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The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6: Part I. Geography of the Deccan

The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6

Language
English

Contents

Part I. Geography of the Deccan

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*by* PROFESSOR HEMCHANDRA RAYCHAUDHURI, M.A., PH.D.

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I Nomenclature and extent; physical aspects—soil and scenery, natural divisions, mountains, forests, lakes and rivers; effect of physical features upon history.

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II The Deccan in scriptural and epic tradition, tribes outside the Aryan pale, early post-Vedic texts, the epics; foreign notices, down to the 2nd century A.D.; some famous *janapadas* (territorial units) of antiquity—Vidarbha, Vatsagulma, Bhogavardhana, Mūlaka, Aśmaka (Assaka, Asaka), Rishika (Asika), Andhra (Trilinga, Veṅgī), Kaliṅga, Aparānta, Koṅkaṇa, Mahārāṣṭra, and Karṇāṭa (Kuntala).

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III Principal administrative divisions from the rise of the Sātavāhanas to the thirteenth century A.D., *deśa*, *maṇḍala* and minor subdivisions, *bhukti*, and *viṣaya*; the decimal and allied systems in administrative divisions.

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IV Cities and emporia; some royal seats of the post-Sātavāhana period.

Nomenclature and Extent

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THE name Deccan as used in the following pages designates the historic land in peninsular India that stretches from the Sahyādriparvat, also called the Sātmāla, Chāndor, Ajanta, or Indhyādri range, and the expanse of hill and plateau that connects it with Mahendragiri, and forms the watershed between the Mahānadi and the Godāvarī in the north, to the Kṛṣṇā and the Tuṅgabhadrā in the south, and from the Arabian Sea in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east. The area described above lies roughly between 13° 59' and 20° 33' north latitude and 72° 54' and 84° 26' east longitude. The territory included within it embraces the Marāṭhā- and Kanarese-speaking districts of the Bombay Presidency, the state of Hyderabad with the southern part of Berār, some adjoining tracts of the Central Provinces, and portions of Orissa and the Madras Presidency lying between Mahendragiri and the Kṛṣṇā. The total area may be put at nearly 200,000 square miles with a population of about 40 millions.

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The expression Deccan is a corruption of the Sanskrit word *Dakṣiṇa* which means ‘right hand’ or ‘the south’. The name is familiar to Indian literature and inscriptions, and is also found in the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*, written by a Greek mariner of the first century A.D. Fa Hien in the fifth century refers to it as ‘Ta-Thsin’. Other variants of the name are Dākṣiṇātya and Dakṣiṇāśā. But the most popular designation of the region in classical Sanskrit literature and inscriptions is Dakṣiṇāpatha.

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From early times the name has been used in different senses. In its broadest application it comprises the whole of India between the southern sea and the Vindhyas—*dakṣiṇasya samudrasya tathā Vindhyasya chāntare*. This connotation is known to the *Bharata Nāṭya Śāstra*¹ and the *Bhuvanakosha* of the *Purāṇas*. The *Matsya Purāṇa*² carried the northern limit to Kāruṣa which occupied the hill country enclosing the Kaimur spur of the eastern Vindhyas. The Pāli *Jatakas* stretch it to Avanti close to the western Vindhyas, while the *Petavatthu* commentary includes within the Deccan the Damiḷa-viṣaya or Tamil country in the far south.³ Harishena, the panegyrist of Samudra Gupta, includes within Dakṣiṇāpatha all the territory from the Mahānadi valley to Kāñchi. The uncertainty regarding the location of Mahākāntāra which he enumerates among territories in the south makes it difficult to determine the exact northern limit of the Deccan as understood by him. The *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā* of Rājaśekhara places Dakṣiṇāpatha beyond Māhishmati and the Narmadā. The definition of the term in the later Chālukya records—setu Narmadā madhyam... Dakshiṇāpatham, ‘from Adam’s Bridge to the Nerbudda stretches the Deccan’—is not fundamentally different.

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¹ xiv, 39.

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² 114, 46-8.

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³ Malalasekera, *Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names*, i, 1050-1.

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In a much earlier age, namely, the first century A.D., the Periplus uses the term ‘Dachinabades’, that is, Dakshiṇāpatha, to signify the region beyond ‘Barygaza’, that is, Broach on the Narmadā. From this area ‘Damirica’, that is, the Tamil country, seems, however, to be excluded. We are told that ‘beyond Barygaza the adjoining coast extends in a straight line from north to south and so this region is called Dachinabades, for dachanos in the language of the natives means south’. Among market-towns of the region mention is made of Paiṭhaṇ and Tagara (Ter, Thair), now included within the State of Hyderabad. The markets of ‘Damirica’ find separate mention.

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The far south seems also to be excluded by both the famous epics of ancient India. The Rāmāyaṇa distinguishes the Drāviḍas from the Dakshiṇāpatha.¹ In the Mahābhārata Sahadeva, one of the heroes, is said to have proceeded to Dakshiṇāpatha after vanquishing the king of the Pāṇḍyas in the extreme south of the peninsula. Kishkindhā-guhā (close to the Tuṅgabhadrā) seems at that time to have been on the outskirts of Dakshiṇāpatha² which stretched northwards as far as the borders of the Vidarbha country or Berār.

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¹ ii, 10, 37.

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² ii, 31, 16 ff.

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esha panthā Vidarbhāṇām asau gachchhati Kosalān
ataḥ parañcha deśo’yam dakshiṇe Dakshiṇāpathaḥ

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‘This road leads to Vidarbha (Berār), that one proceeds towards the land of the Kosalas (the Upper Mahānadī valley); beyond them in the southern direction lies Dakshiṇāpatha.’³

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³ iii, 61, 23. The restricted meaning of the term ‘Dākshiṇātya’ is known also to the Bharata nāṭya śāstra, xxiii, 102, where it is distinguished from Andhra, Pulinda, and Dramiḷa.

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The connotation suggested in these passages of the epic is the one we have adopted in the following pages.

Physical Aspects—Soil and Scenery

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Even in its restricted sense the Deccan covers a wide expanse of territory which presents infinite varieties of soil and scenery. Wide downs, rolling plains smiling with harvest, fantastic tors and logans, luxuriant forests, rivers tumbling over precipices and leaping in wild waterfalls, and streams foaming in wild torrents along their rugged rocky beds, combine in one superb panorama the varying aspects of awe and beauty. Gold-bearing rocks and cotton-bearing black soil, alluvial tracts and ravines rich in diamond mines, added to the natural wealth of the country as the Siṅgareni coal-mine does at the present day.

