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MAY, 1926 )
PALOURA-DANTAPURA.
95
This list in verse is included in the Mahågovinda Sutta of the Digha Nikdya, XIX, 36 ; it is also found in the corresponding sutra of the Dirghagama and has thence passed into the two Chinese versions of this text. It has also been introduced into the Mahavastu, III, 308. The scene of several incidents in the Maha vastu is laid at Dantapura in Kalinga, III, 361, 364. It is the same case with the Jataka : Kurudhamma, II, 67; Culla Kalinga, III, 3; Kumbhakdra, II, 376; Kalingabodhi, IV, 230. One is always finding in it stories which belong to the time when the Káliiga was ruling at Dantapura in the kingdom of Kalinga" (Kalingarathe Dantapuranagare Kalinge rajjani kârente). In the Kumbhakara, the king who rules Kaliúga from Dantapura is the famous Karandu, whose name is associated with those of Naggaji of Gandhara, Dummukha of Uttara-Panchala, and Nimi of Videha, who abdicated in order to embrace asceticism. They are equally famous in Jain literature, in which Karandu is transformed into Karakandu, likewise king of Kalinga at Daútapura. The magnificent Jain encyclopædia, now in course of publication, the Abhidana-Rajendra, gives a long biography of Karakandu and refers to a series of texts : it will suffice here to recall that of the Uttaradhyayana sutra, XVIII, 45.46, with the commentary of Devendra. Among the Jains, Dantapura in Kalinga is also famous as the capital of king Dantavakra, "the greatest of the Kshatriyas," according to the testimony of the Satrakritânga, I, 6, 22, who is specially known for having involuntarily incited two friends to rival one another in heroic devotion, namely Dhanamitra and Dridhamitra, the Indian counterparts of Orestes and Pylades, of Damon and Pythias, etc. The word danta, signifying tooth' and 'ivory,' has supplied the basis of the first episode in the story: the wife of king Dantavakra, being pregnant, expresses a wish for a palace constructed entirely of ivory, and the king issues orders for all the ivory available to be kept for his use. Unfortunately the wife of the merchant Dhanamitra, likewise pregnant, expresses the same desire ; and in order to satisfy her, the merchant and his friend contravene the royal orders. Each of them demands thereafter to pay the penalty; the king, greatly moved, pardons them both. (Cf. Abhidana-Rajendra, 9.v. pacchitta, vol. V, p. 186, and for the references, s.v. Dantavakka.)
"The Mahabharata speaks of a prince named Dantavakra, but he is king of Karasa, the country lying between Chedi and Magadha, to the south of Kasi and Vatsa. Dantavakra of Karaşa appears fairly often in the Harivamsa, nearly always in company with the Kalinga ; he is the bitter enemy of Kộishna who ends by slaying him. This no doubt is the origin of the reading adopted by the Southern manuscripts in the passage of the Mahabharata quoted below (p. 96 ): "He (Krishna) has crushed the Kalingas (and] Dantavaktra."
“I have not succeeded in finding any mention of Dantapura in Brahmanic literature. At the same time there is late epigraphical evidence to prove that the name of this place remained for a long time in common use. The Ganga King Indra varman dates a gift from his residence at Dantapura (Dantapuravdsakát : Ep. Ind. XIV, 361), whereas the rulers of that dynasty generally date their donations from Kalinganagara. Indravarman presents to a Brahman the village of Bhukkukûra in Kurukaråştra (modern Bhukkur in Pålakonda tâluka), where the inscription was discovered. G. Ramadas, who edits the inscription, remarks: "On the road from Chicacole to Siddhantam, and close to the latter spot, a wide stretch of land is pointed out as the site of the fort of Dantavaktra. The peasantry often used to pick up there ornaments, images, coins and so forth, and even to this day there is a general belief that the site once contained great treasures." Mr. Ramadas concludes :"These facts show that Dantapura once existed on the spot which is now pointed out as the site of Dantavaktra's fort." If Mr. Ramadas had been conversant with the Jain legends, he would not have failed to remark the extraordinary persistence of the memory of this king Dantavaktra or Dantavakra (the two forms of the name are equally common and both merge into the Prakrit form Dantavakka), the legend about whom, connected with the name of Dantapura, I have just recounted,
