Historical Geography of Ancient India c9.82

c9.82

*Daśapura*.—The *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (Ch. XIV. 20) mentions it as a city. It is a well-known place on the Rajputana-Malwa branch of the Western Railway. It is identified with Mandasor in Western Malwa in the Gwalior State (vide Fleet's note in *C.I.I.*, III, 79). According to Bāṇa's *Kādambarī* (Bombay ed., p. 19) it was in Malwa, not far from Ujjayinī. Most likely it was in Western Malwa (*Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency*, 1883, *Nasik*, p. 636). The ancient Daśapura stood on the north or left bank of the Siwana, a tributary of the river Śiprā. The Mandasor Stone Pillar Inscription of Yaśodharman mentions Mandasor, or more properly Dasor, which is the chief town of the Mandasor district of the Scindhia's dominions in Western Malwa (*Gwalior State Gazetteer*, I, 265ff.). The Mandasor Inscription of Bandhuvarman mentions Lāṭa and Daśapura. Daśapura, which is referred to in the Inscriptions of Kumāragupta I, was presumably the main city of the Mālavagaṇa or Western Mālavas. It was ruled by Naravarman and his son Viśvavarman, who were independent kings. It was an important Viceregal seat of the early Gupta Empire. It was evidently from the hands of the Kṣaharāta Kṣatrapa Nahapāṇa that such places as Daśapura, Nāsika, Śūrpāraka, Bhṛgukaccha and Prabhāsa, were wrested by the earlier Sātavāhanas. During the reign of Kṣaharāta Kṣatrapa Nahapāṇa his son-in-law Uṣavadāta emulated the fame of Aśoka by carrying out many works of public utility at Daśapura. Daśapura and Vidiśā were the two neighbouring cities that vied with Ujjayinī in its glory during the Gupta period. During the reign of the imperial Guptas the use of the Mālava or the Kṛta era was restricted to Daśapura. The Mālavas seem to have migrated to the Mandasor region, where most of the records connected with the successors of Samudragupta, have been found. This region is to be identified with the ancient mahājanapada of Avantī mentioned in the *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, as well as Avantī of the Junāgaḍh Rock Inscription of Rudradāman and Malaya (Mālava) of the Jaina Bhagavatī Sūtra. The Jaina *Āvaśyaka Cūrṇi* (pp. 400ff.) points out that Daśapura was inhabited by some merchants and since then this place was known as such. The princes of Mandasor used the Kṛta era commencing from 58 B.C. traditionally handed down by the Mālavagaṇa. The inscriptions associating the Mālavas with this era have not only been found in the Mandasor region but also in other places at Kāṃsuvāṃ in the Kotah State and Nāgari in the Udaipur State. The Mandasor Stone Pillar Inscription of Yaśodharman records the defeat of the Hūṇa adventurer Mihirakula by king Yaśodharman of Malwa (*C.I.I.*, iii; cf. E.I., XII, 315ff.; cf. Mandasor Inscription of the time of Naravarman, Mālava year 461). In the middle of the 5th century A.D., it fell to the Hūṇas who were driven from Malwa. Mandasor contains an ancient temple of the Sun built during the reign of Kumāragupta I. The village of Sondni, three miles south-west of Mandasor, contains two magnificent monolithic sandstone pillars with lion and bell capitals.