Natural Divisions

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Geographically the country falls into three natural divisions: firstly, an elevated plateau filling the triangular space enclosed by the Sātmāla Hills in the north and the two ranges styled the ghāts in the west and the east that stretch in long lines nearly parallel to the coast and meet in a knot in the Nilgiris; secondly, a narrow strip of territory bounded by the shore of the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghāts and thirdly, a broader expanse of low land between the Bay of Bengal and the Eastern Ghāts.

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The great central upland has an elevation of from 1,000 to 3,000 ft. above the level of the sea with depressions that coincide with the valleys of rivers. It has hills and spurs here and there rising to 2,500 ft., and even to 3,500 ft., and descends by a succession of terraces from the Western Ghāts towards the seaboard of the Presidency of Madras. The plateau is divided into large areas geologically and linguistically distinct. The Godāvarī and its affluent the Mañjrā cut off the trappean region in the north and the west, covered with luxuriant vegetation and largely peopled by Marāṭhās, from the granitic and calcareous country with bare rocks and a sandy soil where Telugus predominate. The south-western part of the plateau with its ‘Dharwarian Rocks’, marked off from Marāṭhwāra by a waving line drawn from Bidar to Kārwār, and from Teliṅgāna by another line running from Bidar to Adoni, constitutes a third area styled Kannaḍa, Karṇāṭa, or Karṇāṭaka where the prevailing language is Kanarese. The name of the region is sometimes derived from the Dravidian words *kār*, ‘black’, and *nāḍu*, ‘country’, that is, the black country, a term that aptly designates the black cotton soil, *kṛiṣṇabhūmikṣetra*, *vikhyāta-kṛiṣṇavarṇa* . . . *viṣaya*, which made this part of the Deccan famous for many ages. The river which watered the land was fittingly termed Kṛiṣṇa, ‘the black’, Kṛiṣṇavarṇā, ‘of black hue’, or Kṛiṣṇaveṇī, ‘with a braid of black hair’.

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The narrow space of lowlands bordering on the Arabian Sea, or Western Ocean as it is called in ancient inscriptions, has a breadth of thirty to sixty miles. It is a rugged country much broken by spurs from the ghāts, intersected by rivulets and indented by creeks and coves. In places it is picturesque, with rocky islets and capes, stretches of palm-fringed sand-beach, rich plots of rice-land, and river-mouths that spread out into broad lake-like estuaries. Ancient harbours and market towns lie scattered along the coast-line. They represented in past ages much of the wealth and strength of India.

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The eastern coast strip is broader than that in the west. The ghāts occasionally throw off spurs which break the seaboard into headlands. The coast-line is on the whole unsheltered and deficient in natural harbours safe for ships of deep draught throughout the year. But it has open roadsteads that afford anchorage. Here, not very far from the mouth of the Kṛiṣṇa, Ptolemy located the point of departure (*Apheterion*) for ships bound for Khryse or Suvarṇabhūmi, the ‘golden lands’ of Trans-Gangetic India and the islands lying scattered in the neighbouring sea. The great rivers of the Deccan, the Godāvarī and the Kṛṣṇā, break through the line of the ghāṭs and form rich deltas which are the granaries of the south (deśam . . . aśesha-sasya-prachura-phala-yutam).

Mountains

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The features of the Deccan are largely determined by its mountain systems. In the west the Western Ghāṭs, one of the seven kulaparvatas, styled Sahyādri by the ancient writers, of which the Sātmāla range in the north, also called Sahyādriparvat, is only a spur, form an almost continuous wall with an elevation of about 4,000 ft. for the greater part of its length. The fortified hill-tops of the Sahyādris played a conspicuous part in the drama of south Indian history. The range is crossed by several passes that serve as the main lines of communication between the tableland behind the ghāṭs and the ports on the western coast.

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The main chain of the Western Ghāṭs throws off a number of spurs that run across the central upland from the west to the east for several miles, and penetrate deep into the interior of the peninsula. They part the great river-basins from one another, and often in ancient times constituted boundary-lines between various janapadas. The most important of these is the belt of hills that separates the valley of the Tapti from that of the Godāvarī and constitutes the northern wall of the Deccan tableland. It derives one of its names, Sahyādriparvat, from the parent range from which it branches off at right angles at a point that lies to the north-west of Nāsik. It is also known as the Chāndor, Sātmāla, Indhyādri, or Ajanta chain. The last name is derived from the famous village in the Bhokardan tāluk of the Aurangābād district, Hyderabad State, which is celebrated for the series of rock-cut Buddhist caves, richly ornamented with fresco paintings, that are regarded as the finest expression of Indian pictorial art during that period. The Ajanta Hills break into isolated peaks and ridges within Yeotmal and lead on to the broad belt of hill and plateau that parts the basin of the Mahānadī from that of the Godāvarī, and finally merges into the Eastern Ghāṭs.

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We have next a spur of the Sahyādris known as the Jālna Hills that extends from the Devagiri or Daulatābād fort to Jālna and then proceeds to Berār. It formed apparently the boundary-line between the ancient janapadas of Bhogavardhana (Bhokardan) and Mūlaka (district round Paiṭhān). It skirts the plateau in one of whose scarps are excavated the famous rock-temples and caves of Ellora.

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A third range, called the Ahmadnagar Hills, of which the Bālāghāṭ chain in the Hyderabad State may be regarded as a continuation, extends from Harischandragaḍh (4,691 ft. above sea-level) on the Sahyādris, to Ahmadnagar and Bhīr and thence to Biloli. It sends off a spur that stretches from Ashti to Gulbarga, forming the watershed between the Godāvarī and the Sīnā, which joins the Bhīmā, the famous northern affluent of the Kṛṣṇa. Pargiter identified it with the Rishyamūka of the Rāmāyaṇa. But this view does not commend itself to all scholars.

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Lastly, we have the Mahādeo Hills which start about ten miles north of Mahābaleshwar and stretch across the whole breadth of the Sātāra District. One of the spurs of this range forms the water-parting between the Kṛṣṇa and its tributary, the Vasnā. To the south of the Mahādeo Hills lay the ancient country of Karahāṭaka, modern Karāḍ, and to its north the famous *vishayas* (districts or *tāluks*) of Pūnaka (Poona) and Paḷayaṭṭhāṇa (Phaḷṭaṇ).

