Indian Antiquary Vol 50

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

Page 40

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ FEB., 1991
on the Ancient Bed of the River Soane and Site of Palibothra that "during the boring in Fort William with the view of making an Artesian well, a fossil bone was brought up from a depth of 350 feet below Calcutta, which evidently proves that part of the Delta was (geologically speaking) & comparatively modern accumulation of alluvial deposits, and it is not impossible that Calcutta itself may at that period (460 B. c.) have been not far distant from the mouth or one of the mouths of the Ganges." 57 It also appears from the Mahavamsa 58 that the Ganges near Pandua, anciently called Pradyumna-nagara 59 and Morapura which is evidently a corruption of Mårapura, 60 was very close to the ocean in the fourth century B.O. when Pandu Sâkya, who was Buddha's cousin, founded a settlement at this place. Perhaps this old bed of the Ganges became afterwards the bed of the Sarasvati (not the same au its namesake of the north-west) when the Ganges recéded to the east. According to the commentator Nilakantha, Suhma of the Mahabharata is the Råha of modern days, and in that work It has been mentioned as being very close to the sea, and Rådha comprises a mong others the district of Hughli.61 Megasthenes writing in the fourth century B.C., also states that the ocean was very close to the eastern boundary of the Gangaridai, which means the people of the country of Radha situated on the Ganges. He says, "Now this river (the Ganges) which in its source is 30 stadia broad, flows from north to south, and empties its waters into the ocean forming the eastern boundary of the Gangaridai, a nation which possesses # Vast force of the large-sized elephants." 61 Agonagara of Ptolemy, which has been identified with the modern Agradvipa situated to the south of Katwa (Katadvipa of Arrian). had already come into existence in the second century A.D.,63 which shows that this portion of Bengal, in the district of Nadia, was in the course of formation, as the name of Agradvipa (foremost island) indicates. I should here state that Tilagrammon of Ptolemy 64 has been correctly identitied by Yule with Jessore, not the headquarters of the present district of that name, but with Pratápaditya's Jessore in the present district of Khulna which has but its name to the former town. By “Tilagrammon " is not meant the "sesamum-village," 65 as it has been rendered by McCrindle. The word is evidently a corruption of Tiragrâma, rand / being interchangeable. It means a " village situated on the sea-shore," which clearly proves that it bordered on the ocean in the second century A.D. Hence it will be observed that Tamluk and Radha on the west, and Jessore on the east were very close to the sea in the second century. In the fifth century B.C., the present site of Calcutta, and Pandua were very close to the sea. Calcutta is now about 80 miles from the sea-board, which shows that the sen has receded only 80 miles in the course of twentyfive centuries. Tamluk, which is about 35 miles to the south-west of Calcutta, was a maritime port in the seventh century A.D. It is now 60 miles from the ocean, which shows that in the course of thirteen centuries, the sea has receded only 60 miles. Though, of course, the process of delta-building is not uniform everywhere, yet there cannot be the slightest doubt that the process is a very slow one. Hence, in the second century A.D., the sea could not have been far distant from either
17 JASB., vol. XIV (1845), p. 162. 69 Turnour's Mahduam sa, ch. viü.
- Prdyaschitta-Tattvam, p. 100. 80 Upham'. Mahdvansia ; JASB., 1910, p. 611--my Notes on the District of Hughli.
a nilkantha's commentary on v. 26, ch. 30, Sabha Parva of the Mahdbhdrata; my Notes on the District of Hughli in JASB., 1910, pp. 601, 602.
MoCrindle's Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian, p. 33. 68 Morindle's Ptolemy, pp. 212, 216. Ibid., p. 72.
os Idid., p. 75.