The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.1

c6.s3.1

The ruins of the famous city of Balabhi were discovered by Tod near Bhaonagar, on the eastern side of the peninsula of Gujarât. In an inscription of the fifth century the country is called “the beautiful kingdom of *Valabhadra*,”* but in the local histories and traditions of the people, it is generally known as Balabhi. This also was the name in the time of Hwen Thsang, who calls the kingdom *Fa-la-pi*, or Balabhi. In ancient times, however, the peninsula of Gujarât was only known as *Surashtra*, and under this name it is mentioned in the Mahâbhârata and in the Purânas. It is called *Surashtrene* by Ptolemy and the author of the ‘Periplus;’ and its people are most probably intended by Pliny under the corrupt name of *Suarataræ*, or *Varetatæ*, for which I would propose to read *Suratæ*. The change in the name of the country is alluded to in an inscription, dated in the Saka year 734, or A.D. 812, of Raja Karka, whose remote ancestor Govinda is said to have been the ornament of the *Saurâshtra* kingdom, “which lost its appellation of *Sau-rajya* from the ruin that had fallen upon it.”† Karka’s father is called Raja of *Lâteswara*, which at once identifies his kingdom with Balabhi, as Hwen Thsang notes that Balabhi was also called *Pe-Lo-lo*, or northern *Lâra*, which is the common pronunciation of the Sanskrit *Lâṭa*. As Karka was only the fifth in descent from Govinda, the name of *Saurâjya* or *Saurashtra* could not have been restored by these representatives of the old family before the middle of the seventh century. From a comparison of all the data I conclude that the old name of Saurashtra was lost in A.D. 319, when the successors of the *Sâh* kings were supplanted by the *Vallabhas*, and the capital changed from *Junagurh* to *Valabhi*. The establishment of the Balabhi era, which dates from A.D. 319, is said by Abu Rihân to mark the period of the extinction of the Gupta race, whose coins are found in considerable numbers in Gujarât. This date may therefore be accepted with some certainty as that of the establishment of the Balabhi dynasty, and most probably also as that of the foundation of their city of Balabhi.