History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s2.21.2

c17.s2.21.2

Mekhala is another name for the Amarkantak hills, where the Narbada rises, and so the Mekhalas may be the people living in that region. The Kalingas were certainly the natives of the coast of Orissa, perhaps extending as far south as the Ganjam district. The Keralas or Ceras are the well-known kingdom in the south between the Western Ghats and the sea-coast. The Kulūtas, of course, were a people who dwelt in the Kangra district of the Panjab on the banks of the Bias river². The name Kulūta is probably represented by the modern Kullu. The Kuntalas lived in the western part of the Deccan. Indeed, Kuntala denoted more or less the old Cālukya kingdom in the highlands of the Western Ghats.³ The Ramaṭhas were, according to the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā* (ch. XVII, p. 94) of Rājaśekhara, a people who dwelt beyond the Pṛthūdaka in the north, and are mentioned with the Kulūtas and Kiras etc. Taking the passage literally, it would appear that Mahīpāla’s arms penetrated remote regions extending from the upper course of the river Bias in the north-west to Kalinga or Orissa in the south-east;