Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 62
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
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SEPTEMBER, 1933)
THE EXTENT AND CAPITAL OF DAKSIŅA KOSALA
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the oldest being that of Tivaradeva, who has been connected with Udayana, 14 a common ancestor of the Somavamsis of Sirpur and the Buddhist kings of Bhåndak. The time of the rise of the Somavaṁsis of Sirpur falls about Yuan Chwang's visit, so it is within the bounds of possibility that an ancestor of Tivaradeva, who is described as prapta sa kala-Kosaladhi. patyaḥ (i.e., who had acquired the supremacy over all the Kosalas, or the whole of the Kosala country) may have held sway at Sirpur, and that he might have been a Buddhist, or at any rate well affected towards Buddhism. Tivaradeva himself was '& most devout worshipper of Visnu '15 and was unweariedly worshipped by mankind in respect of his religious austerity.'
So far, then, the claims of Sirpur and Bhandak stand on almost an equal footing. We have now to consider other points mentioned by the pilgrim, and see how they fit in. If the capital of Kalinga, whence Yuan Chwang travelled to the capital of the Kosala country, was at Rajamahendri, Sirpur is out of the question in view of the fact that its distance even as the crow flies is 370 miles, which is much in excess of what the pilgrim has recorded. 16 The bearings would also vary, as Sirpur is slightly east of north, and not north-west, from Rajamahendri. But if we take Mukhalingam close to Kalinganagaram or Kalingapattanam as the capital of Kalinga, as proposed by Fergusson and accepted by Vincent Smith and others, the difficulty which arises is how the pilgrim made it out to be 1,400 or 1,500 li from Kung-yü-t'o to Kalinga. Kung-yü-t'o has been identified with the Kongoda of the inscriptions, situated somewhere between Katak in Orissa and Aska in the Ganjam district, close to the Chilka lake. The distance, however, from there to Mukhalingam would be less than 125 miles in a straight line, and even if the windings of the road are taken into account, as they should be, still the distance could not amount to 1,400 or 1,500 li. It was perhaps this consideration which induced Cunningham to identify the capital with Rajamahendri. If, however, Mukhalingam was really the capital of Kalinga, the claims of Chåndå or Bhandak vanish, as their distance in a straight line would exceed 330 miles.
And now we have to take the data of the return journey into consideration. The pilgrim states that from Kosala he travelled south (Travels) or south-east (Life) through a forest for above 900 li to the An-to-lo country. This country was above 300 li in circuit and its capital, P'ing-k'i (or ch'i)-lo, was above 20 li in circuit. The country had a rich fertile soil, with a moist hot climate; the people there were of violent character, their mode of speech differed from that of Mid-India, but they followed the same system of writing. There were twenty odd Buddhist monasteries with more than 3,000 brethren. Near the capital was a large monastery with a succession of high halls and storeyed terraces containing an exquisite image of the Buddha. From An-to-lo, or Andhra, the pilgrim continued his journey south through wood and jungle for over 1,000 li to T'e-na-ka-che-ka, which is identified with Dhanakataka, the present Bezwada. The distance between Sirpur and Bezwada in a straight line is 350 miles, and that between Bhandak and Bezwada 270 miles. The traveller has recorded it as 1,900 li, or 316 miles. This again would appear to put Sirpur out of the question. In these circumstances it seems immaterial to locate the capitali? of Andhra, which lay somewhere midway between the capital of Kobala and Bezwada. The pilgrim's remarks in regard
14 E.I., vol. XI, pp. 184 ff. 15 Floet's Gupta Incriptions, p. 298. 16 Watters, Yuan Chwang, pp. 198 and 341.
17 The distances and bearings would point to Warangal (ancient Orukkallu, with the tradition of having been once the capital of Andhra), but how this name could be represented by P'ing-chi-lo in the Chinese language cannot be easily oxplained, unless Warangal had a different namo in the seventh century. P'ing-ch's cannot be Vengi, howsoever much it may resemble it phonetically, as it would be too far away from any Kouala capital, and too near Bezwada.
