The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s8.14

v1.c6.s8.14

The Hāthīgumphā inscription of Khāravela, king of Kaliṅga, who ruled in the second or first century B.C., mentions Asika-nagara (or, according to an alternative reading, Musika-nagara) on the Kaṇhabemṇā, i.e. the Kṛṣṇā, and also Pithuḍa, identified by Sylvain Lévi with Pihuṇḍa of the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra and the Pityndra metropolis of Ptolemy, in the country of Masalia or Maisolia, that is, the Andhra country round Masulipatam. The exact location of the city is uncertain. But Pityndra possibly did not lie very far from Vijayapurī of the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa inscription, Amarāvatī and Bezwāḍa in the heart of the ancient Andhrāpatha.