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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
274
likely, however, that Śrāvasti which is referred to in the Puranas is the same Śrävasti which is mentioned in the Silimpur Inscription of Prahas (Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, pp. 283-95), and which is to be located somewhere in North Bengal, i.e. in the Varendra country of Gauda.
Gonda, a subdivision of Uttara Kośala, 42 miles south of the Kośala Śrāvasti, is, according to Cunningham, a corruption of Gauda. The term Pañca Gauda, often used to designate the entire territory of Northern India as far as Kanauj and the river Sarasvati, is however late, and is probably 'reminiscent of the Gauda empire of Dharmapala and Devapala, and cannot be equated with the ancient realm of the Gaudas in the early centuries of the Christian era' (P.H.A.I., 4th Ed., p. 537). The ruins of the ancient city of the Gaudas, which was situated at the junction of the Ganges and the Mahananda, can still be seen near Maldah in North Bengal, at a distance of 10 miles from the town.
1 Cunningham, Anc. Geography, p. 408; Dey's Geographical Dictionary, p. 63.
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