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August, 1926
PIHUNDA, PITHUDA, PITUNDRA
147
distance from both. We must therefore look for the site of the city between Chicacole and Kalingapatam, if Ptolemy's information approximates to the truth. That being so, we are once more restricted to the tract of country, in which we have sought for the site of Dantapura, in the direction of the course of the Nagavali river, which is also named Languliya or 'the river of the plough.' The Imperial Gazetteer of India itself points to this derivation of the name: 'langala (Sanskrit), nagula (Telugu), a plough.' This designation, when associated with the memory of Pitundra, recalls the passage in the inscription, in which Kharavela boasts of having ploughed the soil of Pithuda with the plough.' Is it not possible that one of the names of the river perpetuates the memory of that unusual punishment ?
"The transliteration of the Indian name Pithu(m)da in the form Pitundra, used by Ptolemy, is normal. The Greek has a tendency to represent the actual sound of the Indian cerebrals by the addition of an , as, for example, in the name of the Aratta of the Panjab, which is written Aratrioi in the Periplus (p. 47), and in the name of Kulindrino in Ptolemy, which clearly corresponds with a form Kulinda, intermediate between Kulinda and Kuninca.
"We remark, however, that Lassen, who dealt with an important collation of variants, always writes the name in the form Pitynda and not Pityndra (III. 202 and 281).
"The name Pithunda-Pihunda seems to be connected with the name of a people, of whom we obtain a glimpse in the Mahabharata. In the seventh book, adhy. 50, the poet describes Yudishthira's army; on the left wing the Southern recension mentions the Tuhunda between the Agniveas and Malavas (Agniveías Tuhunda cha Malavah. ...). But this line is not found in the Calcutta and Bombay recensions. On the other hand, the Calcutta edition, three verses earlier, mentions among the rear-guard contingents the Hundas, between the Pataccharas and the Paura vakas : in this place the Southern recension and the Bombay text substitute the more familiar Paundras for the Hundas. If the form Hunda is correct, one ought clearly to find it in verse VI, 50, 52 of the Southern edition, and this we actually do, if we divide the words as follows - Agniveads tu Hundas cha. The name Tuhunda, how. ever, appears elsewhere in the Mahabharata, but as a personal name-the name of an Asura, son of Danu (I. 65, 2633) who becomes incarnate on earth as king Senåbindu (I. 67. 2655). Tuhunda is also the name of one of Dhitarashtra's sons (I. 186. 6983 C; 201, 3 Southern).
"Pithuda had been founded by a king of old time for his abode (puvarájanivesita); it was a royal seat. Pitund(r)a in Ptolemy's account is a metropolis, & capital. The agree. ment is complete. If Pithuda was really destroyed by Khâravela, it is natural that the name should not appear in later texts and passages. The mention of the name in & Jain canonical work would seem to offer fresh proof of the antiquity of Jain tradition. But in this case one necessarily feels some surprise at finding the name in Ptolemy's work, which is two or three centuries, later than the date of Khâravela. One can only conclude in these circumstances that Ptolemy, in constructing his Tables, made direct or indirect use of original materials appreciably older than his own age. That is a point to be borne in mind, when one uses information embodied in Ptolemy's works."