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The series of hills that form the eastern flank of the Deccan plateau and overlook the Bay of Bengal are known as the Eastern Ghāṭs. Under the name of Mahida (Skt. Mahendra) the chain finds mention in the Nāsik eulogy of Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi along with the Sahya (the northern portion of the Western Ghāṭs), Kaṇhagiri (Kṛṣṇagiri), modern Kaṇheri, in the Ṭhāṇa District, and several other hills of the peninsula. It ranks as a *kulaparvata* in the *Purāṇas*, and may be taken to start from Mahendragiri or Mahendrāchala in the Gañjām District and run on to the Kulakkāl Hills, also styled Mahendragiri, in the Tinnevelly District of the Madras Presidency. It does not form an unbroken rampart like the sister range in the west. It is pierced by the Godāvarī, the Kṛṣṇa, and other streams that flow down to the Bay of Bengal. As it runs on to the south in a succession of ranges following the contour of the coast it begins to approach the Sahyādri with which it unites in the knot known as the Nilgiris, the ‘orographical apex’ of the Deccan tableland. The union, however, takes place far beyond the Tuṅgabhadrā-Kṛṣṇa river which marks the southern boundary of our Deccan. Guarding that boundary stand the famous hills of the Raichūr Doāb to which Pargiter applied the name Mālyavat, and other scholars, with greater plausibility, the designation Rishyamūka. But the most famous hill on this frontier lies on the southern side of the Kṛṣṇa, in the Kurnool District of the Madras Presidency. It is the celebrated Śrīśaila mentioned as the southern boundary of the Kākatīya realm of Teliṅgāna in the Hanamkoṇḍa inscription of Rudradeva.

Forests

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The hills and mountains of the Deccan are, especially in the trappean region, often covered with luxuriant vegetation. Primeval forests lie to the east of the Godāvarī. Within the state of Hyderabad vast areas are thickly wooded. It is said of the immense jungle about the Pākhāl Lake in the Waraṅgal District that ‘a squirrel could reach Bhadrāchalam from the neighbourhood of Pākhāl by leaping from tree to tree’. The Malenāḍ, or hill country, near the upper reaches of the Tuṅgabhadrā abounds with ‘giant tree trunks entwined with creepers of pythonic dimensions, whose massive arms are decked with a thousand bright blossoming orchids. Birds of rare plumage flit from bough to bough, bisons and herds of elk browse on rich herbage, and the boom of langur monkeys echoes through the wilds.’ The forests stretching from Bastar along the banks of the Godāvarī to the Seuna country which embraced the Daulatābād area, and part of the Nāsik District, are known from epigraphic records and the Vratakhaṇḍa of Hemādri¹ to be remnants of the famous Daṇḍakāraṇya that covered the face of the valleys of the Godāvarī and the Pampā or the Tuṅgabhadrā in the days of the Rāmāyaṇa. The Cintra Praśasti has a pointed reference to the woodland (vanasthali) on the banks of the Godāvarī. The Tuṅgakāraṇya of the Vana-parva of the Mahābhārata, mentioned after Saptagodāvara,² ‘the seven branches of the Godāvarī’, may have derived its name from the river Tuṅga which rises in the Western Ghāṭs at Gaṅgāmūla in the Varāhaparvata, and unites with the twin stream of the Bhadrā to form the famous Tuṅgabhadrā. In the Sabhāparva of the Great Epic we find mention, in connexion with the southern conquests of Sahadeva, of the Kāntārakas, not far from the banks of the Waingaṅgā (Veṇvātaṭa), probably answering to the Mahākāntāra of the Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudra Gupta. Bāṇa, writing more than two centuries after the court-poet of Samudra Gupta, refers in his Kādambarī to forests and groves girt by the river Godāvarī, and the lotus lake called Pampā. Yuan Chwang, the Chinese contemporary of Bāṇa, speaks of a jungle infested by troops of murderous highwaymen between the Draviḍa country and Kung-kan-na-pu-lo or Kung-ta-na-pu-lo in the Kanarese area, and a great forest or wilderness, ravaged by wild beasts and harried by bands of robbers, on the way from the last-mentioned country to Mahārāṣṭra. The jungle between Draviḍa and the Kanarese country may be identical with ‘the inaccessible forest stretching to the gates of Śrīparvata’ mentioned in the Taḷagunda inscription of the Kadamba king Kākusthavarman. That between Kung-ta-na-pu-lo and Mahārāṣṭra reminds one of the Mahāṭavi, ‘the great forest’, mentioned by Varāhamihira in his Bṛhat-saṃhitā, between Karṇāṭa and the countries called Chitrakūṭa and Nāsikya (Nāsik).

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¹ Epigraphia Indica, xii, 246; Bhandarkar, EHD, (1928), 247.

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² It may have reference to the ‘seven streams’ of the Godāvarī or to the sapta-Godāvarī pool at Drākshārāma in the Rāmachandrapuram Tāluk of the East Godāvari District. Ep. Ind., xii, 208.

Lakes

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For a territory of the dimensions of the Deccan the number of lakes is not large. Two lakes, namely the Lake of the Five Nymphs (pañchāpsarotaṭaka), associated with Māṇḍakarṇi or Śātakarṇi,³ and the Pampāsaras, apparently the same as Pampāsāgara, the name of which survives in Hampasāgar in the Hūvinahadagalli tāluk, Bellāry District, on the Tuṅgabhadrā, are mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa. A great lake (mahātaras) in Veṅgi-maṇḍala is mentioned in the Chellūr Plates of Kulottuṅga-Choḍa-deva II¹ and apparently also in the Pīthāpuram inscription of Pṛthvīśvara.² Kielhorn identifies it, as well as the jalam Kaunālam,³ ‘the water of Kunāla’, with the well-known Kolleru or Colair Lake between the rivers Godāvarī and Kṛṣṇā. The lagoon known as the Chilkā Lake (Chilkā-samudra)⁴ and that styled Pulicat lie outside the boundaries of our Deccan. But within the boundaries of the Hyderabad State and elsewhere we have a number of pools artificially dammed up for irrigation and water supply. The most important are the Pākhāl and Rāmappā Lakes in the Waraṅgal District, beside a large number of sāgars or tanks of immense size constructed in the time of the Quṭbshāhī kings and their successors belonging to the house of Aṣaf Jāh. The Pākhāl Lake was built by throwing a dam across the Pākhāl river which here cuts its way between two hills. The great sheet of water covers an area of nearly thirteen square miles. From the lake flows the river Muner, possibly the Maudgalya of a Gārla inscription, which flows into the river Kṛṣṇā. The Rāmappā Lake in the Parkāl tāluk of Karimnagar is famous for the temples that adorn its neighbourhood. They are of the same type as the great temple at Hanamkoṇḍa but more profusely sculptured.

