Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c10.16

c10.16

² Cf. *Vaṅge Nāvya Rāmasiddhi-pāṭake*, etc., *Nāvya Vinayatilaka-grāme pūrve samudraḥ sīmā*, etc. (ibid., p.146). *Nāvya* means a region accessible by boats. That this region was not far from the sea (*samudra*), *i.e.* the estuary, is also clear. The word means apparently the same thing as Bengali *bhāṭi*, ‘with the tide, the region towards the sea’ (from *bhāṭā*, floods of the tide running towards the sea). Cf. also East Bengali *bhar*, low region. In the Muslim period, the district called *Bhāṭi* sometimes indicated the coastal strip between the estuaries of the Hooghly and the Meghnā. The late work called *Śaktisaṅgama Tantra* places Vaṅga-deśa between the *ratnākara* (sea) and the Brahmaputra (above, p. 84).