The Geography of the Puranas c11.s4: IV. The Eastern Janapadas

The Geography of the Purāṇas c11.s4

Language: English

IV. The Eastern Janapadas

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The ‘Prācya’ or ‘Eastern Country’ of the Purāṇas may be broadly defined as the basins of the lower Gaṅgā and Brahmaputra rivers. The western boundary of this major region may be taken roughly as the course of the river Gaṇḍak from the Himalayan foothills to its confluence with the Gaṅgā; then along the river Son from its mouth, which was formerly near Patna, to the latitude of Rohtas. Thereafter it followed the crest of the Hazaribagh plateau across Bihar and then continued along the south-western boundary of the present State of West Bengal to the sea.

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The entire ‘Eastern Country’ barring the hilly fringe is essentially a level plain on which innumerable streams wander along ill-defined courses in all directions. There has been a progressive eastward shift of the Gaṅgā water from a main outlet, Bhāgīrathī-Hooghly along the western margins of this alluvial plain to the present main course, the Padmā-Meghnā, with such streams as the Ichamati, Jalangi, Matabhanga, Gorai representing intermediate (not necessarily successive) positions of the most important channel. Thus there is a contrast between the decayed western deltaic alluvium scarred with silted or stagnant bhils, the ‘remains’ of dead rivers and the active eastern deltaic alluvium where the mass of water and silt brought by the rivers is still building the delta. Old traditions and Ptolemy’s observations show that the Bhāgīrathī was the main outlet of the Gaṅgā even as late as the early centuries of the Christian era.

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The ‘Eastern Country’ as defined above may be conveniently divided into the following natural regions:

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(a) The Middle Gangetic Valley. This may be further subdivided into two regions:

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(i) The region north of the Ganges between the Rapti and the Kośī;

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(ii) The region south of the Gaṅgā, between the Son (in the west and the spurs of the Rājmahāl hills, which touch the Gaṅgā near Rājmahāl town and round which the Gaṅgā turns abruptly towards the south (in the east), the Gaṅgā in the north and the Rājmahāl hills in the south.

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(b) The Kośī-Gaṅgā and Brahmaputra-Yamunā Doāb watered by the streams flowing down the Himālayas. The usual flat surface of this region is broken near its centre by a stretch of low hills called the Barind, covered with brushwood jungle—the remain of a former forest.

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(d) The Gangetic Delta proper between Bhāgīrathī-Hooghli, Gaṅgā-Padmā and the sea.

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(e) The Western Margin consisting of:

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(i) The piedmont plain between the Bhāgīrathī-Hooghly axis and the Peninsular block on the west;

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(ii) The Contai Coastal Plain.

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(f) The Eastern Margin, i.e., the plain east of the Yamunā-Padmā consisting of:

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(i) The Yamunā-Meghnā Doāb;

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(ii) Plains east of the Meghnā.

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(g) The hilly region between the Rājmahāl and Hazaribagh ranges.

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The Purāṇic janapadas of the Eastern Country very nearly coincided with the regions mentioned above. This is natural since in the early history of the settlement of this area, population distribution was mainly controlled by natural features such as large rivers, thick forests, inhospitable swamps and hills. Centres of population, which formed the nuclei of the later jana padas were bound to occur at suitable spots in the lowlands where there was the least danger of floods, but where the natural features provided facilities for defence and communication.

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In the light of the above observations we shall attempt to determine the location and extent of the different Purāṇic janapadas with reference to the natural regions mentioned above.

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(a) The Janapadas of the Middle Gangetic Valley

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i. North of the Gaṅgā—Malla, Videha

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ii. South of the Gaṅgā—Magadha, Aṅga

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Region (a) (i) north of the Gaṅgā mentioned above, i.e. the Middle Gangetic plain between the Himālayan Terai and the Gaṅgā, the Rapti and the Kośi was occupied by two janapadas. The Malla janapada coincided with the Doāb of the Gaṇḍak and the Rapti-Gaṅgā, while the Videha janapada extended to its east from the Baṇḍak to the Kośi. The capital cities of the Malla janapada were Pawa and Kuśinagar which have been identified by Cunningham with Padrona and Kasia about 35 and 37 miles east of Gorakhpur respectively. The capital city of the Videha janapada was Mithilā about 35 miles north-west of Vaiśālī (modern Basarh in the Muzaffarpur district in Bihar).

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Region (a) (ii) south of the Gaṅgā contained two janapadas. The janapada between the Son (on the west) and the spurs of the Peninsular Block which press against the Gaṅgā at Mukamah (on the east), the Hazirabagh crest (in the south) and the Gaṅgā (in the north) was known as Magadha. The other, to the east of Mokamah spur and west of the Mandargiri Hills and bounded by the Gaṅgā in the north and the Rajmahal Hills in the south was the Aṅga janapada. The capital of the former was Rajgarha (or Rajgir) situated on a terrace of Barabar Hills while that of Aṅga was Campā (near Monghyr) located within a bend of the Gaṅgā which virtually surrounded the city on three sides.

