Historical Geography of Ancient India c9.145

c9.145

The earliest mention of the country seems to have been made by Ptolemy. According to him Lārike lay to the east of Indo-Scythia along the sea-coast (McCrindle, Ptolemy’s Ancient India, pp. 38, 152-53). The Pāli Chronicles of Ceylon refer to the country of Lāḷa in connection with the first Aryan migration to Ceylon led by Prince Vijaya. It has been attempted to identify Lāṭa both with Lāṭa or Lāḍa in Gujarat and Rāḍha in Bengal, and both countries claim the honour of first Aryanization of Ceylon. In the days of the early Imperial Guptas the Lāṭa country came to be formed into an administrative province in the Lāṭaviṣaya. The Lāṭa country was probably the same as the Lāṭeśvara country mentioned in the early Gurjara and Rāṣṭrakūṭa records. In the Baroda copperplate inscription (v. 11) the capital of Lāṭeśvara is said to have been at Elapur. Under the Cālukyas of Aṇahilavāḍapāṭana (A.C. 961) the name Lāṭa was gradually displaced by the name Gurjarabhūmi. Lassen identifies Lārike with Sanskrit Rāṣṭrika, in its Prākṛita form Lāṭika, which is easily equated with Lāṭa, though the equation of Rāṣṭrika and Lāṭika is not convincing. For further details, vide B. C. Law, *Indological Studies*, Pt. I, p. 27; Law, *Tribes in Ancient India*, pp. 351–53.