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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA had destroyed the demon Tripura, visited Avantipura, which came to be known as Ujjayini in honour of his victory. This Purāņa in the section of Ayodhyā-māhātmya (Chap. I) relates that saints of Ujjayinī, the Avanti capital, came to Kuruksetra with their disciples to attend the sacrifice of Rāma.
The Purāṇas also speak of intermarriages between the royal family of the Avantis and the ruling dynasty of the Yadus. Thus the Visnupurāņa (IV, 12) and Agnipurāņa (Chap. 275) state that a Vadu princess called Rājyādhidevi was married to the king of Avanti. She was one of the five sisters of the Yadu monarch, Vasudeva, son of Śūra. The Vişnupurāna adds (IV, 14) that Rājyādhidevi bore two sons, Vinda and Upavinda, who are most probably to be identified with the Avanti princes, Vinda and Anuvinda of Epic fame.
The grammarian Pāṇini refers to Avanti in one of his sūtras (IV, 1, 176).
With regard to the location of Avanti, the sage Dhaumya (Vanaparvan, Mbh.), in enumerating the places of pilgrimage in W. India, refers to the country of the Avantis, and speaks of the sacred river Narmadā as being situated therein. At the beginning of the Virātaparvan, Arjuna mentions Avanti along with other kingdoms in W. India, namely, Surāstra and Kunti (IV, 1, 12). The geographical connection between the Avantis and the Kuntis is also shown in the description of 'Bhāratavarşa' in the Bhīşmaparvan (VI, 9, 350). A path leading to the city of Avanti is referred to in the Nalopākhyāna of the Vanaparvan (III, 61, 2317). Mrs. Rhys Davids notes 2 that Avanti lay north of the Vindhya mountains north-west of Bombay. It was one of the four chief monarchies in India when Buddhism arose, and was later absorbed into the Mauryan empire.
Rhys Davids observes: "The country (Avanti), much of which is rich land, had been colonized or conquered by Aryan tribes who came down the Indus valley and turned west from the Gulf of Kutch. It was called Avanti at least as late as the second century A.D. (see Rudradāman's Inscription at Junāgadh) but from the seventh or eighth century onwards, it was called Málava' (Buddhist India, p. 28).
Ujjayinī, which was situated on the Siprā, a tributary of the Carmanvati (Chambal), is the modern Ujjain in Gwalior, Central India. It was the capital of Avanti or Western Mālava, and the residence of the Viceroy of the western provinces both under the Maurya and the Gupta empires.3
1 Mbh., Vanaparvan, III, 89, 8354; Avantișu Pratīcyām vai. 2 Psalms of the Brethren, p. 107, note i. 3 Rapson, Ancient India, p. 175, s.v. Ujjayini.
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