The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s8.9

v1.c6.s8.9

Some of these cities are also known to the early Pāli texts. We have, moreover, references in these works to Paṭiṭṭhāna or Pratiṣṭhāna which was situated on the way from the banks of the Godāvarī to Northern India. It corresponded with the Paethana of the Periplus and the Baithana of Ptolemy, ‘the royal seat of Siro Ptolemaios’, doubtless identical with Vāśiṣṭhīputra Śrī Pulumāyi. The Mahābhārata knows a Pratiṣṭhāna, but this is probably to be identified with the city of the same name near Allāhābād, and not with the city of Paiṭhaṇ on the Godāvarī in the Aurangābād district of the Hyderabad State. In the Rāṣṭrakūṭa period this city seems to have enjoyed some importance as the headquarters of a bhukti or subdistrict.