Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 174

162
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1933
Inscriptions found in the old Chattisgarh Division, which included the districts of Raipur, Bilaspur and Sambalpur, the last of which is at present relegated to Bihår and Orissa, mention several gift villages as situated in the Kosala desa. The kings are spoken of as Kosaladhisa, Kosaladhipati, Kusalanarendra, etc. This indisputably proves the identity of Kosala with the three districts named above. The area covered by these districts, including that of the Feudatory States attached to the Chattisgaph Division for administrative purposes and excluding the Bastar State, which epigraphical data show did not form part of the Kosala country, works out to about 45 thousand square miles only. This falls much short of the extent of Kosala as recorded by the Chinese pilgrim. The boundaries being thus shut out on the south by the Bastar State and on the north by the Vindhya mountains, the conclusion is unavoidable that the country extended to the west up to the borders of Berâr, thus absorbing in it the districts of Bhandara, Bâlâghất, Chindwârâ-cum-Seoni, Nagpur, Wardhâ and Chândâ, comprising an area of 30,000 square miles. Cunningham, in order to complete the area on the Chinese pilgrim's scale, included a part of the Vakataka country, which he placed in Berår, but it is not necessary to do this, inasmuch as the deficiency can be covered by some States of Orissa bordering on Sambalpur, in which Somavamsi inscriptional records have been found, which prove that they formed part of Kosala deśa as mentioned in them. I have summarised these in the appendix to my article on the Sirpur stone inscription (E.I., vol. XI, pp. 198 ff.) These are the states of Patna, Sonpur, Bâmrå and Rairâkhol, the combined area of which aggregates 6,000 square miles. With this addition the total area would be some 81,000 square miles, which would give a circuit of 6,000 li, or 1,000 miles. It would then appear that Dakşiņa Kosala at the time of Yuan Chwang's visit comprised an area lying between 850 and 78° E. Roughly speaking, this coincides with Cunningham's identification with a slight modification. If we cut out the portion of Berår included by him in the west, and extend the eastern boundary by including a few Feudatory States, we get exactly what we require.
To the north the boundaries ran a little below Amarakantaka, which the Mekalas occupied, as we find them mentioned separately both in the Puranas and in epigraphical records. The Matsya and Vayu Puranas, when enumerating the dwellers in the Vindhya region (farza ze faarfera: ), say :
मालवाश्च करूपाश्च मेकलाश्चोत्कलैः सह । - - - - - - - - - -
तोशलाः कोशलाश्चैव त्रैपुरा वैदिशास्तथा ॥ In the Balaghat plates of th, V&kataka king Přithvishena II belonging to the last quarter of the fifth century A.D., it is stated that his father Narendrasena's commands were honoured by the lords of Kosala, Mekala and Malava.? Amarakantaka, the source of the Narmada river, is the highest peak of the Mekala range of the Vindhya mountains. Indeed an alternative name of the Narmada is Mekala-sutâ or Mekala-kanya, daughter of Mekala.' The range runs for about 130 miles in a south-westerly direction to Khairâgash, indicating the tract which the Mekalas occupied, to wit, portions of Rewa State, Bilaspur, Mandala and Balaghat districts and that portion of the Raipur district which is covered by the Feudatory States of Kawardha, Chuikhadân and Khairâgaph. In the Vayu Purána, however, there is a mention of Pancha Kosalas, of which the Mekalas were one. Thus it would appear that there were semi-independent border chiefs subordinate to Kosala proper, the central portion of which comprised the present Raipur and Bilaspur districte.
5 The formation of a separate Orissa province has been recently sanctioned, and the Sambalpur district will be included in the new Province ero long.
6 A circuit of 1,000 miles in a perfect circle would give 79,545 square miles. Obviously Kosal was not a perfect circle, nor were the boundaries limited to the extents of the prosent units. They would require lopping off in certain directions and a bit of expansion in others.
7 E. I., vol. IX, p. 269. 8 Pargiter, The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age, p. 3.