The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s5.t2: Early Post-Vedic Texts

v1.c6.s5.t2.1

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.