Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c22.7

c22.7

Secondly, the date of the composition of the stanza, *Ayodhyā*, etc., quoted above, is uncertain. But a theory based on the absence of Gayā in it seems to be merely a case of *argumentum ex silentio*. It is certainly impossible to believe that Prabhāsa, Puṣkara and Prayāga, which are not mentioned in the verse, attained all-India importance after the seventh century. The pilgrimage of a ruler of the North Marāṭhā country to Prabhāsa and Puṣkara is mentioned in an inscription of the second century A.D.¹, while Prayāga is not only referred to in a *Khila* verse placed in the *Ṛgveda*, X, 75, but is also mentioned in an inscription² as a holy place where a sixth century king of East Malwa committed religious suicide according to the injunction of the *Dharmaśāstra* writers. There is absolutely no doubt that these three *tīrthas*, not represented in the stanza relied on by our author, became widely known many hundred years before the eighth century when the said verse is supposed to have been composed. The verse is found with some modifications once in the *Brahmāṇḍa* (IV, 40, 91) and *Garuda* (Preta-khaṇḍa, 38, 5-6) *Purāṇas* and twice in the *Kāśī-khaṇḍa* (6, 68 and 23, 7) section of the *Skanda Purāṇa*.³ There is hardly any doubt that the date of its composition is later than that of a traditional stanza regarding the sanctity of Gayā, which is found in the epics as well as in most of the *Purāṇas* and *Dharmaśāstra* works. But this is not the only evidence to show that Gayā was already one of the most famous Indian *tīrthas* long before the rise of the Pālas about the middle of the eighth century.