Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.669

c6.669

*Sivipura*.—According to the Shorkot Inscription the ancient name of Shorkot was Śivipura or Śivapura which was the capital of the Sibis (*E.I.*, XVI, 1921, p. 16; Law, *Tribes in Ancient India*, p. 83). Śivapura or the town of the Śivas is mentioned by the scholiast on Pāṇini as situated in the northern country (see Patañjali, IV, 2, 2). The Śivas or Sibis were a people inhabiting the Shorkot region in Jhang in the Punjab lying between the Irāvatī and the Candrabhāgā, and therefore, included in the northern region or Uttarāpatha. They seem to have been a very ancient people, probably alluded to for the first time in the *Ṛgveda* (VII, 18, 7). They seem to have maintained their independence for some considerable time, for they are referred to not only by the Greek geographers and the historians of Alexander’s time but also by the scholiast on Pāṇini (IV, 2, 109). In later times they seem to have migrated to the extreme south of India (cf. *Daśakumāracaritam*, Ch. VI; *Bṛhat Saṃhitā*, Ch. XIV, v. 12). The *Lalitavistara* (p. 22) and the *Mahāvastu* (Law, *Study of the Mahāvastu*, p. 7) mention the Śivi country as one of the sixteen *janapadas* of Jambudvīpa. Ariṭṭhapura was the capital of the Śivi kingdom (*Jātaka*, IV, p. 401). Ariṭṭhapura (Skt. Ariṣṭapura) is probably identical with Ptolemy’s Aristobothra in the north of the Punjab and may perhaps be the same as Dvārāvatī (*Jātaka*, Faüsboll, Vol. VI, p. 421; N. L. Dey, *Geographical Dictionary*, pp. 11, 187). The *Bodhisattvāvadāna-Kalpalatā* of Kṣemendra mentions the city of Śivavatī, which is identical with the capital of the Śivi country, ruled by King Śivi (91st Pallava). Early Greek writers refer to the territory of the Siboi in the Punjab. For further details, vide B. C. Law, *Indological Studies*, Pt. I, pp. 24–26.