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KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
539
by north from Raipur. Mahākāntāra is apparently a wild tract of the Central Provinces which probably included Kantara which the Mahabharata places between Veņvātata (the valley of the Wainganga) and Prak-Kosala, the eastern part of Kosala mentioned above. 2
Kaurala cannot be Kolleru or Colair which must have been included within the territory of Hastivarman of Vengi mentioned separately. Dr. Barnett suggests its identification with one of the villages that now bear the name Korāda3 in South India. This is a place named Kolada near Russelkonda in Gañjam.
4
Koṭṭūra has been identified with Kothoor, 12 miles south-east of Mahendragiri in Gañjām. Pishṭapura is Pithapuram in the Godavari district. Erandapalla is identified by Fleet with Erandol in Khandesh, and by Dubreuil with Erandapali, "a town probably near Chicacole" in the Ganjam district. 5 But G. Ramdas suggests the identification of Erandapalla
1 Fleet, CII, p. 293. Cf. Ep. Ind. xxiii. 118f.
2 Mbh. II. 31. 12-13. G. Ramdas (IHQ, I. 4, 684) identifies Mahākāntāra with the 'Jhad-khand' Agency tracts of Gañjām and Vizagapatam. The sway of the raja of Mahākāntāra or "Greater Kantara", may have extended northwards as far as Nachna in the Ajaygarh (not Jaso) state (Smith, JRAS, 1914, 320). The identification of many of the southern kingdoms suggested by Mr. R. Sathianathaier (in his Studies in the Ancient History of Tondamandalam) does carry conviction. His conclusion that Samudragupta "first emerged on the east coast at Pithapuram and conquered the Western Deccan" is based upon evidence that is clearly inadequate.
not
1
3 Cal. Rev., Feb., 1924, 253 n. Cf. Kurṛālam, Tj. 590 ( A Topographical List of Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, by V. Rangacharya). The identification with Yayatinagari (Ep. Ind. XI. 189), which Dhoyi connects with the sports of the Keralis, was suggested in former editions of this work. But the reading Kerali in the Pavanaduta is not beyond doubt. For Kolada see Ep. Ind. XIX. 42,
4 There is another Kottura 'at the foot of the Hills' in the Vizagapatam district (Vizag., District Gaz., I. 137). See also Koṭṭūru (IA, 4, 329) and Kotturnādu, MS. 333, Rangacharya's List..
5 Dubreuil, AHD, pp. 58-60. A place called Erandavalli is mentioned in an inscription of Govinda III (Bharata Itihāsa Sam. Mandala, A.R. XVI).
6 IHQ, 1, 4, p. 683. There is an Erandi tirtha in Padma, Svarga khanda, 45, 57, 61.
