Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c7.71

c7.71

UTTARĀPATHA AND DAKKHIṆĀPATHA. One remarkable fact now remains to be noticed in this connection. The Jātakas seem to have retained the original significance of the terms Uttarāpatha and Dakkhiṇāpatha as meaning, respectively, “the Northern High Road” and “the Southern High Road.” It is clear that originally two great trade routes, both Uttarāpatha and Dakkhiṇāpatha, lent their names to the regions through which they passed.¹¹ It is in this sense that the districts of Kaṃsa and Uttaramadhurā, which lay on the Northern High Road,¹² are included in Uttarāpatha,¹³ and that Avantī, which lay on the Southern High Road,¹⁴ is included in Dakkhiṇāpatha.¹⁵