Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c7.s1.212

c7.s1.212

2. Vy, Bmd—इन्द्रशंकुपथानपि; Mts—वेत्रशंकुपथानपि. Śaṅkupatha is mentioned in the *Niddesa* commentary (cf. note 1 above) along with Verāpatha, Jaṇṇupatha, Ajapatha, Meṇdhapatha, Chatrapatha, Vaṃśapatha, Śakuṇapatha, Muṣikapatha and Darīpatha. Vetrapatha (possibly called Vettādhāra or Vettācāra in the *Niddesa*) is mentioned in connection with Suvarṇabhūmi (the land beyond the eastern sea or the Bay of Bengal) in the *Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha*. These extraordinary routes (passes?) are also referred to in other early Indian works such as the *Vimānavatthu*, the *Tittira Jātaka*, the *Milindapañha*, Patañjali’s comment on Pāṇini, V. 1, 77, and the *Gaṇapāṭha*. It has been suggested that the knowledge of the Far East exhibited by the *Niddesa* did not exist in India before the first century A.D., but that it is earlier than the third century A.D. The *Niddesa* list, with which the Purāṇic section under discussion may be contemporaneous, has been assigned to a date between the end of the first and the beginning of the third century A.D. Incidentally it may be pointed out that the knowledge of the Far East exhibited by the *Mahābhāṣya* points to a late date of the work in its present form as suggested in *I.H.Q.*, Vol. XV, pp. 933ff.