Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c20.46

c20.46

When his disciples leave him, their first step towards the North is the city of ‘Paṭiṭṭhāna of Aḷaka’ (*Aḷakassa Paṭiṭṭhānam*, v. 36). Such is at least the text adopted by the editors, Fausboell and Andersen-Smith. But the material furnished by the latter shows that, in the two passages, the Burmese manuscripts have Muḷaka instead of Aḷaka. The inscription of Śrī-Puḷumāyi at Nasik, enumerating the provinces annexed by Gautamiputra to his empire, names the country of Muḷaka which it puts together with the country of Asaka (Assaka) exactly as the *Pārāyaṇa* does : *Asika-Asaka-Muḷaka-Suraṭha-Kukur-Aparānta-Anūpa - Vidabha-Ākar-Āvati*. The latest editor of the inscription, M. Senart, wrote about the name Muḷaka : “The Muḷakas remain shrouded in obscurity. Bhagwanlal adduced the dynasty of the Muṇḍakas, known from the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* ; and the way in which they are here mentioned together with the Śakas and Tukhāras is such as to commend the hint. But I am doubtful about the change of *ḷ* into *ṇ*.”⁴ Thanks to the text of the *Pārāyaṇa* the mystery is solved. The site of Muḷaka may also be determined with enough precision, since it is between Asaka (Assaka, Aśmaka) where exists the city of Pratiṣṭhāna (Patiṭhāna), now-a-days Paiṭhan on the upper Godāvarī, near its source, and Suraṭha (Surāṣṭra) which is the modern peninsula of Kathiawar. Muḷaka should then indicate the portion of the coast with the rear-country lying to the north of Bombay, i. e. Gujarāt.¹