Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c15.26

c15.26

The ancient city of Gaṅgāsāgara at the eastern extremity of the Cakravarti-kṣetra and of Bhāratavarṣa, Kumārīdvīpa and Āryāvarta became one of the famous all-India *tirthas* at least before the rise of the Guptas in the fourth century A.D., if not in much earlier times.¹ The popularity of pilgrimage to holy places is noticed in the records of Aśoka (circa 269-232 B.C.) who visited several Buddhist *tirthas* including Sambodhi (Mahābodhi or Bodhigayā, modern Bodhgayā)² and of the Hinduised Śaka king Ṛṣabhadatta (119-23 A.D.) who visited Puṣkara in Rājputānā and made arrangements in various *tirthas* in Western India for the benefit of the pilgrims.³ The *Baudhāyana Dharma-sūtra*³ (circa 5th century B.C.) discouraged travels in the lands of the Āraṭṭas, Kāraskaras, Puṇḍras, Sauvīras, Vaṅgas, Kaliṅgas and Prāṇūnas, as it prescribed purification of the travellers by the performance of the Punastoma or the Sarvapr̥ṣṭhā.⁴ But later authorities allowed travels in the Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga, Surāṣṭra and Magadha countries if they were undertaken for the purpose of pilgrimage.⁵ The Tīrthayātrā section of the Vanaparvan of the *Mahābhārata*, composed earlier than the Gupta