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174
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
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SEPTEMBER, 1928
MAHARASTRA AND KANNADA.
BY A, MASTER. The earliest indication of the name Maharastra occurs in the inscriptions at Nanaghat, and other places (ranging from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D.) There the male donors have the appella. tion Maharathi, and the females Maharathini. Asoka in his inscriptions uses the word raffika to denote a tribe of rulers, and this tribe is also found as rulers at a later date. The family of Rastrakūtas is well-known to have held dominion in the Deccan in the eighth century, A.D. Sir Râmkrişna Bhandarkar held that the ratas called themselves Maharaţthis and gave their name to the area in which they lived. Mr. Kane justly rejects this theory (ibid., p. 626). Dynasties rarely give their names to areas, and the term MabArAstra precedes any important dynasty of which there is any record. The connection with Raddi suggested by Burnell (South Indian Paleography, p. x) is not very helpful, and indeed Kittel (Kan. Dictionary) derives the world Raddi from rât a form of raja, and so indicates that ratta or ratrika is not of Dravidian origin. Mr. Kane himself explains the term Maharastra as "great or wide country” and gives his reasons, which do not appear to one quite to meet the needs of the case.
It is important to analyse the word maha meaning great', a meaning which includes the ideas of wideness or tallness. Mr. Kane seems to be correct in translating rdætra by 'country' rather than by kingdom' The Arthasdstra uses the word in the meaning of revenue. producing tract' and 'country as distinct from 'town' (Shamasastry; translation, 2nd ed., p. 63 and pp. 143, 287). The word rajya is used for kingdom (Ai. Brh. v. ch. vi, heading) and janapada (Ibid., vi, ch. 1) is, in describing the seven elements of sovereignty, used as an equivalent to rastra. In later writers on the elements of sovereignty, the words janapada and råstra are interchangeable. Desa is another synonym. (Jayasval, Hindu Polity, vol. II, p. 249). The meaning of råstra is therefore quite clearly country'.
Apart from the rather doubtful references to Mahârâştra in the terms Maharathi of the inscriptions, the earliest use of the word occurs in the Mahavamsa (fifth century A.D.) (Kane, ibid., p. 621) in the form Maharatta. It is distinguished from Aparantaka (the Konkan) and Vanavasi (the south-western Dravidian tract). In fact, it is a term corresponding closely with the present term del, which means the Deccan plateau as distinct from the Konkan. Previously the term used for whole tract south of the Narmada (Nerbudda) river or, in a limited sense, for the country between the NarmadA and the Krişna was Daksiņ&patha (Kane, ibid., p. 620), and this term was continued for some centuries after the word Maharastra was introduced and then apparently was shortened into what we now call Deccan (Gujarati, dakhkhan). The word Deccan applies to both the limited and the wider areas.
The reason for the adoption of the new term Maharastra cannot have been the size of the country, or its greatness. There were other tracts equally large and in the eyes of the Aryans, at least, much more important. It is not in the least likely that the name should have been given to the tract, by any but the inhabitants. It is probable that the term daksindpotha and dakpinatya (southerner) had acquired a depreciatory significance (cf. ite use in the Mrochakatika, act VI) and the visitors or immigrants to northern capitals, such as Ujjain, found it necessary to use a synonym. They would naturally use a translation of the name they themselves gave to their country.
Now Kannada has been derived from the word Karinádu, black country. Mr. Narayana Rao (JBBRAS., LXXIII, p. 491, 492) has pointed out that much of the southern Karnatak is not black; and he might have added that although the term karinel is used for 'black soil,' karinddu, is not used in the sense of 'black tract'--but erenddu is used, ere meaning itself black, or black soil (Kittel, Kan. dictionary). This is the term used for the
1 P. V. Kano, JBBRAS., LXX, p. 622. While Surat and Broach districts oontain much black soil.
