name ofone of the many tributaries which pour their tribute of water into the actually smaller Oxus. to make it the great river. Among four such in the upper reaches of the Oxus, there
6 See Nandargikar's Edition of the Raghuvamba, p. 91. Van kşu as such was known to the Indians of Malva in the age of Phoje. Ep. Ind., II, pp. 189-196.