Jain Journal 1997 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 12

MUKHERJEE THE KALAKACHARYA KATHANAKA
In the second or the third quarter of the 2nd century A.D.38 Ptolemy enumerated patalene, Syrastrene and Aberia or Saberia as the provinces of Indo-Scythia several towns situated outside the possible natural limits of any of those three religions.40 It appears that Ptolemy extended the ethno-geographical name of Indo-Scythia (i.e. land of the Indian Scythians or Scythians in India) to a larger political division. The latter incorporated the land denoted by the geographical connotation of the term Indu-Scythia and also some tracts politically annexed to the territory of some power ruling Indo-Scythia at the time to which Ptolemy's source of information should be dated.
As a tract is not likely to be called after a people until some time after their first settlement in it. Ptolemy's evidence which implies that Aberia or Saberia, Patalene and Syrastrene were known as the lands of the Scythians, should indicate that the Scythian colonisation of these provinces probably started long before the date of his Geography or rather that of the source of his information. In fact, the Periplus Maris Erythraei, a text probably of the 1st century A.D.,1locates Scythia in the lower Indus area. 42 We have also convincing data to suggest that some of the sources of Ptolemy's information may be dated to periods earlier than the beginning of the Christian era.43
The evidence of Ptolemy thus shows that Patalene and Syrastrene began to be inhabited by the Scythians long-even centuries - before the date of his Geography, i.e. 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 2nd centruy A.D. There are precisely two of the three territories indicated in the kālaka story to have been colonised by the Sagas or Sakas by the time of Kalaka whom the Jaina hagiology dates not later than the 1st century
43
wrong; for the latter includes inter alia territories lying even to the west of the Indus.
Konow was also wrong when he suggested that Hindukadesa was the Shen-tu of the Hou han-shu. (S.Konow, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. 11. pt I, pp. LXVII and LXVIII). Hindukadesa was situated on the east of the Indus, whereas Shen-tu incorporated some regions to the west of that river.
38. E H. Bunbury, A History of Ancient Geography, Vol, II pp. 546-547. 39. Ptolemy Geographika Huphegesis, VII, 1, 55-61.
40. B.N. Mukherjee, The Lower Indus Country c. A. D. 1-150 book II, ch. I; see also W.W. Tarn,The Greeks in Bacteria and India (2nd edn.)
B.N. Mukherjee, op cite. book I, ch.; cf. W.H. Schoff. Periplus, p. 41. B.N. Mukherjee, Op.cit., book I, Ch I; W.H. Schoff, Periplus.
42. Periplus, etc. see 38.
43. W. W. Tarn, Op. cit.