The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s8.17

v1.c6.s8.17

Vaijayantī-Vanavāsi has already been referred to above in connexion with the geographical data of the Rāmāyaṇa. The name Vanavāsi is spelt in different ways. According to Kittel the etymology is vana (bana) = ‘a forest’, and Kanarese basi or base = ‘a spring’. The Sanskrit form ‘Vanavāsa’ is taken to mean ’settlement in the forest’ (of the Pāṇḍava brothers). Dhānyakaṭaka, too, is spelt in epigraphic records in various ways. We have the forms Dhamnakaṭa, Dhamṇakaṭaka, or more simply Kaḍaka, Dhānyaghaṭa, Dhānyaghaṭaka, Dhānyaghāti, and Śridhānyāṅkapura. Yuan Chwang calls it T'ê-na-ka-che-ka. The district round the city is called Andhrāpatha in an early Pallava charter and Konnātavāḍi-vishaya in the Yenamaḍala inscription of Gaṇapāmbā. It is also sometimes referred to as ‘Kṛiṣhṇaverṇṇā-nadī-dakshiṇa-shaṭsahasrāvanī’, ‘country of six thousand villages on the southern bank of the Kṛiṣhṇā river’. The city which formed its heart and centre was adorned by the shrine of Amareśvara whose beauty was enhanced by the golden pinnacles with which it was endowed in medieval times. The names Dhānyāṅkapura and Amareśvara possibly survive in the present Dharaṇikoṭa and Amarāvati in the Sattanapalle tāluk between the Kṛiṣhṇā river and Guṇṭūr town.