Tribes in Ancient India c55.22

c55.22

Gonda, a subdivision of Uttara Kośala, 42 miles south of the Kośala Śrāvastī, is, according to Cunningham, a corruption of Gauḍa.¹ The term *Pañca Gauḍa*, often used to designate the entire territory of Northern India as far as Kanauj and the river Sarasvatī, is however late, and is probably ‘reminiscent of the Gauḍa empire of Dharmapāla and Devapāla, and cannot be equated with the ancient realm of the Gauḍas in the early centuries of the Christian era’ (*P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., p. 537). The ruins of the ancient city of the Gauḍas, which was situated at the junction of the Ganges and the Mahānandā, can still be seen near Maldah in North Bengal, at a distance of 10 miles from the town.