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³ Rāmāyaṇa, iii, 11; Raghuvamśa, xiii, 38.

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¹ Indian Antiquary, xiv, 57; Ep. Ind., vi, 3.

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² Ibid., iv, 51.

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³ Ibid., vi, 6.

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⁴ Ibid., v, 56.

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In the Bombay Presidency the kuṇḍs or holy pools in the bed of the Godāvarī near Nāsik do not deserve the name of lakes. We have in Ahmadnagar the Bhātadi lake on a feeder of the Sinā which is itself an affluent of the Bhīmā. In the Sholāpur District we have a number of artificial lakes at Koregāon, Ashti (near Paṇḍharpur), and Ekruk, only five miles from Sholāpur town.

Rivers

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As the Deccan plateau slopes down eastwards to the Madras seaboard from the long flanking wall of the Western Ghāṭs, all the drainage is from the west to the east. The two main lines of drainage are represented by two great river systems, namely the Godāvarī with its sister streams, and the Kṛṣṇā with its confluents.

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The word Godāvarī literally means ‘granting water or kine’. Crooke thinks that the name is probably a sanskritized form of the original Dravidian term ‘goda’ (Telugu gode), ‘limit’, ‘boundary’, in the sense that it divided two regions of Dakṣiṇāpatha,⁵ apparently the region of trap in the north and the granitic and calcareous country in the south.

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⁵ Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vi, 306.

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The river ranks high among the sacred streams of India. The people of the south call it Gaṅgā or Gautamī Gaṅgā and regard it as equal in holiness to the Bhāgīrathī Gaṅgā that flows through Āryāvarta. A Gautamī-māhātmya forms part of the *Brahma-purāṇa* and testifies to its great sanctity. One of its sources springs from a hill behind the holy spot of Trimbak, Skt. *Tryambaka*, named after the god Śiva. It lies in the Nāsik District about fifty miles from the shore of the Arabian Sea. Here is shown the *Gomukha*, ‘cow’s mouth’, where the water drips from a lofty cliff through a stone cow’s mouth. A larger branch takes its rise in the ridge that joins the Trimbak and Brahma mountains. After passing the holy precincts of Trimbak the river cuts a deep rocky bed through the Ghāṭmātha (hill-top) country and leaps into the famous falls of Gaṅgāpur. It then flows past the sacred city of Nāsik—identified with the Pañchavaṭī of epic tradition—through a succession of masonry pools, styled *kuṇḍs*, much used in ceremonial ablutions. It receives several affluents such as the Kādravā (Kadwā) and the Pravarā before it reaches Paiṭhaṇ, ‘the royal seat’ of Pulumāyi in the second century A.D. It then runs right across the state of Hyderabad receiving on its left bank the Pūrṇā, and on the right the Māñjrā, the Vañjarā of the *Brahma* and Vañjulā of the *Matsya* and *Vāyu Purāṇas*, which forms part of the boundary line between the Marāṭha country and the land of the Telugus. Farther on it is joined by the Prānhitā which conveys the united waters of the Peṅgaṅgā, the Wardhā (Varadā), and the Waingaṅgā (Veṇvā). From this point the river takes a marked south-easterly bend dividing the ancient realm of Chakrakūṭa (Bastar) from Andhra or Teliṅgāna of which Anmakoṇḍa (Hanamkoṇḍa) was the ornament (*Andhrāvanimaṇḍana*). About thirty miles below the confluence of the Prānhitā the Godāvarī receives the Indravatī from the Bastar State. It then passes by Bhadrāchalam, sacred to the memory of the hero of the *Rāmāyaṇa*, and is next joined by the Śabarī, which probably takes its name from one of the primitive tribes mentioned as early as the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*. The river now forces its way through the Eastern Ghāṭs and, flowing past Rājahmundry (Rājamahendrapaṭṭaṇa), opens out and forms a series of broad reaches studded with low alluvial islands styled *laṅkās*. The sea is reached by seven branches¹ (*sapta-Godāvarī*) styled the Vāsisṭhī (on the west), Vaiśvāmitrī, Vāmadevī, Gautamī, Bhāradvājī, Ātreyī, and Jāmadagnī. The chief sanctity attaches to the Gautamī branch on the east.

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¹ *Brahma Purāṇa*, ch. 173. 3-4; *Ep. Ind.*, xii, 216, ‘he reverenced the holy Bhīmeśvara, passing close to whom the Godāvarī, with dancing waves as her eye-brows, sings (his praises) with the seven notes of her (seven) streams’. The reference is to the famous shrine of Bhīmeśvara (Śiva) at Drākshārāma which now stands on a canal fourteen miles away from the river.

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The Kṛishṇā, literally ‘of black hue’, probably derives its name from the black soil, *kṛishṇabhūmi*, *kare-nāḍu*, which it moistens with its water. It takes its rise about forty miles from the Arabian Sea on the eastern brow of the Mahābaleshwar plateau. The source is situated nearly thirty-three miles north-west of Sātāra on a spur of the Sahyādri. Hence it is often referred to in epigraphic records as Sahyajā or Sahyaputrī. The stream pours out of a stone cow’s mouth into a small reservoir inside an ancient shrine of Śiva.

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The Kṛṣṇā is in length less than the Godāvarī, being about 800 miles, as compared with about 900 miles of the Godāvarī. But the area of its catchment basin, including that of its great tributaries the Bhīmā and the Tuṅgabhadrā, is almost as large as that of the more famous stream, being about 95,000 square miles as compared with 112,000 square miles of the Godāvarī.

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The river runs east and south and then curves to the south-east. It receives the Veṇā or Yenna at Māhuli, about three miles to the east of Sātāra. It next flows past Karāḍ, the heretical Karahāṭaka of the Mahābhārata, where it receives the Koinā on its right bank. About three miles south of Sānglī it is joined by the Varṇā (Varṇā). From its confluence with the Veṇā and apparently also with the Varṇā it derives the different forms of its name, Kaṇhabemṇā, Kṛṣṇaveṇṇā, Kṛṣṇabeṇṇā, Kṛṣṇaveṇā, Kṛṣṇaveṇī, Kṛṣṇaverṇā, and Kṛṣṇavarṇā. Sometimes the full appellation is replaced by Veṇā and Veṇī. In the Purāṇas we meet with the forms Veṇikā and Kṛṣṇaveṇikā.

