Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c7.s1.55

c7.s1.55

³ It is to be noted that the short list in Section IX below (pp. 55-57) wrongly speaks of some of these rivers as flowing not from the Ṛkṣavat but from the Vindhya. The name Ṛkṣavat was applied to a particular section of the range that was in a general sense called the Vindhya. While the name Vindhya was loosely applied to the whole chain of hills running from Gujarat to the Gayā region and lying on both sides of the Narmadā, that of the Ṛkṣavat, when especially mentioned in literature, is always associated with the central part of the Narmadā valley, of which Māhiṣmatī (Māndhātā in the Nimār District of Madhya Pradesh, Maheśvar in the former Indore State according to some) was the most important city and Daśārṇā (see p. 47, n. 4) a notable river. The Vindhya, when distinguishing from the Ṛkṣavat, denotes the chain lying to the south of the Narmadā as suggested by Nīlakaṇṭha who explains the passage *Vindhy-Arkṣavantāv=abhitah* (i.e., ‘lying between the Vindhya and the Ṛkṣavat’) in the *Hv*, II, 38, 7 as *Vindhyasy=ottarata Ṛkṣavato dakṣiṇata ity=arthaḥ* (i.e., ‘lying to the north of the Vindhya and to the south of the Ṛkṣavat’). Cf. Raychaudhuri, *Stud. Ind. Ant.*, p.