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(184 INDIA AS DESORIBÓD, IN EARLY TEXTS
As regards the inland land-routes, two were he main: Dakkhiņāpatha or the south frestern route which extended from Rājagaba to Patitthāna on the Godhāvarī via Sävatthi and Sāketa,1 and Uttarāpatha or the north-western route which extended from Săvatthi and Kosambi to Takkhasilā via Madhurà across the sandy desert of Rajputana. There were also local roads connected with these two great routes. The Apaņņaka-Jātaka speaks of the five kinds of wild (kantārā): the maru, vaņņu or nirudaka (sandy), cora (insested with robbers), vāļa (infested with wild animals), amanussa (dominated by evil spirits), and appabhakkha (where food was scarce). Thus the journey through them was perilous. The merchants and traders who used wagons or bullock-carts were known as Satthavāhā or caravan merchants. A caravan consisted, in some instances, of five hundred wagons and its course was guided by a land-pilot (thalaniyāmaka), the direction being determined in relation to the position of stars. The fords were crossed with the help of boats, and when the river-beds dried up, with the help of strong local bulls or bullocks.
1 Sutta-nipāta, vv, 976-7 and 1011–13; Buddhist India, pp. 30f. and 103.
2 Jataka, i, p. 99. 8 Ibid., i, p. 107f.; Digha, i, p. 73; Majjhima, i, p. 276.
Ibid., i, p. 107. 6 Ibid., 1, p. 194f.
