Historical Geography of Ancient India c10.249

c10.249

It is difficult to locate exactly the Mālava territory. In Alexander’s time the Mālavas were settled in the Punjab. Smith thinks that they occupied the country below the confluence of the Jhelum and the Chenab, i.e., the country comprising the Jhang district and a portion of the Montgomery district (*J.R.A.S.*, 1903, p. 631). According to McCrindle, they occupied a greater extent of territory comprising the modern Doab of the Chenab and the Ravi and extending to the confluence of the Indus and the Chenab (Akesines), identical with the modern Multan district and portions of Montgomery (*Invasion of India*, App. note, p. 357). Some have located them in the valley of the lower Rāvi. Mo-la-po, visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, may be identified with Mālavaka or Mālavaka-āhāra, mentioned in a number of the Valabhi grants as included in the kingdom of the Maitrakas of Valabhi. The Mālava kingdom of Mahāsenagupta and Devagupta, referred to in the Madhuvan and Banskhera Inscriptions of Harṣavardhana, was probably identical with Pūrva-Mālava, which lay between Prayāga and Bhilsā. This country, according to Hiuen Tsang, was 6,000 li in circuit. The soil was rich and fertile. Shrubs and trees were numerous. Fruits and flowers were abundant. The people were of remarkable intelligence, virtuous and docile. There were some saṅghārāmas and deva temples (Beal, *Buddhist Records of the Western World*, II, 260ff.). For further literary details, vide B. C. Law, *Tribes in Ancient India*, Ch. VIII.