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In the Bījāpur District two streams from the Western Ghāṭs, the Ghāṭ-prabhā and the Malprabhā, famous in history, join the Kṛṣṇā whose water rushes from rock to rock shooting columns of spray high into the air and leaping into wild pools at the feet of gorges. On reaching the state of Hyderabad the river drops from the tableland through which it had forced its way down to the celebrated doābs of Shorāpur and Raichūr. The first of these is formed by its junction with the Bhīmā which rises in the Sahyādri near the temple of Bhīmāśaṅkar in the Poona District, and flows past the holy city of Paṇḍharpur. Among its feeders are the Indrāyani which runs past Dehū, sacred to Tukārām, and Ālandi, home of Jñāneśvara, the Mulā-muthā on which stands Poona, the Nira which laves the spur crowned by Torna in the Bhor State, the Sinā which passes by Ahmadnagar, and the Kāgnā which once flowed past the famous metropolis of Mānyakheṭa. The Raichūr Doāb is formed by the confluence of the Kṛṣṇā with the Tuṅgabhadrā, ‘the Gaṅgā of the South’.¹ The junction takes place not far from Ālampur, possibly identical with Halampura of an early Prakrit inscription found at Gurzāla. The Tuṅgabhadrā is formed by the union of the twin streams, the Tuṅga and the Bhadrā which rise at Gaṅgāmūla in the Varāhaparvata near the frontier of the Kaḍūr District, Mysore. The Tuṅga passes by Śṛingeri (Rishyaśṛiṅga-giri), and after junction with the Bhadrā flows past Harihar, Hampi (which represents the ancient Pampā-kshetra and marks the site of Vijayanagar), Anegundi (Kuñjarakoṇa, the elephant corner of ancient geographers), and Ālampur, and unites with the Kṛṣṇā a little distance from the last-mentioned city. With its water swollen by the Tuṅgabhadrā, the Kṛṣṇā runs past the famous Śrīsailam where it seems to be known as Pātāla-gaṅgā,² and receives on the way the Musī, the river of Hyderabad, and the Muner (Maudgalya) which comes from the Pākhāl Lake. Flowing through the classic land between the cities of Dhānyakaṭaka-Amarāvatī and Vijayavāṭikā (Bezwāḍa) it enters the sea by two principal mouths, forming a wide delta.

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¹ Indian Antiquary, v, 319.

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² Ep. Ind., iv, 319.

Effect of Physical Features upon History

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The history of a country is in large measure influenced by its geography. In the Deccan physical features—the mountains, forests, and river systems—made themselves pre-eminently felt. The hills and jungles on the north fenced the entire region off from the Indo-Gangetic plain and tended to constitute it a world by itself with distinct social, ethnic, and cultural traits, as evidenced by the Dharmasūtra of Bodhāyana, the Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata, and the Harṣacharita of Bāṇa.¹ But they could not render it completely impervious to northern influence. Neither the paucity of highways nor the perils of the journey prevented peaceful monks and pious missionaries from braving the dangers of the wild and carrying their message of peace and righteous conduct to the Deccan for the moral and spiritual uplift of the people. Nor did these obstacles stand in the way of caravan leaders and merchants coming to the south in quest of wealth. Waves of invasion, too, at times swept through forests and mountains, along the glens and passes that pierced the rampart of hills overlooking the Godāvarī and its affluents.

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¹ Bodh. Dh. S. i, 1, 17-19; 21, 29-31; Nāṭya S. vi, 25; xxiii, 102; H.C., Introductory Verse, 7. Cf. Daṇḍin, Kāvyādarśa, i, 34 and 40 ff.

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The Sahyādris, which rise out of the west coast in sheer lofty scarps, and throw off numerous spurs towards the centre of the plateau, the rivers that lash themselves to fury during the monsoons, the impenetrable forests that clothe many of the mountains, and cover the face of many a river valley at various points, were calculated to cleave the country into countless minute political fragments whose kaleidoscopic changes and combinations it was difficult to check. Walls of rock that crown many of the hill-tops were easily turned into impregnable fortresses hurling defiance at any authority attempting to establish control over the three seas (ti-samuda, ambudhitraya) that enclosed the peninsula. But the vast tableland with its mineral and agricultural wealth, augmented by a thriving commerce through the ports lining the eastern and western seaboards, did at times become seats of empires rivalling in power and splendour the famous monarchies in the Indo-Gangetic plain. Time and again waves of invasion from the north beat in vain against the bastions of rock and the impenetrable forest barriers guarding the approaches to the valleys of the Narmadā and the Godāvarī. The Raichūr doāb in the south, the Eḍedorenāḍ of ancient inscriptions,² and the ‘two-rivers district’ (sindhuyugmāntara-deśa) in the south-east, unprotected by a continuous and unbroken screen of hills and forests, were more vulnerable to attack than parts of the north, and were often drenched in blood when contending forces on either side of the Tuṅgabhadrā and the Kṛṣṇā were locked in deadly combat. But strongholds like Koppal, Ānegundi, Mudgal, Raichūr, Devarakoṇḍa, and Nalgonda stood as ramparts against a sudden rush of invasion. Secure in his ring of rock the *Dakshiṇāpathapati*, ‘sovereign of the Deccan’ took his rank among the greatest rulers of the world, and adorned the country with magnificent temples, in the beginning hewn out in rock and bedecked with splendid paintings and sculpture which to this day are the pride of the land.

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² Ep. Ind., xii, 295.

II. The Deccan in Scriptural and Epic Tradition

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THE geographical area we have defined above as Dakshiṇāpatha seems to be outside the horizon of the early Vedic singers. An expression, Dakshiṇāpadā, ‘with southward foot’, occurs in a *Rig Vedic* hymn. But its exact connotation is unknown. The absence of any reference to recognizable tribes, rivers, and mountains of the Deccan proper makes it extremely unlikely that we have here a vague allusion to the region watered by the Godāvarī and the Kṛishṇā. The *Kāthaka Saṃhitā* mentions the Kuntis whom epic tradition places on the Aśva-nadī, probably the Asan, a tributary of the Chambal. But the country that lay farther to the south does not appear to have been known. Some scholars find a reference to the Revā or Narmadā in the name Revottaras Chākra Pātava Sthapati given to a Śriñjaya official in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*. But the interpretation of Revottaras as ‘living to the north of the Revā’ is open to doubt. No reference to the Godāvarī, Kṛishṇā, or any of their confluents, has been traced in any early Vedic text.

