________________
DAKSHIŅĀPATHA
.
85
85
SECTION IV. THE DECCAN IN THE AGE OF THE
LATER VAIDEHAS.
The expression “Dakshiņāpadā” occurs in the ĶigVedał and refers to the region where the exile goes on being turned out. In the opinion of several scholars this simply means "the south” beyond the limits of the recognised Aryan world. Dākshinātya is found in Pāṇini,2 Dakshināpatha is mentioned by Baudhāyana coupled with Surāshtra. It is difficult to say what Pāṇini or Baudbāyana exactly meant by Dakshiņātya or Dakshināpatha. In early Pāli literature the name Dakshiņāpatha is sometimes coupled with Avanti (Malwa), and in one text it is placed on the banks of the upper Godāvari. In the Nalopākhyāna of the Mahābhārata, Dakshināpatha is placed beyond Avanti and the Vindhyas, and to the south of the Vidarbhas and the ( Southern ) Kosalas. The last-mentioned peoples lived on the banks of the Wardha and the Mahānadi. In the Digvijaya-parva, Dakshināpatha is distinguished from the Pāņdyan realm in the southernmost part of the Madras Presidency. In the Gupta Age it certainly stretched from the land of the Kosalas to the kingdom of Kāñchi. In later times it embraced the whole of Trans-Vindhyan India from the Setu (Adam's Bridge) to the Narmadā.*
Whatever may have been the exact denotation of the terms discussed above in the earliest times it is certain that already in the age of the later Vaidehas, Nimi and Karāla,
1 X. 61. 8. Vedic, Index, I. 337.
2 IV. 2. 98. 3 Baudh. Sutra, I. 1. 29.
4 DPPN, 1,-1050: Mbh. II. 31. 16-17; III. 61. 21-23. Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudra Gupta ; Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, 341 n. The Periplus distinguishes Dachinabades (Dakshiņāpatha) from Damirica (Tamil land).
