The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s12.171

c8.s12.171

of Mahârâshṭra to the town of Broach. We have therefore to look for some subordinate but important town, far to the north of Bâdâmi, which was mistakenly spoken of as the capital by Hiuen Tsiang; most probably, because it was the basis of the operations against Harshavardhana of Kanauj, and because, in connection with those operations, Pulikêśin II. happened to be there at the time. And full reasons have been given elsewhere¹ for rejecting certain other places which have been proposed,² and for deciding that the town in question is Nâsik, about 128 miles to the south-south-east of Broach. The Ajaṇṭâ caves being in the Chândôr or Sâtmâḷâ range, just about the point where the range, which finally merges itself in the highlands that form the southern frontier of Berâr, turns towards the south, and being, according to Hiuen Tsiang, on the eastern frontier, it is evident, to anyone who has the opportunity of seeing the localities, that the natural northern frontier of the country was the western and principal part of the range, which, forming from Ajaṇṭâ to near Nândgaon a conspicuous wall-like boundary between Khândêsh and the country to the south, runs on through Chândôr, and eventually joins the Sahyâdri chain on the north-west of Nâsik.³ The town of Nâsik lies to the south of the range; i. e., as is required, within the northern frontier of the kingdom. It has been a place of importance from considerable antiquity. And its surroundings answer fully to the details given by Hiuen Tsiang; thus, it is on the Gôdâvarî, which, anywhere along its course, is always counted as one of the great rivers of India; within a distance of six miles on the south-west, there is the Pâṇḍulêṇa group of caves, some of them Buddhist, in which we may locate the saṁghârâma mentioned by Hiuen Tsiang; and finally, as regards the stûpas spoken of by him, one at any rate, still exists,—near a small waterfall on the Gôdâvarî, about six miles west of the town.⁴