Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c5.s2: 5. The two Cakravarti-kṣetras mentioned together

Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c5.s2

Language: English

5. The two Cakravarti-kṣetras mentioned together

c5.s2.1

We have seen above that the Paramāra king Bhoja (c. 1010-55 A.D.) is sometimes represented as the lord of the land bounded by the Kailāsa, the Malaya and the mythical Sun-set and Sun-rise mountains. There is another tradition which says that the same Paramāra king ruled for a little over fiftyfive years over ‘Dakṣiṇāpatha together with Gauḍa’.⁵ There is no doubt that Dakṣiṇāpatha has been mentioned here in the sense of the whole of South India, often conceived as a separate *cakravarti-kṣetra*. That the claim is merely conventional is shown by the fact that Bhoja’s dominions did not include any considerable part of South India. But scholars have so long failed to grasp the correct significance of the word *Gauḍa* mentioned in relation to Dakṣiṇāpatha in the above context.

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⁵ Ray, *op. cit.*, p. 858.

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I have little doubt that Gauḍa has been mentioned here to indicate the northern *cakravarti-kṣetra* or Āryāvarta, so that Bhoja is represented as the lord of the entire Cakravarti-kṣetra comprising both Dakṣiṇāpatha and North India. Thus both the partial *cakravarti-kṣetras* are mentioned here side by side to signify the whole of Bhāratavarṣa conceived as the main *cakravarti-kṣetra*. It is interesting to note in this connection that there is some evidence in support of the name Gauḍa being sometimes applied to indicate the whole of Northern India. The Brāhmaṇical society of South India is usually divided into five classes called the *Pañcha-Drāviḍa*. These classes are : (1) Drāviḍa (Tamil), (2) Karṇāṭa (Kannaḍa), (3) Gurjara (Gujarati), (4) Mahā-rāṣṭra and (5) Tailaṅga (Telugu). This classification is based on a linguistic division of the South Indian Brāhmaṇas. Although the population of North India can hardly be divided into five linguistic groups with propriety, an attempt was made in imitation of the South Indian classification to classify the Brāhmaṇa society of Northern India into the same number of subdivisions. Strangely, however, the common name applied to the five classes of North Indian Brāhmaṇas was Gauḍa as Drāviḍa is the general name of southern Brāhmaṇas. The divisions of the Northern Brāhmaṇas are : (1) Sārasvata (associated with the valley of the Sarasvatī in the Punjab), (2) Kānyakubja (in Uttar Pradesh), (3) Gauḍa (in Bengal), (4) Maithila (in North Bihar) and Utkala (in Orissa). In these cases, therefore, the name Drāviḍa indicates South India, while Gauḍa signifies North India. We know that the name Gauḍa, originally the name of a part of Bengal, was often used to indicate all the countries of Eastern India. Thus the East Indian style of Sanskrit composition as well as the medieval East Indian alphabet came to be called after Gauḍa. A further expansion of the connotation of the name to indicate the whole of North India is suggested by the classification of Brāhmaṇas referred to above.¹

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¹ Some of the points discussed here were raised by me first in *J.R.A.S.B, Letters*, Vol. V. 1939, pp. 407ff. As regards the last paragraph, cf. the section on *Gauḍa* below.