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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
www.kobatirth.org
NOTES
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the mention of the Mahāratthis and the Mahābhojas in the records of the Sātavāhana kings. Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar has wrongly maintained Pitinika to be an adjective of Rathika or Bhoja on the strength of the Pāli passage in the Anguttara-Nikāya (III, pp. 76, 78, 300). It is clear from the Pāli passage, as well as from Buddhaghoşa's explanations, that Ratthika and Pettanika were two different or titular designations. Buddhaghoga, for instance, says: Ratthiko' ti yo rattham bhuñjati, "the Raţthika is one who enjoys the income derived from rāştra (as defined in the Artha-Sāstra, II. 6. 2 t)'; Pettuniko' ti yo pitarābhuttánubhuttam bhuñjati, " the Pettanika is one who enjoys the hereditary rights and privileges." The term Bhoja or Bhojaka may be interpreted either in the sense of rattha-bhojaka or ratthika, “ the enjoyer of rāștra," or in that of gamagā maņika or gāma-bhojaka, " the village headman.” If Berar and Konkan were the principalities of the Ratthika-Bhojakas, we can say that the Vidyadhara-abode was co-extensive with the ancient kingdom of Dandaka (Sarabhanga-Jataka, No. 520) bounded on the east by the kingdom of Kalinga, on the west by the kingdom of Avanti, on the north by the kingdom of Kaši, and on the south by the kingdom of Asvaka to the south of the Vindhya range. We might go further and maintain that this Vidyadhara-abode was no other than what is mentioned in the Purānas as StrIrāştra or Strirajya. Depending on the reading in one of the MS. of the Vişnu-Purāņa, Mr. Jayaswal says that in the Purāṇas, Strīrājya and Mūşika country are said to have formed one principality.3 The VişnuParāna is not all the Purā vas. Even all the MSS. of the Vişņu-Purāņa do not offer the same reading. The different MSS., as noted by Mr. Pargiter, give different readings, one giving Mūşiva, one Mūkhika... one Musith, and one Musika. 4 The Purāṇas as a whole telt altogether a different story. In them, we read that Strfrāstra and Bhokşyaka formed one principality under a king named Kanaka.5 Curiously enough, we have precisely Bhojaka as a variant for Bhokşyaka, which is significant as implying that Strīrāştra and Bhokşyaka formed the principalities of the Rathika-Bhojakas.
1. Sitā bhāgo balıḥ karo vanik nadipālastaro nāvah pattanam vartani rajjūs corarajjūs ca rāętram,
2. H. C. Raychaudhuri's Political History of Ancient India, 2nd edition, pp. 195.197.
3. Pargiter's Dynasties of the Kali Age, p. 54, f.n. 25: Strirājya-Trairāja-Müşika. janapadan Kanakāhvayā bhok yanti. Some of the MSS. omit Trairāja.
4. Ibid, p. 54, f.n. 25.
5. Ibid, p. 54; Strīraştram Bhokayakāms caiva bhokayate Kanakähvayah. For the variant Bhojaka see ibid, p. 54, f.n. 24.
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