Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.327

c7.327

Kuntala.—This is a district of the Karṇāṭa country (S.I.I., I, 156, 160). According to some Mysore Inscriptions (Rice, Mysore and Coorg from Inscriptions, p. 3; Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, p. 284, f.n. 2), the Kuntala region included the southern part of the Bombay Presidency and the northern portion of Mysore. The identity of the Gondaloi with Kuntala proposed by Yule may be accepted. It is so called because it resembles the hair (kuntala) of the goddess of the earth. It was ruled at one time by the kings of the Nanda dynasty. The Kuntalas of the Deccan appear to have risen to a considerable importance in historical times. The Kuntala country is frequently referred to in the inscriptions of the 11th and 12th centuries, when it consisted of the southern Marāṭhā country and the adjoining Kanarese districts (E.I., XXIV, pp. 104ff.). Literary and epigraphic references prove beyond doubt that there were several families of the Sātakarṇis of the Deccan, and one or more of these families ruled over Kuntala of the Kanarese districts before the Kadambas. An Ajanta Inscription mentions a Vākāṭaka king Pṛthvisena I, who conquered a Kuntaleśvara (lord of Kuntala). Pṛthvisena extended his sovereignty over Nachne-Kitalai and Gañj in Bundelkhand as well as over the borders of Kuntala (E.I., XVII, 12; I.A., 1876, p. 318). A Vākāṭaka king Hariṣeṇa claimed victory over Kuntala. (For further details, vide B. C. Law, Tribes in Ancient India, pp. 176ff.). The Rewah Stone Inscription of Karṇa refers to Kuntala, which was the country of the later Cālukyas (E.I., XXIV, Pt. 3, July, 1937, p. 110). According to some, Kuntala is situated between the Bhīmā and Vedavatī, comprising the Kanarese districts of Bombay and Madras States and of Mysore State, and also perhaps a part of Mahārāṣṭra with Vidarbha having its capital at Pratiṣṭhāna on the Godāvarī (Vide V. V. Mirashi, Hyderabad Archaeological Memoir, No. 14, p. 9 f.n.). The Tālaguṇḍa Pillar Inscription informs us that a Kadamba king of Vaijayantī in Kuntala gave his daughters in marriage to Gupta and other kings. Some mediaeval kings of Kuntala traced their lineage to Candragupta (R. K. Mookerjee, Gupta Empire, p. 48).