History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c18.s2.43

c18.s2.43

The near-by region to the west of the Delta was sometimes called Daṇḍabhukti,¹ and Samaḍaṇḍa may be a corruption of the two names Daṇḍabhukti and Samaṭaṭa. If so the name Kukkuṭanagara ("City of the Cock") may be explained by the similarity of the words Tāmralipti, the chief river-port of the area, and tāmracūḍa ("the copper-crested"), a common literary epithet for the cock. That the author of Nilakēci had but a poor knowledge of North Indian geography is proved by his placing Kapilapura on the sea coast, and in such an author confusion is not impossible. If this alternative be accepted it may indicate that the Dravidian Ājīvikas looked upon Bengal as the original home of their faith.