Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c15.2

c15.2

Classical writers represent the Nanda and Maurya kings of Magadha primarily as rulers of the peoples known to them as the Gangaridae and the Prasii. The second of the two names is rightly taken to be the Greek plural form of the Indian word *Prācya* meaning the inhabitants of the Eastern Division of India.¹ It is well known that Bhāratavarṣa (India) was traditionally divided into five countries, *viz.* Prācya or Eastern India, Pāścātya or Western India, Uttarāpatha or North-Western India and the adjoining region of Central Asia, Madhyadeśa or the central part of Northern India, and Dākṣiṇātya or the peninsula of the Deccan.² The Prācya country or the land of the Prācya people comprised Bihar and Bengal together with the eastern part of the U. P. and the eastern fringe of Orissa. The western limit of this land was the Kālaka-vana (probably near Allahabad) according to the authors of the Sūtra works,³ Prayāga or Allahabad according to the *Manusmṛti*¹ and Vārāṇasi or Banāras according to the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā*² composed by Rājaśekhara about the beginning of the tenth century A.D. Prāgjyotiṣa or Assam, often regarded by ancient writers as a Himalayan country, formed no part of the dominions of the Nandas and Mauryas of Magadha. In the seventh century A.D., the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-tsang noticed *Stūpas* attributed to the Maurya king Aśoka (who is said to have built 84000 *Stūpas* throughout his empire) in all parts of Bengal but not a single one of them anywhere in the dominions of Bhāskaravarman, king of Assam. The country of Kaliṅga comprising wide areas of Orissa was usually regarded in early times as a land belonging to Dākṣiṇātya or the Southern Division of India.³