Tribes in Ancient India c54.34

c54.34

It thus appears that from the fall of the later Guptas (eighth century) to the break-up of the Sena dynasty (twelfth century), the more important divisions of Bengal were Vaṅga, Puṇḍra, Gauḍa and Suhma (which latter, according to one authority, was identical with Rāḍhā-Nīlakaṇṭha’s commentary on the Mahābhārata, and, according to another, stood for a portion, i.e. the southern portion of Rāḍhā, the northern portion being called Brahma).³ Other important divisions were Karṇasuvarṇa and Varendra, Tāmralipti, Bāgḍī, Samaṭaṭa and Harikela (of which the last two were included in or identical with Vaṅga). Tāmralipti was included in Suhma and Varendra in Puṇḍra or Puṇḍravardhana, while Karṇasuvarṇa seems to have stood for some region perhaps identical with some portion of the northern Rāḍha country. Some scholars have identified it with Rāṅgāmāṭi in the Murshidabad district.⁴ Others think that Karṇasuvarṇa was situated to the west of the Bhāgīrathi and included Murshidabad, Bankura, Burdwan and Hughli.⁵ Bāgḍī, one of the four divisions of the ancient Bengal, according to Vallālasena (Gopāla Bhaṭṭa’s Vallāla-Charitam,—a book of doubtful value—Pūrva-khaṇḍa, verses 6 and 7) comprised the delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, and may be identified with what is now known as the 24-parganas and the Sunderbans (C.A.G.I., Ed. Majumdar, pp. 730-1).