The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s12.21

c5.s12.21

Tāmraliptī—Tamluk which was formerly on the mouth of the Ganges is now situated on the western bank of the Rūpnārāyaṇa, formed by the united stream of the Śilā (Śilavatī) and Dalkisor (Dvārakeśvarī) in the district of Midnapur in Bengal. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Suhma (see Suhma) in the sixth century of the Christian era, and it formed a part of the Magadha kingdom under the Mauryas (Smith’s Asoka p 69). A greater portion of the ancient town has now been diluviated by the river. The town is mentioned in the Mahābhārata (Bhīshma, ch 9, Sabhā ch 29) the Purāṇas and the Buddhist works. It was celebrated as a maritime port (Kathāsaritsāgara Lambaka XII, ch 11), the sea having now receded south to a distance of sixty miles. It was from this port that Vijaya is said to have sailed to Ceylon. The only building of any archæological interest that now exists in the town is the temple of Bargā Bhīmā, mentioned in the Brahma P (Tāmralipta Māhātmya and the K Ch p 33), which was evidently an ancient Vihāra, perhaps one of those referred to by Hiuen Tsiang transformed not earlier than the fourteenth century, into a dome topped Hindu temple of the Orissa style by an outward coating of bricks and plaster after the expulsion of Buddhism. The image of the goddess appears to be old and is formed of a single block of stone with the hands and feet in mezzo relievo. Daṇḍī, the author of the Daśakumāracharita, who flourished in the sixth century A D mentions that a temple of Binduvāsinī was situated at Tāmralipta (ch 96). In the seventh century, I tsing resided at Tāmralipta in a celebrated monastery called Barāha monastery. The present temple of Hari or Jishnu Nārāyaṇa is said to have been built some 500 years after the destruction of the ancient temple by the action of a river. The ancient temple was situated on the east of that of Bargā Bhīmā. The newly built shrine contains two images of Arjuna and Krishna. Traditionally, Tamluk was the capital of Mayūradhvaja and his son Tāmradhvaja who fought with Arjuna and Krishna, and hence Tamluk has been identified with Ratnapura of the Jaimini Bhārata, but the situation of Mayūradhvaja’s capital on or near the Nerbuda, as mentioned in that work, makes that identification impossible. Comparison of several manuscripts of the Brahma Purāṇa shows that the Tāmralipta māhātmya inserted in some of them is an interpolation.