Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c9.s1.4

c9.s1.4

The Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini who flourished in North-Western India about the fifth century B.C. speaks of a city called Gauḍapura. But the rule pure prācām (6, 2, 99) which immediately precedes the rule ariṣṭa-gauḍa-pūrve ca (6,2,100) suggests that both the cities, viz., Ariṣṭapura and Gauḍapura referred to in the Aṣṭādhyāyī, were situated outside the eastern part of I ndia¹ in a region which was more or less fully Aryanised before the composition of the grammatical work in question. There is again no reason to believe that the Aryanisation of Western Bengal (in which the Gauḍa country was situated) made any appreciable progress in the age of Pāṇini.² Thus the identification of Pāṇini's Gauḍapura with the city of Gauḍa in Bengal is highly improbable. The name Gauḍa is supposed to be derived from the word guḍa meaning 'sugar'. The country, of which Gauḍa was the chief city, was also known by the same name possibly because it was famous in ancient times for its production of sugar. But whether the name of the city was applied to the country or that of the country to its chief city cannot be dertermined in the present state of our knowledge. The fact however that, in the seventh century A.D., the capital of the Gauḍa country was called Karṇasuvarṇa (modern Rāṅgāmāṭi, about eleven miles to the south of Murshidabad, headquarters of the District of that name to the south of the Ganges and Malda) seems to suggest that the city was named after the country. This fact also indicates that the city of Gauḍa was built in its present site to the south of Malda some time after the seventh century probably in the age of the Pālas. It is interesting to note in this connection that all the *jaya-skandhāvāras* (i.e. residences or temporary capitals) of the Pāla kings, including Rāmāvatī-nagara (in the vicinity of the site of Gauḍa) were situated on the Ganges. Urged by their preference for a city on the main course of the river, the Pāla kings may have transferred the headquarters of the Gauḍa country from Karṇasuvarṇa to the present site of Gauḍa in the Malda District. This seems to have been done after the main current of the river had begun to pass through the Padmā and the Bhāgīrathī (the original Ganges), on which Karṇasuvarṇa was situated, had begun to be gradually less important as a watercourse. There is moreover reason to believe that originally the Ganges flowed by a route through the middle of the present District of Malda so that the city of Gauḍa lay on its southern or right bank.¹