The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s3.28

c8.s3.28

It is now a recognised fact that the Âryas who came to India were at first confined to eastern Afghanistan and the Panjâb. Thence they emigrated to the east and for a time the easternmost province occupied by them was Bramhâvarta or their holy land, lying between the rivers Sarasvatî the modern Sarasuti, and Drishadvatî,¹ a stream in the vicinity, that is, the country about Thanesar. There the system of castes and orders and the sacrificial religion seem to have been fully developed. Thence they spread to the east and the south, and gradually occupied the whole country between the Himâlaya and the Vindhya. This last mountain range must for a long time have formed the southern boundary of their settlements. For the name Âryâvarta or the region occupied by the Âryas, as explained by Manu² and even by Patañjali,³ the author of the Mahâbhâshya on Pânini's grammar, signified exclusively the part of the country situated between those mountain ranges. The Vindhya, which by its height seemed to obstruct the passage of the sun, was impassable to them. The name Pâriyâtra was given to the more northern and western portion of the range from which the rivers Chambal and Betvâ take their rise, probably because it was situated on the boundary of their Yâtrâ or range of communication. After a while, however, the sage Agastya, in poetical language, bade the mountain not to grow high, that is, crossed it and established an Âśrama or hermitage to the south and thus led the way to other settlements. The first or oldest Âryan province in the southern country must have been the Vidarbhas or the Berârs. For in the Râmâyaṇa when Sugrîva the monkey-king sends his followers to the different quarters in search of Râma's wife Sîtâ and Râvaṇa her ravisher, he directs them to go among other southern countries to Vidarbhas, Richîkas, and Mahishakas, and also to Daṇḍakâraṇya (the forest of Daṇḍaka) and the river Godâvarî.⁴ This shows that while the country about the Godâvarî, that is, the Dekkan or Mahârâshṭra in the narrowest sense of the terms, was a forest, Vidarbha was an inhabited country. In the Mahâbhârata also Agastya is represented to have given a girl that he produced by his miraculous powers to the king of Vidarbha, and after she had grown to be a woman demanded her of the king in marriage.⁵ In the Râmâyaṇa, Râma is represented to have lived for a long time in Daṇḍakâraṇya, at a place called Pañchavaṭî situated on the banks