History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c12.2

v1.c12.2

The country was called in those days by the name of Deśa a word which Varāhamihira and others also use. The former appellation of a country was Janapada or ‘people’ showing, as we have already noted, the changed condition of kingdoms which no longer consisted of homogeneous peoples bearing particular names. In the south, however, the word Mandala was more widely used than Deśa in such words as Chola Mandala, Tonda Mandala, Kongu Mandala and so on, wherein the first word probably means a particular people. Mandala often also indicated a division of the country or Deśa according to its people and the word Rāshtra in Mahārāshtra or Rājya in Kashmir also occurs and conveys the same idea as Mandala.