________________
196
TILAKAMANJARĪ OF DHANAPALA
him by pointing out to him the location of an unscalable mountain (durgagiri) named Mandaraka, the sole resort of enemy kings incarcerated, with the city established over it surrounded by a thick circle of vellum, with the series of lofty peaks visible from afar and its grottoes abounding in herds of sylvan tuskers roving about undaunted; the lake made to be dug up by His Majesty (Meghavāhana) come there during the course of his conquest of the quarters. In times of yore; an agrahāra ( a village granted to the poor Brāhmaṇas) cultivable enough to help them earn their livelihood) meant for the benefit of His majesty, the foremost among all the villages of all the mandalas, donated by Queen Madirāvati on the occasion of the solar eclipse, having its boundaries measuring ten thousand ploughshares; a religious grove (Dharmāranya) built by Surānanda, the minister, having bulbous roots and fruits available quite easily etc.; the extremities of the border land of a mountain where Nītivarmā, the army in chief of the Northern region (Uttara diganta) had despatched to the city of Yama, the Lord of the Hūņas, having resorted to the act of fighting; a stream having its shores miry with the shoals of overgrowing kuskuma plants, on the other side of which lay the bhukti of Yuvarāja Samaraketu and starting from that spot, to the west of it lay the group of towns and villages in its entirety made over to Kamalagupta as a means of subsistence. With the divisions of his Mandala being pointed out to him (i.e. Harivāhana) from all sides, he reached the country known by the name Kämarūpa charming with series of Pundraka sugarcane plants.
In case the Surāvati river described by Dhanapāla refers to a river of the Madhyadeśa then it can be identified with Salalāvati in the south to the town of Satakarnika. Sāketa being in northern India, Harivāhana started off from there and visiting the intervening Janapadas where he saw the durgagiri, sarāvatī, the lake, the Agrahāra, the Dharmāraṇya, the out precincts of a hilly region where the Hūņa king was doomed by the Commander of the forces of the Northern direction from where moving across a stream he saw Anga and Kalinga in the cast and ultimately reached Kāmarūpa. This proves the existence of Sarāvati in Northern India. The Majjhimadesa according to B. C. Law had its boundaries extended in the cast to the town of Kājañgala beyond which was the city of Mahāśāla in the south east to the river Salalāvati (sarāvati) in the south the town of
1. TM Vol. III. pp. 33-34. 2. HGAI p. 14 (B. C. Law)