[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Historical geography](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography) › [Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960) › c22.43 # Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c22.43 Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c22.43 - **Language:** English ### [c22.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c22.43) Gaya as a personal name, with which the holy place called Gaya or Gayā (cf. Gaya-śiras or Gayā° and Gaya-śirṣa or Gayā°) is intimately associated, is well known from the \*Ṛgveda\*¹ and \*Atharvaveda\*.² The unanimous testimony of the Puranic writers and medieval lexicographers suggests that the Gayā region was known to the Rigvedic seers as Kikaṭa.³ Although pilgrimage to holy places for the sake of merit seems to be a non-Aryan religious institution which took some time in being fully approved by the Brahmanical society, the importance of the holy hill called Gaya-śiras at Gayā appears to have been recognised in very early times. This is suggested by Yāska’s \*Nirukta\* (12, 19) which, while explaining the Vedic passage \*tredhā nidadhe padam\*,⁴ quotes the view of an earlier authority named Aurnavābha saying that Viṣṇu plants his foot at Samārohaṇa, Viṣṇu-pada and Gaya-śiras. These were evidently three holy spots. Since in the whole of India, there is only one Gaya-śiras or Gaya-śirṣa (Gayā-śiras or Gayā-śirṣa) near Gayā in Bihar, the tradition, attributed to Aurnavābha by Yāska who is believed by scholars to have flourished between 700 and 500 B.C.,⁵ certainly points to the antiquity of Gayā as a recognised holy place of antiquity. The conclusion is supported by the frequent mention of the holy spots at Gayā and its neighbourhood in early Buddhist literature. - [Previous: c22.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c22.42) - [Next: c22.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c22.44) - [Up: c22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c22) ## Cites (3) - [Nirukta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.nirukta.yaska.12.19) — Yāska, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c22.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c22.43) · Pramāṇa