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Vol. XVIII, No. 3
129
today the people of U.P., particularly those of AWADH, are called eastern people (PŪRBIYÀ) by the people of PANJAB and HARYANA The rivers GANGĀ and YAMUNĀ flow through the region that lies of the eastern bank of the GANGĀ upto PRAYAGA. Grammarians like PATANJALI have used the word for the same region. One of the languages BABER heard spoken in the bazar of KABUL was called PRĀCHI'. Syed Muztaba Ali in his Bengali work DESE-VIDEÁE' identifies it with AWADHI. Undoubtedly PRASII in the classical accounts is derived from PRACHI a PRAISII from PRĀCHYA. Equally assured we are of the fact that the Greeks were not acquained with the Brahmaputra and if we have that, the Yamunā is the third largest river of India. That the ERANNOBOAS ought to be identified with the yamunā is not a new idea which has just come to my mind. Dr. B. C. Law had the same opinion about it.38 That demolishes the ground for placing PALIBOTHRA in Magadha.
then was the original name of PALIBOTHRA or PALIMBOTHRA ? It was PALIBHADRĀ and its derivatives are PĀLIBHADRA. PĀLI BHADRIYA etc. Its alternative name was PARIBHA. DRĀ from which the words PĀRIBHADRA, PĀRIBHADRIYA etc. were derived. Pt. BHAGAVADDATTA in his history of the Vedic literature enumerates 17 divisions of the Vāji-MadhyandiniSuklayajuħ. Fifteenth of them is the GĀLAVA which has got 24 sub-divisions, ninth of them being PALIBHADRA.39 It is said to have belonged to Sinkaladeša. Whatever, the identity of Sinkaladeśa, the existence of PALIBHARĀ is established from that. It cannot be dismissed as something imaginary. Not only that, we have to admit that the city of PALIBHADRĀ was a centre of Vedic studies and as such it was quite famous. It was but natural for the rulers, for the Kşatriyas of the country and even for common people to be proud of their association with it. They introduced themselves to others with a reference to PALIBHADRĀ. So the ruling family was known as PĀLIBHADRA while the inhabitants and even the dominions were called 'PALIBHADRIYA'.
Though it would appear a diversion, it behoves to observe something about the PRATIHĀRA RAJPUTS in this conncetion. Wellknown scholars in India as well as abroad have held that the PRATIHĀRAS were a branch of the GURJARS who came to India with the Hūņas. Dr. H. C. Raychaudhwry thinks the PRATIHĀRAS were so called because they served as door-keepers during some sacrifice performed by DANTIDURGA, the RĀŞTRAKUȚA ruler
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