Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 178

166
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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1933
to the nature of the country he traversed, its people and language apply equally to both the claimants. Proceeding from Sirpur towards Bezwada, we cannot avoid passing either through Bastar, or through the Agency tracts of the Madras Presidency, apparently called Mahakântâra (the great forest) at the time of Samudragupta's conquest : and they remain primeval jungle upto the present day. The chief inhabitants are Gonds and Khonds (Küis), still continuing in the wildest state. They have several times shown violence against authority by open rebellion and murder, or by merciless maiming of the limbs of their enemies, even during the British régime. When the Kûis once cut off the heads of Koltas, an Oriya cultivating caste who usurped their lands, they, on being asked why they did it, replied: "Koltas are goats, we are tigers, why should we not kill them?” The spoken dialects of these tribes are Dravidian, quite distinct from the languages of Mid-India, and in the southern area towards the Godavari, they are replaced by Telugu. The Någavamsi kings who ruled this country about the tenth century invariably recorded their grants and orders on stone or metal in Telugu characters to the south of the Indravatî river, while all records referring to the same kings found to the north of that river are written in Nagari characters. In the case of Bhåndak, it may be noted that the whole of the tahsil lying in the southernmost part of the Chånda district, viz., Sironcha, is Telugu-speaking. In fact it is the only tahsil in the Central Provinces in which the recognised court language was till lately Telugu. The tahsil abuts on the southern portion of the Bastar State and presents the same type of culture, the characteristics of which have been described above. The southern portion of the Chåndá district is full of dense forest. The writer of the Chândå District Gazetteer says—" At times it must be admitted that the interminable stretches of the gloomy forest oppress the imagina. tion and the traveller is glad to emerge for a space into the more open haunts of men and welcomes the uninterrupted view even of an Indian sun."18 It would thus appear that the country bordering on the Godavari river was an out-crop of Telangana, or Telugu country, lying on the south of the Godavari, and was "Andhra land with Andhra culture, tradition and language," as Pandit Nilakantha Das, M.A., puts it (see JAHRS., vol. II, p. 25); and a traveller returning from Bhandak or Sirpur was bound to cross it on his way to Dhanakataka (Bezwada).
As to the pilgrim's description that Kosala was surrounded by mountains ar.d was a succession of woods and marshes, I think it is literally true. The country was bounded on the north by the Vindhya mountains and on the south by those just described, and the other two sides 'were similarly wooded as they are today. In fact this country was called Dandakåranya in Rama's time, and Mr. G. Ramdas tells us that Dandaka is a Dravidian term meaning full of water.' Wells were unknown in this country till recently. The country was full of tanks and lakes throughout its length and breadth, and there are still some places in the Drug district, formerly a part of Raipur, where marshes still survive.
From what I have said above, it will have to be admitted that there is some mistake in recording the distances or interpreting their exact value, 19 whether one fixes the capital at Sirpur or Bhåndak. To my mind, both the places seem at present to have equal claims to the honour of a visit from that great pilgrim of China, but Bhandak seems to possess more tangible evidence than Sirpur.
18 Nelson's Chanda District Gazetteer, p. 8.
19 We have as a rule accepted 6 li to a mile. In a footnote on page 332, vol. II, of Watters's Yuan Chwang, M. Foucher's opinion is quoted that the expression about 50 li,' se used by Yuan Chwang, is ordi. narily an approxiinate equivalent for a day's march, which was variable in length, but averaged about 4 French leagues, or nearly 10 English miles; but Giles in the Oxford Dictionary lays down 10 miles de equivalont to 274 li.