________________
CHAPTER LXV
THE SURPĀRAKAS
The Surpārakas were evidently the people of Surpāraka. The Märkandeya list (LVII, 49) reads Suryarakas which is evidently a mistake, but all the Puranas agree in placing them in the west where lived the celebrated sage Rama Jamadagnya (Mbh., Vana P., LXXXV, 8185). But the Mahabharata also locates them in the south (Sabha P., XXX, 1169; Vana P., LXXXVIII, 8337) because it bordered on the southern sea in the western region (Santi P., XLIX, 1778-82). The region situated near Prabhasa (Vana P., CXVIII, 10221-7) included the country around the mouth of the Narmada (Anusasana P., XXV, 1736). It was the sage Rama Jamadagnya who is credited with having built the city of Surpāraka (Harivamsa, XCVI, 50).
Sürpáraka is mentioned in one of the inscriptions of Saka Uṣavadata and is undoubtedly the same as Suppāraka of Pāli literature where it is described as a great sea-coast emporium identified with Sopără of early Greek geographers.
23B
