Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 358

TAMIL KINGDOMS
329 mentioned as the ruling race of Indraprastha in the Mahābhārata as well as in several Jātakas. Ptolemy (cir. 150 A. D.) speaks of the country of the Pandoouoi in the Pañjāb. There can be no doubt that Pāndu was the name of a real tribe or clan in northern India. Kātyāyana's statement regarding the connection of the Pāņdyas with the Pāṇdus receives some support from the fact that the name of the Pāņdya capital (Madurā) was identical with the famous city of Mathurā in the. Sūrasena country which, according to Epic tradition, was the seat of a family intimately associated by ties of friendship and marriage with the Pāṇdus of Indraprastha. The connection between the Pāņdus, the Śūrasenas and the Pāņdyas seems to be alluded to in the confused stories narrated by Megasthenes regarding Herakles and Pandaia. 2
Satiyaputra is identified by Mr. Venkates varaiyar 3 with Satya-vrata-kshetra or Kañchipura. But Dr. Aiyangar points out that the term Satya-vrata-kshetra is applied to the town of Kāñchi or a part of it, not to the country dependent upon it. There is besides the point whether vrata could become puta. Dr. Aiyangar supports Bhandarkar's identification with Satpute. He takes Satiyaputra to be a collective name of the various matriarchal communities like the Tulus and the Nāyars of Malabar. 4 According to Dr. Smith 5 Satiyaputra is represented by the Satyamangalam Taluk of Coimbatore. Mr. T. N. Subramaniam prefers Kongunādu ruled by the
1 I find it difficult to agree with Dr. Barua, Inscriptions of Asoka, Part II (1943), p. 232, that the line of Yudhishthira"...that ruled at Indraprastha in the Kuru country "has nothing to do with Pāņdu's eldest son."
2 Ind. Ant., 1877, p. 249. 3 FRAS, 1918, pp. 541-42. 4 JRAS, 1919, pp. 581-84. 5 Asoka, Third Ed., p. 161
6 JRAS, 1922, 86. 0. P. 90–42.