Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.445

c8.445

*Samaṭaṭa.*—Samaṭaṭa is mentioned in the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta (C.I.I., Vol. III, No. 1) as one of the most important among the north-east Indian frontier kingdoms which submitted to the mighty Gupta emperor. It was so called because the rivers in it had ‘flat and level banks of equal height on both sides’ (C.A.G.I., ed. S. N. Majumdar, p. 729). It was included in the larger divisions of Vaṅga. Some scholars hold that it was distinct from Vaṅga which lay between the Meghnā on the east, the sea on the south and the old Buḍigaṅgā course of the Ganges on the north. Samaṭaṭa finds mention in the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (Ch. XIV) and it seems to have been identical with the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra and must have comprised, according to the epigraphic evidence, the modern districts of Tipperah, Noakhali, Sylhet (J.A.S.B., 1515, pp. 17-18), and portions probably of Barisal. The Karmānta identified with Baḍ-Kāmtā, 12 miles west of Comilla, has often been identified as the capital of Samaṭaṭa (Dey, *Geographical Dictionary*, p. 175; J.A.S.B., 1914, p. 87; Bhaṭṭasāli, *Sculptures in the Dacca Museum*, p. 6). The Bhagalpur grant of Nārāyaṇapāla, the Baghaura inscription of Mahīpāla I, Barrackpur grant of Vijayasena, a Bodhgayā inscription of Vīryendrabhadra, and Asrafpur copperplate refer to Samaṭaṭa (N. G. Majumdar, *Inscriptions of Bengal*, Vol. III). The Mehergrām copperplate of Dāmodaradeva (edited by Barua and Chakravarty) offers us a definite location of the Samaṭaṭamaṇḍala within the Puṇḍravardhanabhukti. It speaks of the district of Paraṇayi (viṣaya), the sub-division called Vaisagrāma (Khaṇḍala), which included the village of Meher in the present Chandpur sub-division of the district of Tipperah. The Deva kings ruled over the district of Tipperah and Chittagong in the beginning of the 13th century A.D., before Daśarathadeva succeeded in supplanting the Senas of Puṇḍravardhanabhukti. A new copperplate has been discovered at Gunaighar, a village about 18 miles to the north-west of the town of Comilla. This plate is the earliest record found in East Bengal. It is earlier than the four Faridpur plates with which it bears fruitful comparison. The plate records a gift of land from the camp of victory at Kṛipura by Mahārāja Vainyagupta made at the instance of his vassal Mahārāja Rudradatta, in favour of a Buddhist congregation of monks belonging to the Vaivartika sect of the Mahayana, which was established by a Buddhist monk, Ācārya Śāntideva, in a *vihāra* dedicated to Avalokiteśvara. For further details vide *I.H.Q.*, Vol. VI, No. 1, pp. 45ff. The Gunaighar grant records the grant of land in the Gunaikāgrahāra, which may be identified with Gunaighar, the findspot of the grant in the Tippera district dated 508 A.D. The Dūtaka was Mahāsāmanta Mahārāja Vijayasena, who seems to be a man of some importance of his time.