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The *dakshiṇaparvata* of the *Kaushitaki Upanishad* may indeed have reference to the Vindhyas, but cannot possibly intend the Sahya or the Mahendra. The *Purāṇas* place in the Vindhyan region a tribe called Nishadhas who are apparently alluded to in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* under the cognomen Naishadha. But the peoples in the Marāṭhā and Telugu districts are not mentioned in that text.

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The case is different with another Vedic work, namely, the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*. That treatise mentions the *dakshiṇā diś*, southern region, beyond the Kuru-Pañchāla country, that is, beyond the Chambal which, according to the tradition recorded in the *Mahābhārata*, marked the southern boundary of Pañchāla. The region in question was under the sway of ‘Bhoja’ kings. From the age of the epics and the *Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra*, Bhojas are located in the Deccan and are especially associated with Vidarbha in the valley of the Wardhā, and Daṇḍaka skirted by the Godāvarī. The Bhojas of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* may have been in the same areas. The clear reference to king Bhīma of Vidarbha in the *Brāhmaṇa* strengthens this conclusion. The country in question is, in the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa*, noted for its dogs which killed even tigers. It is interesting to recall in this connexion that packs of wild dogs in the Yeotmal district of Berār, ancient Vidarbha, are known to have mauled a panther even in recent times.¹ The name of Kuṇḍina, the capital of Vidarbha in epic times, probably accounts for the designation Kauṇḍinya applied to certain Vidarbhan teachers in the *Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upanishad*.

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¹ Yeotmal Dist. Gaz., p. 11.

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It is difficult to say whether the Nichyas and Apāchyas placed in the western region by the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* have anything to do with the western part of peninsular India. In the days of Aśoka, the third century B.C., the name Nicham was applied to potentates in the farther south like the ‘Kerala-putra’.

Tribes Outside the Aryan Pale

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Besides the Vidarbhas and possibly other peoples who came under Aryan cultural influence, the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* refers to a number of tribesmen whom it styles *Udāntyaḥ*, ‘beyond the borders’ (of Aryandom), and *Dasyus*. These are the Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śavaras, Pulindas, and Mūtibas, who are met with in the valleys of the lower Ganges, the Narmadā, the Godāvarī with its affluents, and the Kṛṣṇā in historic times.

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The Andhras occupied the lower valley of the Godāvarī and the Kṛṣṇā. But a small section of them may have lived near the Vidarbhas, as a people called ‘Andhs’ are found in the Buldāna District. The classic land of the Puṇḍras is in northern Bengal. But Pauṇḍrakas are also associated with the Buldāna District.¹ The Śavaras are probably to be located in the wild regions between the Vindhya and the river Śavarī, a tributary of the Godāvarī. The Pulindas were on the Revā or the Narmadā. The Mūtibas recall the Modubae of Pliny, who places them along with the Andarae or Andhras and peoples in the vicinity of the alluvial islands at the mouth of the Ganges. The Modubae are associated with the Molindae and the Uberae, perhaps corresponding to the Pulindas and the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*.

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¹ Buldana Dist. Gaz., pp. 107-8, 147.

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Some of the *Dasyu* tribes, e.g. the Andhras, were apparently Dravidians. Others may have had a Polynesian strain. This Sylvain Lévi infers from the existence of pairs of ethnic names applied to neighbouring peoples (e.g. Kosala and Tosala, Triliṅga and Kaliṅga) which are differentiated by an initial preformant.²

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² Lévi, ‘Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in India’, *Journal Asiatique*, 1923.

Early Post-Vedic Texts

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With the close of the Vedic canon and the commencement of the *Sūtra* literature of the Brāhmanical Hindus as well as that of the Jains and Buddhists, we enter upon a period when references and allusions to tribes and localities in the Deccan become more definite. For the first time, too, the territorial designation *Dakṣiṇāpatha* finds unambiguous mention. The Bodhāyana *Dharmasūtra*, the Buddhist *Sutta Nipāta* and the *Vinaya* texts refer to *Dakṣiṇāpatha*, and one of the documents definitely locates it on the Godāvarī. The alternative name for the Deccan, *Dākṣiṇātya*, occurs in the *Sūtras* of Pāṇini. The Buddhists include within the Deccan Assaka (Aśmaka) and Mūlaka as well as the Andhakā, or the Andhras, occupying the northern and eastern districts of the Hyderabad State with certain adjacent areas in the Madras Presidency. The Mahāgovinda Suttanta, the Jain Uttarādhyayana Sūtra, and the aphorisms of Pāṇini mention another country, Kaliṅga, which in epic times stretched along the river Vaitaraṇī in Orissa, and may have extended to the borders of the Andhra country. Vast tracts of the southern region were still unexplored. We have definite reference to forests covering the Kaliṅga country (Kaliṅgāraṇya). The region beyond the Godāvarī, watered by the Kṛṣṇā (Kaṇṇapeṇṇā), and the land of the Tamils (Damilaraṭṭha) are not met with in the earliest part of the Pāli canon and occur for the first time in the Jātakas and commentaries. The Jain Aṅgas, e.g. the Bhagavai, which mention the far south, cannot possibly claim a higher antiquity than these texts.

