[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) › c8.7 # Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c8.7 Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c8.7 - **Language:** English ### [c8.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c8.7) The Śakti-saṅgama Tantra, to which the Ṣaṭpañcāśaddeśavibhāga belongs, is a late work that is roughly assignable to the seventeenth century. In his introduction to the Kālikhaṇḍa (Book I of the Śakti-saṅgama Tantra), B. Bhattacharya assigns the work to the period between 1555 and 1607 A.D. or roughly to circa 1581 A.D.¹ This date is, however, based on the supposition that ‘in the Tantrasāra by Kṛṣṇānanda Āgamavāgīśa (written sometime after 1577 A.D.),² the Śakti-saṅgama Tantra is largely quoted’.³ As a matter of fact, there is not a single quotation from the Śakti-saṅgama in the Tantrasāra. The Ṣaṭpañcāśaddeśavibhāga (verse 11), on the other hand, refers to the inclusion of Ujjayinī in the country of Mahārāṣṭra and this seems to point to the Marāṭhā occupation of Malwa under Bajī Rāo I (1720-40 A.D.). V. 16 again speaks of Karṇāṭa in the sense of ‘the Carnatic’ and not of the Kannada-speaking country. We know that the successors of Veṅkaṭa II (1630-42) of the Āraviḍu dynasty of Vijayanagara kings, even though they ruled a small tract in the east coast and had little or no authority over the Kannada country, still called themselves ‘Lords of Karṇāṭaka’. The verse seems to point to a date when the name Karṇāṭaka had become stereotyped as the designation of a part of the east coast. This was done possibly about the time when Zulfiqār Ali Khān (1692-1703 A.D.) was created the ‘Nawab of the Karṇāṭaka’ by the Mughal emperor Aurangzib.⁴ If these suggestions are correct, the Ṣaṭpañcāśaddeśavibhāga cannot be assigned to a period earlier than the first quarter of the 18th century. The manuscript of the Tantra, here marked B, contains the date Śaka 1674=1752 A.D. when apparently the manuscript was copied. But that the Śakti-saṅgama Tantra was composed sometime before 1744 A. D. is indicated by the fact that two of its stanzas are quoted by Harikṛṣṇa Miśra in his \*Vaidikavaiṣṇavasadācāra\* composed between 1713 and 1744 A.D.¹ - [Previous: c8.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c8.6) - [Next: c8.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c8.8) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c8) ## Linked texts (1) - [Śaktisaṅgamatantra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.sampradaya.general.sakta.saktisangama) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c8.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.sircar-1960.c8.7) · Pramāṇa