Tribes in Ancient India c56.9

c56.9

In the fourth Jain Upāṅga, called the *Prajñāpanā* (or *Pannavaṇā*), as well as in the fifth Jain Aṅga, called the *Bhagavatī*, Lāḍha is described as having been one of the 16 great *Janapadas*, and one of the Ariya *Janapadas* of India. But the name Rāḍha is not traceable in the Epics or any other Sanskrit record before the tenth century A.D. ‘The reason for this fact seems to be that in all Sanskrit records of the period including the Great Epic, the names Suhma and Brahma have always been used to denote the Rāḍha country which was almost fully covered by these two *Janapadas*.’² By the end of the tenth century A.D. Rāḍha which seems to have comprised the whole of Western Bengal, bounded on the north and east by the Ganges and the Bhāgīrathī, had come to be divided into two parts: Uttara Rāḍha and Dakṣiṇa Rāḍha: for Śrīdhara Bhaṭṭa, the author of the philosophical work, *Nyāyakaṇḍali*, composed in 991 A.D., is said to have been born in a village called Bhūriṣṛṣṭi in Dakṣiṇa Rāḍha. Moreover, the Tirumalai Rock Inscription of Rājendra Cola (1025 A.D.) mentions Uttara Rāḍha and Dakṣiṇa Rāḍha as two distinct *Janapadas* (see Vaṅga Chap.); and Uttara Rāḍha is also mentioned in the Belava copperplate of Bhojavarman as well as in the Naihati copperplate of Vallālasena, as a *maṇḍala* (district) included in the *bhukti* (limit) of Vardhamāna. It is highly probable that the two *Janapadas*, Brahma and Suhma, of the Epics, the Purāṇas, the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā*, and other Sanskrit sources are identical with the two divisions of Rāḍha (Uttara and Dakṣiṇa) alluded to in the *Nyāyakaṇḍali*, the Tirumalai Inscription, the *Prabodhacandrodaya* (Canto II), and finally in the Sena records. The Rāḍha country seems to have comprised the modern districts of Hooghly, Howrah, Burdwan, Bankura, and the major portions of Midnapur; Uttara and Dakṣiṇa Rāḍha being separated by the river Ajaya.