India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s3.22

c9.s3.22

On the Indian side this route was linked up with Pāṭaliputra and ultimately with the mouth of the Ganges. As Rawlinson writes: 'The first thing which struck Megasthenes on entering India, was the Royal Road from the frontier to Pāṭaliputra, down which the envoy must have travelled to the capital. It was constructed in eight stages, and ran from the frontier town of Peukelaotis to Taxila; from Taxila, across the Indus, to the *Jihlam*; then to the Beas, near the spot where Alexander erected his altars. From here it went to the Sutlej; from the Sutlej to the Jamna; and from the Jamna, probably *via* Hastinapura, to the Ganges. From the Ganges the road ran to a town called Rhodopha, and from Rhodopha to Kalinipaxa (probably Kānyakubja or Kanauj). From Kanauj it went to the mighty town of Prayāga at the junction of the Ganges and the Jamna, and from Prayāga to Pāṭaliputra. From the capital it continued its course to the mouth of the Ganges, probably at Tamluk, though Megasthenes never traversed the last stage of the road. At every mile along the road was a stone to indicate the by-roads and distances'. (*Intercourse between India and the Western World*, p. 42; also its Appendix I for the distances between the stages on the Royal Road, p. 64). This great highway passed through important *janapadas* and cities, such as Bālhika, Kāpiśī, Pushkalāvatī, Takshaśilā, Śākala, Hāstinapura, Rathaspā (=Sk. Rhodopha, a name of the Rāmagangā), Kānyakubja, Prayāga, Pāṭaliputra and Tāmralipti. Along this great highway must have passed up and down long caravans transporting merchandise (*bhāṇḍa*, III. 1. 20). On this route lay the town called Udbhāṇḍa (Ohind) as the destination where the merchandise was unloaded for transhipment across the Indus.