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20
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MARCH, 1926
in Khetaka District (e.g., Asilâ pallika=modern Aślali, Vattasomålika=modern Vantavalli, Viswa palli=modern Vansol, Karpațavânijya=modern Kapadvanj, etc.) are to be found in Kairs District, we have to reject the theory that Khetaka referred to in the Valabhi grants might have been another Kaira situated in the peninsula of Kathiawar. No such place is known to have existed in Kathiawad, and as Valabhi rule extended on the continent of India right up to Godhra, it was possible for Valabhi kings to assign villages in Kaira district.
Khetaka is usually referred to as the headquarter of an Ahåra or district. Sometimes 78 it is mentioned as the headquarter of a 'mandala' or group of districts; and no wonder, for Khetaka was really a very big district. Hiuen Tsiang says that it was 3,000 li or 600 miles in circuit; the district may well have extended, as Cunningham says,'' from the bank of the Såbarmati on the west to the great bend of the Mahi on the north-east and to Baroda in the south. Being the headquarter of so big a division, Khetaka must have been an important city ; during Valabhi rule it was probably the headquarters of their continental possessions. With the fall of the Valabhis, it passed into the hands of the Rashtrakūtas, when too it was the headquarters of a mandala."78
About a hundred years after the fall of the Rashtrakatas in about 975 A.D., the city was captured by the Solankis. Karna I (1064-1094) is known to have annexed territories as far to the south as Ahmadabad ; his successor, Siddharaja, extended the sway of his dominions much beyond Dabhoi, which was his frontier fortress. Khetaka then must havo belonged to the Solanki empire after about 1000 A.D.
According to the Puranas, Chakravati is the old name of Khetaka. Its king is said to have been defeated by the Pandavas.80
14 Girinagara. Originally the name of the city of Junagad (=Yavanagada), Girinagara or Girnar has now become the name of the hill adjacent to it. The city was originally so named because it was by the side of a beautiful hill, called sometimes Ujjayanta and sometimes Raivataks; that the two names designato the same hill, is clearly shown by statements in the Junagad Inscription of Skandagupta 81 and in Kirtikaumudi.82
Since ancient times Girinagara has been a very famous place; and no wonder, for it was at once a 'tirtha,' a capital, a hill station, a fort and a place of fair. Hence it was that Aboka found it a very suitable place for the wide publication of his rock edicts.
To Hindus, Jainas and Bauddhists alike Girinagara is e'tirtha.' Brahmanism since very early times regarded the place as exceptionally holy; for even the great epic says 83 :
उज्जयन्तच शिखरी क्षिप्रं सिद्धिकरी महान् ॥ "तत्र देवर्षिवीरेण नारदेनानुकीर्तितः ।। 'पुराणः श्रूयते कोकः तं निघोष युधिष्ठिर ॥ पुण्ये गिरी सुराष्ट्रषु मृगपक्षिनिषोषिते ।
उज्जयन्ते स्म तप्तांगो मामृष्ठे महीयते ॥ 78 Ep. Ind., VII, 28.
76 4.G.I., 443.
. 80 Kaira Gazetteer. 81 M o ta farlar gefur fermarester:
समुद्रकान्ताश्चिरवन्नोषिताःपुनः पति पास्ववथोचित बबुः ॥
भवस्य वर्षागपज महोडर्म महोधकर्जयता प्रियेप्सना ॥ 88 कथांचापुच्छय तमीशमाचं मायनसी रैवतकं जगाम ॥ 93 Mbh., III, 88, 25 ff.
45 TCERTA!
