The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s8.6

v1.c6.s8.6

The *Mahābhārata* knows the city of Śūrpāraka and the famous place of pilgrimage styled Rāmatīrtha, both of which figure in the inscriptions of Uṣavadāta. Under the name of Suppara or Souppara it is known to Greek writers, and is mentioned along with Calliena or Kalyāṇa in the Ṭhāṇa District. The early Pāli texts refer to a brisk trade between Suppāraka and Suvarṇabhūmi, that is to say, Lower Burma and the Malay Islands. Alberunī, who refers to it as Sūbāra, testifies to its survival till the eleventh century. A Śilāhāra record of A.D. 1095 refers to tolls on carts coming into Sthānaka (Thāṇa), Nāgapura (Nāgāon near Alibāg), Śūrpāraka, Chemūli (Chaul, the Semylla of the Periplus and Simylla of Ptolemy), and other seaports in the Koṅkaṇ fourteen hundred (district). Śūrpāraka is now represented by Sopāra near Bassein, a few miles to the north of Bombay.