Historical Geography of Ancient India c5.s3.17

c5.s3.17

Dakṣiṇāpatha is the region lying to the south of Māhiṣmatī identified with Māndhātā according to the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā*, as already pointed out. Some hold that it is situated between the Bridge of Rāma and the river Narmadā (Hultzsch, *S.I.I.*, I, p. 58; cf. Fleet, *I.A.*, VII, 245). The *Dharmasūtras* testify to the fact that Dakṣiṇāpatha lay to the south of Pāripātra, generally identified with a portion of the Vindhyas. The *Mahāvagga* of the *Vinaya Piṭaka* and the *Divyāvadāna* seem to record that the Dakṣiṇajanapada lay to the south of the town of Śatakarṇika. Buddhaghosa, the celebrated Buddhist commentator, defines Dakṣiṇāpatha or the Deccan as the tract of land lying to the south of the Ganges (*Sumaṅgalavilāsinī*, I, 265). The whole tract of land lying to the south of the Ganges and to the north of the Godāvarī is known as Dakṣiṇāpatha according to the *Suttanipāta* (Prologue of Bk. V; *Vinaya-Mahāvagga*, V, 13; *Vinaya-Cullavagga*, XII, 1). The Sanskrit Buddhist texts refer to Dakṣiṇāpatha as having extended southwards beyond the Śarāvatī river and the Pāripātra mountain.