Historical Geography of Ancient India c10.350

c10.350

Ujjain.—Patañjali in his *Mahābhāṣya* refers to it (3. 1. 2, pp. 67-68). The *Yogitantra* (2. 2. 119) mentions it. Ujjayinī (Ujjenī) is mentioned in the Minor Rock Edict II of Aśoka. Ujjayinī, which was the capital of Avanti or Western Mālava, was situated on the river Śiprā, a tributary of the Carmanvatī (Chambal). It is the modern Ujjain in Gwalior, Central India. It was built by Accutagāmi according to the *Dīpavaṃsa* (p. 57). According to the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, it is about 6,000 li in circuit. There are several tens of convents mostly in ruins. There are some three hundred priests, who study the doctrines of the Hinayanists and the Mahayanists. The king belongs to the Brahmin caste, who is well versed in the heretical books and who does not believe in the true law (Beal, *Buddhist Records of the Western World*, Vol. II, pp. 270-71). The dramas of Kālidāsa were performed on the occasion of the spring festival before the viceregal court of Ujjayinī, circa 400 A.D. (Rapson, *Ancient India*, p. 175). Astronomers reckoned their meridian of longitude from here (McCrindle, *Ancient India as described by Ptolemy*, p. 154). In the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea* (Sec. 48) this city is called Ozene wherefrom every commodity for local consumption is brought down to Barygaza (Bhṛgukaccha). It was a great centre of trade, which lay at the junction of at least three main trade routes.