The Epics

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The south of India down to the Pāṇḍyan realm is also recognized in the geographical cantos of the Kiṣkindhyākāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa. Even the Ayodhyākāṇḍa has a reference to Vaijayantapura in the southern region in the direction of Daṇḍaka.¹ The city in question certainly recalls the ancient metropolis of Vaijayantī or Banavāsī in North Kanara. The geographical information obtainable from the Araṇyakāṇḍa or Forest Book of the same epic is somewhat different. The whole region from the Pampā, or the Tuṅgabhadrā, to the Mandākinī and Chitrakūṭa in central India was infested by rākṣasas or cannibalistic demons who played havoc with peaceful hermits. With the exception of exiled princes there is no reference to representatives of any civilized state in the neighbourhood to whom the victims could appeal for protection. The territory is referred to as Daṇḍaka or Daṇḍakāraṇya (Daṇḍaka Forest). According to Pargiter Daṇḍaka appears to have been a general name which comprised all the forests from Bundelkhand down to the river Kṛṣṇā. Northwards it must have stretched well up to the Jumna. In the forest at Chitrakūṭa the attention of the heroine was drawn to the trees scored by the tusks of elephants. ‘This natural touch, unless we put it aside as a mere fancy of the poet, must refer to wild elephants, and shows that Chitrakūṭa could not have been far from their dense native forests.’ We have already seen that writers of a later age connect the Daṇḍakāraṇya with Bastar in the east and the upper reaches of the Godāvarī in the west. Different parts of the great forest were known under separate names—Madhukavana in the extreme north contiguous to the wooded region round Chitrakūṭa in central India; and following this Pippalivana near the cottage of Agastya’s brother; Pañchavaṭī ‘abounding in beasts of prey and other animals’ (nānāvyālamṛgākulā)

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¹ ii, 9, 12, Dilāmārthāya Kaikeyī dakṣiṇāṃ Daṇḍakān prati Vaijayantamiti khyātaṃ puraṃ yatra Timidhvajaḥ.

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near the Godāvarī; Janasthāna, the headquarters of Rākshasa chieftains, is in the neighbourhood; Krauñchāraṇya is to the south of Janasthāna; and Mātaṅgavana on the Pampā (Tuṅgabhadrā) is in the vicinity of Mount Rishyamūka.

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The poet of the Rāmāyaṇa is aware of the existence of many rivers and lakes in the Daṇḍaka region and its environs, but the only streams that find specific mention in the epic proper are the Mandākinī, the Godāvarī, and the Pampā. The comparatively late geographical cantos of the Kishkindhyākāṇḍa refer to the Kṛishṇaveṇī (Kṛishṇā) along with the Narmadā, the Godāvarī, the Kāverī, and the Tāmraparṇī (in the Tinnevelly district).

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The Mahābhārata has detailed notices of the Deccan in the Digvijaya (conquest of the quarters), Tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage), and Jambukhaṇḍa (divisions of Greater India) sections. The country is also mentioned in numerous episodes like those of Nala and Rukmi. A Kaliṅga princess appears as the queen of Duryodhana, king of the Kurus. A prince of Vidarbha named Rukmi is not allowed to take part in the battle of Kurukshetra, but his people figure in the ‘Battle Books’ as do other tribes like the Kaliṅgas, Mekalas, Traipuras, and clans coming under the general designation of Dākshiṇātyas.

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Vast areas in the interior were still covered with dense woods. Dwellers of the primeval forests stretching from the Narmadā to the Waingaṅgā are probably noticed as Āṭavikas and Kāntārakas in the Digvijaya section of the Sabhāparva. In the same cantos and in certain passages of the Tīrtha-Yātrā section mention is made of Purushādas (man-eaters) and Kālamukhas who are described as cannibals (nara-rākshasa-yoṇayaḥ). More civilized communities were found on the fringe of the forest tracts and along the coasts. In the watershed (prabheda) between the river Son and the Narmadā lived the Vamsa-gulmas or Vatsagulmas who are associated in later ages with the valley of the Peṅgaṅgā. On the east coast stretched the lands of the Kaliṅgas and the Andhras. On the west coast (Aparānta) mention is made of the country and holy spot of Śūrpāraka associated with the legend of Rāma Jāmadagnya (Paraśurāma). It is interesting to note that the Mahendra Range, not far from the eastern coastline, is also connected with the same Warrior-sage. In the interior of the table-land the city of Sañjayantī (Sañjān?), the ‘heretical’ Karahāṭaka or Karhāḍ, Kollagiri, and Banavāsi (in north Kanara) are conspicuous. Aśmaka, Goparāṣṭra (in Nāsik), Kauṅkaṇa (between the ghāṭs and the sea), Karṇāṭaka and Kuntala (in the Kanarese country), and Mahishaka (possibly Mysore) are met with in comparatively late passages in the Ādiparva and the Jambukhaṇḍa of the Bhīshmaparva.

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The Deccan in the age of the extant Mahābhārata was no longer beyond the pale of Brāhmanical civilization as it seems to have been in the days of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa and the Bodhāyana Dharmasūtra. The land between the Son and the Narmadā was holy, and the people of the Kuru country recognized the sanctity of the Godāvarī, the point where it split up into seven branches (sapta-Godāvara), and the places where many of its confluents united their streams (Veṇā saṅgama, Varāda saṅgama). The Bhīmā (Bhīmarathī) was also holy as well as the Kṛṣṇā, particularly at the Devahrada (divine pool)¹ and at Śrīśaila (Śrīparvata). Among other holy spots were Rāmatīrtha at Śūrpāraka and Gokarṇa (in north Kanara). Many of the sacred sites were associated with three heroes famous in legend, namely, Rāma Dāśarathi who lent sanctity to the Godāvarī, Rāma Jāmadagnya who sanctified the Mahendra mountain and Śūrpāraka (Sopārā, north of Bombay), and Agastya, the traditional explorer of the southern region and the destroyer of the demons who seem to personify Vātāpi (Bādāmi) and Ilvala (Ayyāvoḷe or Aihoḷe).

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¹ Mbh., iii, 85, 37—Tato Devahrade ramye Kṛṣṇa-veṇā jalodbhave.

Foreign Notices down to the Second Century A.D.

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If we omit the obscure allusions in the Bible to Ophir or Sophir which Cunningham seems to place on the Gulf of Cambay, but which really may point to Sauvīra or Sovīra in the lower Indus valley, the Persians and Greeks are the earliest foreign peoples to leave accounts of India. But the Achaemenid inscriptions of Persia (sixth and fifth centuries B.C.) and the contemporaneous works of early Greek writers like Hekataios and Herodotus, while showing acquaintance with Gandhāra and the Indus valley as far as the desert of Rājputāna, do not seem to make any clear mention of the region south of the Tapti valley. Some of the ‘wool-bearing’ trees that figure in the narrative of Herodotus may have reference to the silk cotton trees so graphically described by Bāṇa in his *Kādambarī* in connexion with the forest stretching from the Godāvarī to the Pampā. But this is not a necessary inference. Onesikritos, the pilot of Alexander (325 B.C.), mentions the island of Taprobane (Tāmraparṇī, Ceylon) and was presumably acquainted with portions of southern India. Megasthenes is quoted by Arrian as conveying detailed information about the Indus and the Ganges with their tributaries. No notice, however, is taken of the rivers of the Deccan unless we find a reference to the Tuṅgaveṇā or the Tuṅgabhadrā in the river ‘Tagabena’ mentioned in a doubtful fragment.² A knowledge of the Far South of India on the part of Megasthenes may, however, be inferred from his allusions to that part of south India where the daughter of Herakles (Pandaia) reigned as queen. We have also a reference to pearl fishery, apparently in this region.³ There can hardly be any doubt that the realm of the ‘Pandae’ (Pāṇḍyas) in the Far South was known to the famous Greek ambassador. But if he knew anything about the tribes or rivers of the Deccan proper the information has not been transmitted to us by his epitomizers.

