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Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c5.s2: Chapter II. Ancient Divisions

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c5.s2

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English

Chapter II. Ancient Divisions

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FROM ancient times the present province of Gujarát consisted of three divisions Anartta, Suráshtra, and Láṭa. Anartta seems to have been Northern Gujarát, as its capital was Anandapura the modern Vaḍanagara or Chief City, which is also called Anarttapura.¹ Both these names were in use even in the times of the Valabhi kings (A.D. 500-770).² According to the popular story, in each of the four cycles or yugas Anandapura or Vaḍanagara had a different name, Chamatkárapura in the first or Satya-yuga, Anarttapura in the second or Tretá-yuga, Anandapura in the third or Dvápara-yuga, and Vriddha-nagara or Vaḍanagar in the fourth or Káli-yuga. The first name is fabulous. The city does not seem to have ever been known by so strange a title. Of the two Anarttapura and Anandapura the former is the older name, while the latter may be its proper name or perhaps an adaptation of the older name to give the meaning City of Joy. The fourth Vriddha-nagara meaning the old city is a Sanskritized form of the still current Vaḍnagar, the Old or Great City. In the Girnár inscription of Kshatrapa Rudradáman (A.D. 150) the mention of Anartta and Suráshtra as separate provinces subject to the Pahlava viceroy of Junágadh agrees with the view that Anartta was part of Gujarát close to Káthiáváḍa. In some Puránas Anartta appears as the name of the whole province including Suráshtra, with its capital at the well known shrine of Dwáriká. In other passages Dwáriká and Prabhás are both mentioned as in Suráshtra which would seem to show that Suráshtra was then part of Anartta as Káthiáváḍa is now part of Gujarát.

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¹ See Nagarakhaṇḍa (Junagadh Edition), 13, 32, 35, 185, 289, 332, 542.

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² The Alina grants (Indian Antiquary, VII. 73, 77) dated Valabhi 330 and 337 (A.D. 649-656) are both to the same donee who in the A.D. 649 grant is described as originally of Anarttapura and in the A.D. 656 grant as originally of Anandapura.

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Suráshtra the land of the Sus, afterwards Sanskritized into Sauráshtra the Goodly Land, preserves its name in Sorath the southern part of Káthiáváḍa. The name appears as Suráshtra in the Mahábhárata and Pánini's Ganapatha, in Rudradáman's (A.D. 150) and Skandagupta's (A.D. 456) Girnár inscriptions, and in several Valabhi copper-plates. Its Prákrit form appears as Suratha in the Násik inscription of Gotamiputra (A.D. 150) and in later Prákrit as Suraththa in the Tirthakalpa of Jinaprabhásuri of the thirteenth or fourteenth century.³ Its earliest foreign mention is perhaps Strabo's (B.C. 50-A.D. 20) Saraostus and Pliny's (A.D. 70) Oratura.⁴ Ptolemy

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³ Girnára-Kalpa, Atthi Suraththa vesaé Ujjinto náma pavvao rammo. In the Suraththa district is a lovely mountain named Ujjinto (Girnár).

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⁴ Hamilton and Falconer's Strabo, II. 252-253; Pliny's Natural History, VI, 20.

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the great Egyptian geographer (A.D. 150) and the Greek author of the Periplus (A.D. 240) both call it Surastrene.¹ The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 600-640) mentions Valabhi then large and famous and Surashtra as separate kingdoms.²

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¹ Bertius' Ptolemy, VII. 1; McCrindle's Periplus, 113. The Periplus details regarding Indo-Scythia, Surastrene, and Ujjain are in agreement with the late date (A.D. 247) which Reinand (Indian Antiquary of Dec. 1879 pp. 330-338) and Burnell (S. Ind. Pal. 47 note 3) assign to its author.

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² Hiuen Tsiang's Valabhi kingdom was probably the same as the modern Gohilvāḍa, which Jinaprabhāsuri in his S'atrunjaya-kalpa calls the Vallūka-Visaa.

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Lāṭa is South Gujarāt from the Mahi to the Tāpti. The name Lāṭa does not appear to be Sanskrit. It has not been found in the Mahābhārata or other old Sanskrit works, or in the cave or other inscriptions before the third century A.D., probably because the Purāṇas include in Aparānta the whole western seaboard south of the Narbada as far as Goa. Still the name Lāṭa is old. Ptolemy (A.D. 150) uses the form Larike³ apparently from the Sanskrit Lāṭaka. Vātsyāyana in his Kāma-Sutra of the third century A.D. calls it Lāṭa; describes it as situated to the west of Mālwa; and gives an account of several of the customs of its people.⁴ In Sanskrit writings and inscriptions later than the third century the name is frequently found. In the sixth century the great astronomer Varāhamihira mentions the country of Lāṭa, and the name also appears as Lāṭa in an Ajanta and in a Mandasor inscription of the fifth century.⁵ It is common in the later inscriptions (A.D. 700-1200) of the Chālukya Gurjara and Rāshtrakūṭa kings⁶ as well as in the writings of Arab travellers and historians between the eighth and twelfth centuries.⁷

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³ Bertius' Ptolemy, VII. 1.

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⁴ Vātsyāyana Sutra, Chap. II.

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⁵ Arch. Sur. of Western India, IV. 127. The Mandasor inscription (A.D. 437-38) mentions silk weavers from Lāṭavishaya. Fleet's Corpus Ins. Ind. III. 80. The writer (Ditto, 84) describes Lāṭa as green-hilled, pleasing with choice flower-burdened trees, with temples vihāras and assembly halls of the gods.

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⁶ Ind. Ant. XIII. 157, 158, 163, 180, 188, 196, 199, 204.

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⁷ Elliot's History, I. 378.

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The name Lāṭa appears to be derived from some local tribe, perhaps the Laṭṭas, who, as r and l are commonly used for each other, may possibly be the well known Rāshtrakūṭas since their great king Amoghavarsha (A.D. 851-879) calls the name of the dynasty Ratta. Lattalura the original city of the Raṭṭas of Saundatti and Belgaum may have been in Lāṭa and may have given its name to the country and to the dynasty.⁸ In this connection it is interesting to note that the country between Broach and Dhār in Mālwa in which are the towns of Bāgh and Tānda is still called Rāṭha.

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⁸ Compare Lassen in Ind. Ant. XIV. 325.

Cites (6)