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Tribes in Ancient India c67: Chapter LXV. The Śūrpārakas

Tribes in Ancient India c67

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Chapter LXV. The Śūrpārakas

c67.2

The Śūrpārakas were evidently the people of Śūrpāraka. The *Mārkaṇḍeya* list (LVII, 49) reads Sūryārakas which is evidently a mistake, but all the Purāṇas agree in placing them in the west where lived the celebrated sage Rāma Jāmadagnya (*Mbh.*, *Vana P.*, LXXXV, 8185). But the *Mahābhārata* also locates them in the south (*Sabhā P.*, XXX, 1169; *Vana P.*, LXXXVIII, 8337) because it bordered on the southern sea in the western region (*Śānti P.*, XLIX, 1778-82). The region situated near Prabhāsa (*Vana P.*, CXVIII, 10221-7) included the country around the mouth of the Narmadā (*Anuśāsana P.*, XXV, 1736). It was the sage Rāma Jāmadagnya who is credited with having built the city of Śūrpāraka (*Harivaṃśa*, XCVI, 50).

c67.3

Śūrpāraka is mentioned in one of the inscriptions of Śaka Uṣavadāta and is undoubtedly the same as Suppāraka of Pāli literature where it is described as a great sea-coast emporium identified with Sopārā of early Greek geographers.

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