Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.426

c8.426

Rāḍha.—The Bhuvanesvara Inscription of Bhaṭṭa-Bhavadeva refers to this province. The Tirumalai Rock Inscription of Rājendra Coḷa mentions Uttara Rāḍha and Dakṣiṇa Rāḍha as two distinct janapadas. Uttara Rāḍha is also mentioned in the Belāva copperplate of Bhojavarman as well as in the Naihati copperplate of Ballālasena as belonging to the Vardhamānabhukti. According to some Uttara-Rāḍha which also occurs in the Kolhapur copperplates of Gaṇḍarādityadeva (Śaka 1048—E.I., XXIII, Pt. II), and in the Indian Museum Plates of Gaṅga Devendravarman of the year 398 (E.I., XXIII, Pt. II, April, 1935, p. 76) is that part of Bengal which includes a portion of the Murshidabad district. The province of Rāḍha seems to have comprised the modern districts of Hooghly, Howrah, Burdwan, Bankura and major portions of Midnapur. The Ācārāṅga Sūtra (Ayārāṅga Sutta) speaks of Lāḍha (Rāḍha) as a pathless country with its two sub-divisions: Subbhabhūmi (probably the same as Skt. Suhma) and Vajjabhūmi, which may be taken to correspond to the modern district of Midnapur. It also speaks of the inhabitants of the Rāḍha country as rude and generally hostile to the ascetics. The dogs were set upon them by the Rāḍha people as soon as the ascetics appeared near their villages (1, 8, 3-4). The mischief-makers whom the lonely ascetics had to reckon with were the cowherds (gopālakā) who made practical jokes on them (Ācārāṅga Sūtra, 18, 3-10; cf. Majjhima, I, 79).