Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c12.6

c12.6

In this connection, the attention of scholars may be drawn to another almost equally unjustifiable theory that the Vākāṭaka territory was known as Kuntala.¹ It is easy to show that the heart of the Vākāṭaka kingdom corresponded to the ancient *janapada* of Vidarbha (modern Berar and the adjoining regions) where most of the records of the family have been discovered. The founder of the Vākāṭaka family seems to have had something to do with East Malwa and the Vindhyan region and a few other early members of the main branch of the family probably held sway over parts of Central India (especially Bundelkhand) before the extension of Gupta power in that area.² But the capital of a branch of the Vākāṭaka line was at the city of Vatsagulma, modern Basim in the Akola District, while the main branch of the family ruled from a place not very far away from modern Nāgpur.³ The Vākāṭaka kings reigned in Vidarbha from the second half of the third century to the first half of the sixth. They were not only responsible for some of the magnificent caves at Ajaṇṭā; but it was apparently at their court that the celebrated Vaidarbhī *rīti* or the Berar style of Sanskrit composition originated and flourished and was recognised by the author of the *Kāvyādarśa* as the best style as early as the seventh century A.D. We have elsewhere suggested that the other important style known as the *Gauḍī rīti* has to be associated with the court of the dynasty of Gauḍa kings represented by Gopacandra and Śaśāṅka.⁴