Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India c4.s3.t2: II.—Traditional.

Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India c4.s3.t2

Language: English

II.—Traditional.

c4.s3.t2.1

Local traditions, when properly sifted and corroborated by other sources, give some geographical information. Thus Dr. Fleet's identification of Sâkala ( शाकल ) with Sialkot is due to the local tradition recorded in Cunningham's *A.S.R.*, XIV, pp. 44-46, that it was founded by Salya and that it was originally called Sâkala.

c4.s3.t2.2

But tradition sometimes turns out to be wrong. Thus Gaibandhâ (Rangpur district, Bengal) claims to be the country of the Matsyas; Badnagar (Patna district) to be Kundinapura (the capital of Vidarbha); but the Epics show otherwise. Hence uncorroborated tradition has little value. The literary sources also sometimes mention names which cannot be located. Again tribes die out and disappear; towns decay and are deserted; seaside emporia sometimes shift; "the names of countries" [cities, etc.] "change" [Utpala's Commentary on the *Br(i)hatsamhitâ*] though the places themselves survive. All these facts make identifications of sites mentioned in foreign and indigenous literary sources difficult. Hence we have to turn to

Cites (2)

Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit
Sakala