The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s18.61

c8.s18.61

of any ancient large and flourishing town. And thus (12) everything seems to point to there having been, first, a change of name, such as from Tagara to Karavīra, made to suit some mediæval legend (for instance, that which Graham gives, p. 1, that the locality was called Karavīra because the goddess Mahâlakshmî used her "mace,"— the original doubtless has *karavīra*, 'sword, or scimitar,'— to raise it, her favoured retreat, from the waters of the great deluge), and made in such a way as still to preserve some memory of the original appellation, and, subsequently, a change of settlement, from Karavīra to Kôlhâpur.— The fact remains, of course, that the position of Karavīra or Kôlhâpur does not answer at all to the details given by Ptolemy and the author of the *Periplus*. But, as already remarked, there seems to have grown up a general consensus of opinion that those details are to be disregarded; and the mention of Tagara in the Bâdâmi charter of A.D. 612 necessitates our locating it far more to the south than might otherwise be thought proper. Further, if, as seems probable, it was the parts along the western coast, *i.e.* the Koṅkaṇ (not the eastern coast as has been thought; see *Ind. Ant.* Vol. XIII. p. 366), that supplied the local products which were taken to Tagara, and thence to Broach, Karavīra or Kôlhâpur would be a most well-adapted depôt for collecting the trade from that part of the country. And, though it may seem rather a long and roundabout process for the goods to be then taken by cart to Broach, distant about three hundred and fifty miles as the crow flies, reasons for this seem to be forthcoming in the facts that, whereas articles might easily be brought up over the ghauts in small quantities in head-loads or on pack-cattle, the larger export in bulk by carts would, in such early times, before many practicable roads through the ghauts can have been constructed, naturally seek the open country lying well to the east of the inland spurs of the ghauts, and thus might really pass even through Paiṭhaṇ itself; and (see *Ind. Ant.* Vol. VIII. p. 144) that, so far at least as the Greeks were concerned, some embargo was laid on the use of the seaport of Kalliena, *i.e.* Kalyâṇ in the Ṭhâna District, for, we are told, if any Greek vessel happened to enter that port, even by accident, a guard was put on board, and it was taken to Broach.— On the same occasion, I pointed out that there is also a connection in meaning between the names of Tagara and Karahâṭa, which was the capital of the up-country branch of the 'Silâhâra family, and is the modern Karâḍ, in the Sâtâra District, about forty miles north of Kôlhâpur; for, the word *tagara* denotes also the thorny shrub Vangueria Spinosa, and *karahâṭa* is another name for the same. But I reject Karâḍ, as the representative of Tagara, because its own name, in the forms of Karahâṭa and Karahâṭa (apparently by metathesis for Karahâṭaka, which occurs in the Sâmangaḍ grant of A.D. 754; *Ind. Ant.* Vol. XI. p. 112, text line 33), is carried back, by early Pâli inscriptions at Bharaut in Central India (*Ind. Ant.* Vol. XXI, p. 228) and Kuḍâ in the Ratnâgiri District (*Cave-Temple Inscriptions*, p. 16, No. 20), to at least as early a period as the times of Ptolemy and the author of the *Periplus*, and there is, therefore, no reason why they should mention it under any other appellation.