Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.529

c8.529

Vaṅga.—It is the ancient name of Bengal (vide *Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist site at Nāgārjunikoṇḍa*). Vaṅga which is the designation of Bengal proper is mentioned in the *Aitareya Āraṇyaka* (II, 1, 1, 1; cf. Keith, *Aitareya Āraṇyaka*, 200) as well as in the *Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra* (I, 1, 14). Pāṇini refers to it as Vaṅga in his *Aṣṭādhyāyī* (4, 1, 170). The *Bhāgavata Purāṇa* (IX. 23, 5) and the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā* (Ch. 3) mention it as a country. The Yoginītantra mentions Vaṅga (2. 2. 119). In the Tirumalai Rock Inscription of Rājendra Coḷa of the 11th century A.D. and in the Goharwa Plate of Cedi Karṇadeva, Vaṅga country is referred to as Vaṅgāladeśaṃ, which in the thirteenth century came to be called Baṅgāla and in Mahommedan times, Bāṅglā. The Tirumalai Inscription distinguishes Vaṅga not only from South Rāḍhā (Takkana Lāḍham) but also from North Rāḍhā (Uttila Lāḍham). This is the very location of the kingdom of Vaṅga indicated in the Ceylon Chronicle that places Lāḷha between Vaṅga and Kaliṅga. The first epigraphic mention of the Vaṅga countries is probably made in the Meharauli Iron Pillar Inscription (C.I.I., Vol. III, pp. 141ff.), where the mighty king Candra is said to have ‘in battle in the Vaṅga country turned back with his breast the enemies who uniting together came against him and by whom having crossed in warfare the seven mouths of the Indus the Vālhikas were conquered’. H. P. Śāstrī identifies the mighty king Candra with king Candravarman of the Allahabad Pillar Inscription and the king of the same name of Pokhraṇā which he locates in Marwar in Rajputana. The Vaṅga countries are also referred to in the Mahākūṭa Pillar Inscription (E.I., Vol. V) which tells us that in the sixth century A.D. Kirtivarman of the Cālukya dynasty gained victories over the kings of Vaṅga, Aṅga and Magadha, that is, three Kaliṅgas (Trikaliṅga). In the Pithapuram plates of Pṛthivīseṇa (A.D. 1108) the king of the Vaṅgadeśa was subdued by king Malla. Vaṅgadeśa is also referred to in the Copperplate grant of Vaidyadeva of Kāmarūpa, who was victorious in southern Vaṅga (E.I., Vol. II, p. 335), and also in the Edilpur Plate of Keśavasena, the Madanapāḍā Plate of Viśvarūpasena and the Sāhitya Pariṣat Plate of the same king (Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, pp. 119, 133, 141). The Rāmpāl Plate of Śrīcandradeva (E.I., Vol. XII, p. 136) informs us that a Candra dynasty appears to have mastered the whole of Vaṅga including Samaṭaṭa. The kings of Vaṅga, Pāṇḍya, Lāṭa, Gurjara, and Kāśmīra were conquered by Lakṣmaṇarāja, according to the Goharwa grant of Lakṣmikarṇa (E.I., XI, 142). For literary references vide B. C. Law, Tribes in Ancient India, Ch. LI.