Historical Geography of Ancient India c10.291

c10.291

Puṣkaraṇa (Pokharan).—It is the same as Pokhrana which has been located by H. P. Śāstrī in Marwar in Rajputana. It is situated on the borders of Jaisalmere State (A.S.I., Annual Reports, 1930-34, p. 219). King Candra, mentioned in the Meharauli Iron Pillar Inscription (C.I.I., Vol. III, pp. 141ff.), has been identified by H. P. Śāstrī with king Candravarman of the Allahabad Pillar Inscription and with the king of the same name of Pokhrāṇā. The mighty king Candra is said to have ‘in battle in the Vaṅga countries, turned back with his breast the enemies who uniting together came against him’. Some have identified Pokhrāṇā or Puṣkaraṇa with a village of the same name on the Damodar river in the Bankura district of West Bengal, some 25 miles east of the Susunia hill containing the record of Candravarman (Ray Chaudhuri, P.H.A.I., 4th ed., 448; S. K. Chatterjee, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, II, 1061; I.H.Q., I, Pt. II, 255). Candravarman, king of Puṣkaraṇa in Rajputana in the 4th century, was contemporary with Samudragupta and was the brother of Naravarman, mentioned in the Mandasor Inscription of 404-05 A.D. Both the brothers were the kings of Malwa (E.I., XII, 317). Puṣkaraṇa is a well-known town in Marwar (I.A., 1913, pp. 217-19; Tod, Annals of Rajasthan, 2nd ed., Vol. I, p. 605). For an account of the two inscribed pillars discovered by the Archaeological Department of the Jodhpur State at Puṣkaraṇa, vide A.S.I., Annual Reports, 1930-34, pp. 219-220.