The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.39

c4.39

Even in 1883 there could not be any doubt about the identification of Kośala, Piṣṭapura, Kāñcī, and Veṅgī. The late Drs. Fleet and V. A. Smith proposed to identify Pālakka with Palghat on the Malabar coast. Smith subsequently found out that Pālakka was the name of a place in the Nellore district.¹ Devarāṣṭra and Eraṇḍapalla have all along been identified by both of these scholars with Mahārāṣṭra and Erandol in the East Khandesh district of the Bombay Presidency. The earlier theory that Pālakka was Palghat was feasible at that time, but with the discovery of Pālakka in the Nellore district it became difficult to understand how Samudragupta could conquer Mahārāṣṭra and Khandesh without passing through and conquering the intervening Kanarese districts. It remained for a French scholar to clear up the mystery about the places and kings of Southern India mentioned in the Allahabad Pillar inscription. M. Jouveau-Dubreuil of the Colonial College, Pondicherry² identified these places correctly. He has proved that Eraṇḍapalli is the name of a place mentioned in the Siddhantam plates of Devendravarman of Kaliṅga.³ Devarāṣṭra is mentioned as the name of a district or province in Kaliṅga in a set of copper plates discovered in Kasimkota in the Vizagapatam district. With Pālakka in the Nellore district and Eraṇḍapalli and Devarāṣṭra on the Eastern Coast, the probability of a wide southern conquest by Samudragupta became almost impossible. But though Palakka is acknowledged to be in the Nellore district writers on Ancient Indian History have not yet given up their original ideas.¹