Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c11.23

c11.23

The above discussion will show that in the early centuries of the Christian era, the Vaṅgas lived in the deltaic region of Southern Bengal watered by the mouths of the Ganges and had their capital at the city of Gaṅgā near the junction of the Bhāgīrathi and the Bay of Bengal and that Gaṅgā-sāgara is the modern representative of the ancient capital of the Vaṅgas. After the name of the capital, the country was also often called Gaṅgā. Early European writers mention the Vaṅgas as the Gangaridae, i.e. the Gāṅga or Gāṅgeya people. The Greek name of the Vaṅgas seems to be the result of a confusion the foreigners made between the sounds of the two names Vaṅgaḥ and Gaṅgā. The identification of the Vaṅgas and the Gangaridae and the location of their habitat are clearly indicated by the evidence supplied by Kālidāsa's Raghuvamśa, the Geography of Ptolemy and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Ptolemy and Kālidāsa place the Cambyson or Kapiśā river, identified with the present Kaśāi running through the Midnapur District (West Bengal), about the western border of the country of the Gangaridae or Vaṅga people. This is supported by the Jain Prajñāpanā, according to which Tāmralipti in the present Tamluk region of Midnapur once formed a part of the Vaṅga country.²