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² McCrindle, *Megasthenes and Arrian* (1926), p. 120.

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³ Ibid., 207.

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Some additional details are available from Pliny (died A.D. 79) who speaks of several tribes known to have lived in the Deccan proper. Among these must be included the Asmagi (Aśmakas on the Godāvarī), the Calingae ‘nearest the sea’ (doubtless identical with the Kaliṅgas of the eastern coast), the Andarae or the Andhras, occupying the deltas of the Godāvarī, and the Kṛṣṇā, the Molindae, Uberae, Suari, and Modubae probably corresponding to the Pulindas, Śavaras, and the Mutibas of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa.

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We have some important details about the Andhras and the Kaliṅgas. The first-mentioned people are described as a powerful race, which possesses numerous villages, and thirty towns defended by walls and towers, and which supplies its king with an army of 100,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 1,000 elephants.

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As to the Kaliṅgas they seem to have been divided into several branches. The Calingae proper, who probably constituted the main branch, were ‘nearest the sea’, that is to say, they dwelt in the coastal region as we learn from Indian evidence. The windows of the capital city in the days of Kālidāsa looked out on the sea, and the deep roar of the waves drowned the sound of trumpets. One passage of Pliny includes them among the tribes ‘which dwell by the Ganges’. Another passage has been taken to mean that they were connected with the Gangaridae of lower Bengal. But Monahan points out that an alternative reading would make the Gangaridae and the Kaliṅga people quite distinct. Pliny may also have confounded the valley of the Bhāgīrathī Gaṅgā in northern India with that of the Gautamī Gaṅgā or the Godāvarī.

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The royal city of the Calingae is styled Parthalis which probably answers to the city of Potali mentioned in the Assaka Jātaka as the capital of Assaka (Aśmaka). The Chulla-Kaliṅga Jātaka refers to victories won by the Assakas over the Kaliṅgas which may have led to the foundation of a united realm with its capital at Potali. Besides the capital, Pliny mentions a Cape Calingon, and the town of Dandagula which doubtless corresponds to the Dantakūra of the Mahābhārata and Dantapura of other texts. Dandagula is mentioned as lying 625 miles from the mouth of the Ganges. It has been identified with a place near Chicacole near the mouth of the river Lāṅguliyā.

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Besides the Calingae proper Pliny mentions the Maccocalingae and the Modogalingae. In the epics, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, we find references to the Matsya-Kaliṅgas and the Madra-Kaliṅgas¹ which may represent the two tribes mentioned by the classical writer. It has, however, been suggested by some² that Modogalingae should be analysed as Modaga (Telugu Mūḍuga, three)+linga = Triliṅga or Telugu country, or as Modo = Mūḍu = three+galiṅga = Kaliṅga, i.e. Trikaliṅga. In other words the term is taken by these writers to correspond to Triliṅga (Andhra country), or to Trikaliṅga (parts of Mahānadī valley and Vizagapatam district), preferably the latter. It is difficult to come to a final conclusion until further evidence shall be forthcoming. The Matsya-Kalingas may have occupied the Oḍḍavādi country in the Vijagapatam region mentioned in the Dibbida plates.¹

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¹ Rāmāyaṇa, iv, 41, 10; Jambukhaṇḍa, ix, 42; Maccocalinga is something taken to be equivalent to Mekala (JBORS, 1928, 540).

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² Lévi, Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in India (trans. Bagchi), p. 79.

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¹ Ep. Ind., v, 108.

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Evidence of a commercial connexion between the islanders of Ceylon and the ‘Kalingai’ is furnished by another classical writer.²

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² McCrindle, op. cit. 175.

v1.c6.s5.t4.14

A distinct advance in knowledge of the coast of the Deccan is noticeable in the *Periplus of the Erythrean Sea*, the work of an anonymous Greek navigator, which is almost contemporaneous with the work of Pliny. It knows the regional name ‘Dachinabades’ (*Dakṣiṇāpatha*) and mentions numerous market-towns on the western seaboard of the Deccan. The inland country is also described though not so fully as the coast. We find reference to the great cities of ‘Paethana’ and Tagara identified respectively with Paiṭhaṇ on the banks of the Godāvarī in the Aurangābād district of the Hyderabad State, and Ter (Thair) in Osmānābād district, about ninety-five miles south-east of Paiṭhaṇ. Mention is also made of many arid regions and great mountains and all kinds of wild beasts—leopards, tigers, elephants, enormous serpents, hyenas, and baboons of many sorts. This reference to the animals possibly points to the existence of extensive forest-tracts in the Deccan during the first century A.D.

v1.c6.s5.t4.15

The great mountains referred to by the *Periplus* are not specifically named. For these we have to turn to the ‘Outline of Geography’ (*Geographike Huphegesis*) of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) written about the middle of the second century A.D. We have in this work allusions to the Oroudian (Vaidurya, apparently the northern part of the Sahya) and the Adeisathros (south Sahyādri—a case of metathesis) mountains, sources respectively of the Maisolos (the Kṛṣṇā) and the Khaberos or the Kāveri. It is clear that we have here reference to parts of the Western Ghāṭs and some connected ranges. Ptolemy, however, had no first-hand information of the country. He mentions the Goaris and the Benda, apparently the Godāvarī and the Bhīmā,³ bifurcations of a river styled the Nanagouna, apparently the Taptī, which is represented as taking its rise from the Ouindion or Vindhya range along with the Namados or the Narmadā. Ptolemy also wrongly represents the Western Ghāṭs as protruding into the interior of the country, instead of running parallel with the coast. He not only shortens and dislocates the Godāvarī and the Bhīmā but makes them flow in a direction different from that which should properly be assigned to them.

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