Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.261

c7.261

*Mahābhārata*, Bhīṣmaparva, IX, 328; Vanaparva, LXXXV, 8164, 5 etc.) and in the *Yoginītantra* (2/6, pp. 178f,). According to the *Kālikāpurāṇa* (Ch. 24, 130-135) this river has its origin in the Mahākāla lake. The *Kāvyādarśa* of Daṇḍin refers to the lands on the bank of the Kāverī (III, 166). The Tīrthayātrā sections of the Purāṇas and Epics mention this river as very holy. It is the Khaberos of Ptolemy, which is said to have its source in the Adeisathron range which may be identified with the southern portion of the Sahya. The *Bhāgavatapurāṇa* refers to this river (V. 19, 18; VII. 13, 12; X, 79, 14; XI, 5, 40; cf. *Padmapurāṇa*, Uttarakhaṇḍa, vs. 35-38). It is also mentioned in the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (XIV. 13) as well as in Kālidāsa’s *Raghuvaṃśa* (IV. 45). In the South Indian inscriptions the river Kāverī is associated with the name of the Coḷas. Hara asked Guṇabhara: ‘How could I standing in a temple on earth view the great power of the Coḷas or the river Kāverī?’ (Hultzsch, *S.I.I.*, I, 34). The Cālukya King Pulakesin II crossed this river with his victorious army to enter the Coḷa country when this river had her current obstructed by the causeway formed by his elephants. The glory of the Kāverī forms an inexhaustible theme of early Tamil poetry. According to the *Maṇimekhalai* (I. 9-12; 23-4) this noble stream was released by the sage Agastya from his waterpot at the request of the king Kānta and for the exaltation of the ‘children of the sun’. She was the special banner of the race of the Coḷas and she never failed them in the most protracted drought. The yearly freshes in the Kāverī formed the occasion of a carnival in which the whole nation took part from the king down to the meanest peasant. It is a famous river in South India, which rises in the Western Ghats and flows south-east through Mysore, and falls into the Bay of Bengal in the district of Tanjore in the Madras State. In ancient times, this river, noted for pearl-fishery, flowed down into the sea through the southern portion of the ancient kingdom of Coḷa. The principal Coḷa port was at Kāverī-paṭṭanam or Pugār on the northern bank of the Kāverī, while Uragapura, the ancient capital of Coḷa, was situated on the southern bank of this river. For further details, vide B. C. Law, *Rivers of India*, p. 51.