Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c6.69

c6.69

Another interesting point brought out by M. Lévi¹⁰³ is the equation of Kapiśa-Kamboja. Kapiśa¹⁰⁴ is changed to Ka-bu-śa by the Tibetan translator of the Mahāmāyurī.¹⁰⁵ This change of Kapiśa to Kabusa raised the question which M. Lévi has discussed, whether Kapiśa and Kamboja are not the same. In Kapiśa and Kamboja he finds an effort to render the spelling of a strange word which he analyses as Ka = a = p = s'. In both the cases Kam = Kam : b = j. there seems to have been an aspirate in the middle f and z which has been left out in Sanskrit. In the Greek name of Kambyses—Ka (m) bujiya the aspirate is changed to sibilant. But Solinus, the copyist of Pliny¹⁰⁶, calls the Capisa of Pliny as Caphusa, which the Delphine editors have altered to Capissa. Here two points should be marked, firstly the change of *i* to *u* as in the Tibetan transcription already described and the maintenance of the aspirate *ph* which disappears in the Greek spelling of Ka (m) bujiya-Cambyses. Is it an effort on the part of Solinus to render the spelling of a word with infix *ph* which has disappeared by the Sanskritisation of Kapiśa, Kamboja and also Kārpāsa (ika)? The form Kaphusa for Kapiśa which seems to be equivalent to Kārpāsa could be explained. Kārpāsa is equal to Kāpus as in Marathi with the disappearance of ancient *pha* from both the forms substituted by the labial *p*; the Greek form however, maintains the ancient aspirate *pha*. The two aspirates appear clearly in the title of Kadphizēs when progress brought the Kuṣāṇas from Kuei-Chuang to the district of Kao-fu (Kabul) in Chinese transcription. The title of Kadphizēs is symmetrical to the title of Taksiles under which the king of Takṣaśilā was known to the historians of Alexander.¹⁰⁷ Both are *tadrāja*.¹⁰⁸ The name of Kadphizēs in Kharoṣṭhī is spelt as Kaphasa or Kapasa¹⁰⁹ on his coins found at Taxila and Lévi's interpretation of his belonging to Kapiśa is quite sound.¹¹⁰