The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c27.12

v1.c27.12

We learn from Megasthenes (I, 16) and Ptolemy (VII, 1, 82; 2, 14) that the Gangaridae occupied the delta of the Ganges. The name Prasii, or *Prāchyas*, ‘Easterns,’ would properly denote the peoples east of the Middle Country or Central Hindustān, which extends as far as the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna at Allahābād. Either, therefore, the name ‘Easterns’ was used by Alexander’s informants in a more general sense, as the correlative of ‘Westerns,’ or it reflects what in any case is the fact, that the Pañchālas, Çūrasenas, Kosalas and other peoples of the Middle Country had fallen under the domination of the power of Magadha (S. Bihār), with its capital Pāṭaliputra, at the junction of the Ganges and the Son. The beginnings of this suzerainty appear already in the early Buddhist books²; and the dynasty ruling in Pāṭaliputra, which city was founded by Udāyin, grandson of Buddha’s contemporary Ajātaçatru, is recognised in the Brāhman literature as representative of Indian sovereignty. Whether it held also the countries stretching westward to the south of the great desert, and in particular the famous realm of Mālwa, with its capital Avanti, or Ujjain, we have no means of knowing: but a negative answer is probable. This region, as also the continuation to the western coast of Kāthiāwār and Gujarāt, escaped the purview of Alexander and his historians. Both were well within the horizon of his Indian informants, since the trade connexion between Bengal and the coast regions of Çūrpāraka and Surāshṭra had been from of old no less familiar than was the northern route of scholars³ and traders journeying to Takshaçilā and Kābul.