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(b) The Kośi-Gaṅgā and Brahmaputra-Yamunā Doāb

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This triangular region bounded by the Kośi and the Gaṅgā in the west, the Brahmaputra-Yamunā in the east and the Duars on the north is a vast plain diminishing in height from about 300 ft. to 100 ft. above sea-level, scarred by innumerable old river-courses and subject to disastrous floods, especially along the Tistā, which like the Kośi is an exceptionally violent stream. In the heart of this doāb lies the Barind, a large island or terrace of older alluvium. The Barind was formerly covered with thick forest which formed a tongue of the Himalayan forest belt protruding far towards the south. Barind was therefore a huge block of negative tract in the centre of the Doab surrounded by population groups or janapadas between the forest and the bounding rivers.

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*Pundra.* Pundras are associated with the Angas, Vangas, Kalingas and Magadhas, Suhmas, etc., in ancient literature, e.g. the Mahābhārata, Harivamsa and the Purāṇas. Rājaśekhara (*Kāvyamīmāmsa*) places the Pundra country in the east along with Prāgjyotiṣa and Tamralipta. On the authority of Hiuen Tsang's description of Pundravardhana, Cunningham identified its capital with Mahasthan, 7 miles north of the modern town of Bogra. The Pundra country may therefore be identified with that portion of the Gaṅgā-Brahmaputrā Doāb which was bounded by the two Yamunās on the east and west, the Gaṅgā in the south and the ancient Barind forest in the north.

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*Malada.* This janapada corresponded to the tract which extended between the Barind forest and the Gaṅgā and included the present Malda district of Bengal as well as the districts of Rajshahi and west Dinajpur of East Pakistan.

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This corresponds to the Pragjyotisa janapada of the Purāṇas. This was a famous janapada on the fringe of the 'Eastern Country'. According to *Raghuvamsa* this janapada lay evidently north of the Brahmaputra river and therefore probably included the whole belt of alluvial land north of the Brahmaputra from the Tistā eastwards.

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(d) *The Delta Proper*

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The delta proper or the deltaic triangle lies between the Bhāgīrathī-Hooghly (the main outlet of the Gaṅgā in ancient times) and the Padmā. This appears to be coterminous with the Vaṅga country of the Purāṇas. This identification is not only based on regional relationships but is also supported by Ptolemy's account of Gangariddee country and Kālidāsa's *Raghuvamsa* in which he describes Raghu's exploits in these lands.

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(e) *The Western Margin*

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The Western Margin, i.e. the territory between the Gaṅgā-Bhāgīrathī-Hooghly axis and the eastern margin of the Bihār plateau.

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This region was divided into two janapadas with Suhma and the Tāmraliptika. The latter was limited to Midnapur including the Contai Plain District or the Haldi river basin and extended to the sea. North of it there was the Suhma country, mainly covering the districts of Hooghli, Burdwan, Eastern Birbhum and Western Murshidabad. The whole of the Western Margin as defined above comprised the Radha country of later times, which included the Suhma and Brahmottara janapadas of the Puranas. In fact the Matsya uses the name Suhma janapada only in place of Brahmottara, mentioned by Markandeya, Brahma and Vayu. Other Puranas mix the two together and call it the Suhmottara janapada.

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(f) The Eastern Margin

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(i) The Yamuna-Meghna Doab appears to have formed the Bhargava-Angaya janapada of the Puranas. It adjoined the Vanga janapada on the west but was separated from it by the Yamuna-Padma.

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(ii) Regions east of the Meghna are not represented in the Puranic scheme of janapadas. This confirms the view that the eastern limit of the country was the Meghna river.

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(g) The Hilly Regions

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Three janapadas appear to have been recognised by the Puranas in the hilly plateau region of Southern Bihar.

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Mudgarka may have been a janapada coinciding with the north-eastern spurs of the Rajmahal Hills, i.e., approximately the eastern Santal Parganas, southern Monghyr and Bhagalpur districts of Bihar. It appears to be associated with the Mudgagiri hills of Monghyr. Antargiri and Bahirgiri janapadas appear to have been located on the plateau proper. The former occupied the hilly country between the Rajmahal and Hazaribagh ranges and the latter the region beyond the Hazaribagh range, i.e. the basin of the Damodar. Both the janapadas essentially belonged to the Hills.

Linked texts (3)

Kāvyamīmāṃsā — Rājaśekhara, Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Raghuvaṃśa — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit