Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c21.3

c21.3

The expression *Himavac-chikhara* in the passages quoted above literally means ‘a peak of the Himalayas’. But the village called Doṅgā-grāma, where the donated lands were situated and where further lands were applied for, does not appear to have been far from Dāmodarpūr, the findspot of the charter in question. The village is also mentioned in another Dāmodarpur record that was issued in the Gupta year 124 during the reign of Kumāra-gupta I. A second Dāmodarpur grant of the time of Budhagupta, dated in the year 163, mentions Vāyi-grāmaka which is no other than the modern Bāigrām in the Bogra District, not far away from the findspot of the record. The Dāmodarpur inscription of the Gupta year 224 refers to the purchase of five *Kulyavāpas* of land by the *Kulaputra* Amṛtadeva hailing from Ayodhyā for the following purpose : अत्रारण्ये भगवतः श्वेतवराहस्वामिनो देवकुले खण्डस्फुटितप्रतिसंस्कारकरणाय बलिचरुसत्रप्रवर्त्तनगन्धधूपपुष्पप्रापणमधुपर्क-दीपाद्युपयोगाय च अप्रदाधम्म्र्ण ताम्रपट्टिकृत्य क्षेत्रस्तोकं दातुमिति । In connection with the grant of land to the god Śvetavarāhasvāmin in this case, mention has been made of Svacchanda-pāṭaka, Lava-ṅgasikā, Sāṭuvan-āśramaka, Paraspatikā, the Jambū-nadī and Pūraṇavṛndikahari. Of these, Pūraṇavṛndikahari has been identified by some scholars with modern Brindakoori, 14 miles to the north of Dāmodarpur. It is therefore almost certain that the lands granted by Ṛbhupāla to the gods Kokāmukhasvāmin and Śvetavarāhasvāmin lay in the Dāmodarpur region in the southern part of the Dinajpur District. But the temples of the two gods in question were situated in the Himalayan region far away from Dāmodarpur. It has therefore been suggested by some scholars that the mountainous region about the northern fringe of the modern territory of Bengal formed parts of the Koṭivarṣa *viṣaya* (Dinajpur area) or the Puṇḍravardhana *bhukti* (North Bengal).¹ This hypothesis is apparently due to the fact that nobody has so far been able to determine the exact location of the temples of Kokāmukha and Śvetavarāha in the Himalayas.