Varendradesa, [9] Assam, [10] Herambadeśa, [11] Jayantiya, [12] Srihatta, (13] Tripura, [14] Cattala, [15] Vadarayogini (Dacca), [16] Bakla including Barisal, [17] Jessore, [18] Manatadesa (Hugli), [19] Burdwan, [20] Bhảnaka, [21] Rintambore, ] [22] Ságara, [23] Bhupal, [24] Bundelkhhund, [25] Kosala containing Baira and Abadhi, [26] Rājagļha, [27] Virabhūmi, [28] Mallabhūmi, [29] Brāhmaṇabhūmi, [30] Gaudadeśa, [31] Vangadeśa, [32] Dravidadeśa, [33] Karņāladeśa, [34] Maṇipura, [35] Dungaradeśa, [36] Alapasimha, [37] Mymensingh, [38] Susanga, [39] Sarayūpāra, [40] Gädhidesă (Ajamgarh), [41] Tāmralipta (Tamluk), [12] Brajamaņdala, [43] Antarvedideśa. The manuscripts seem to have been collected for the use of the Fort William College Library, for the library numbers on the manuscripts are written in the same hand as other well-known Fort William College manuscripts. During the distribution of manuscript treasures of that college these manuscripts seem to have fallen to the share of the Sanskrit College, Calcutta, where they are still to be found. These manuscripts are all written in Devanagri character and in a bold hand. I have only found a fragment in Bengali hand from Bankura, and this 'fragment is now the property of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. I have taken too much of your time on one manuscript, but I hope to be excused as the manuscript beongs to the Province of Bihar and to the City of Patna. My examination of these manuscripts has revealed the fact that for the last 500 years, at least, Hindus and the people of Bihar were striving strenuously to give a full and useful description of the fifty-six countries. The first in this line of work is no less a person than Vidyāpati, the charming lyric poet of Mithila whose love-songs are now, thanks to the exertions of Sir George Grierson, the admiration of the world. He was not only a poet but a deeply-read Sanskrit scholar whose works on Smrti and religion are still admired in Mithila, who was not only a poet and a scholar but a general and an administrator, and it is in the last capacity that he conceived the idea of a gazetteer of а. a the sixty-five and not fifty-six as in other works) countries. His sources of information are Purānas, Tantras, old travellers, and what is most important, State records a source not available to his successors, Jagamohan and Rāmakavi. Though his conception was that of a purely rational and scientific character, Vidyāpati could not rise superior to the influences of his time and wrote it in the form of an expiatory tour of Balarām, the elder brother of Śri-Króna. Vidyåpati's patron Śiva-Simha was then in Mithilã. But Vidyāpati was with DevaSimha, Siva-Simha's father at Naimiņāranya where the idea of the book was conceived. Naimişâranga was the place where the Rşis in ancient times are said to have held long sessions of Vedic sacrifices, and it was during these sessions that the Sūtas recited the Purāņas. So the place was still in Vidyāpati's time animated as it were, with a historical spirit. Balaram is said to have come there and killed a Sūta in a'fit of anger. Brahma-batyā (this sin of killing a Bråhmana) immediately laid hold upon Balaram in spite of his high and divine birih, The Rșis advised him to make a tour round the earth and perform all the duties of a pilgrim in the holy places. Balaram left Naimișa and came to Drupada's courtry, Pancāla (now Rohilkhund). He saw Drupada's arsenal, Drupada’s capital, the shrines consecrated by him and his ancestors as well as villages inbabited by Yogis of moderu times. This is the great defect of the Pauranic form of a gazetteer, and our great Vidya pati could not shake off a connection with tbe Purānas in a human and a modern work. From Drupada’s country Balaram went to Brahmavarta, the place of Svayambhu-Manu and the place of so many ancient and sacred memories. He seems to have an idea that there are two Brahmăvartas, Laghu and Vịhat, and they are apart from cach other. From Brahmävarta he came to the hermitage of Vālmīki. True to his l'auranio spirit Vidyāpati sticks to the old names of hermitages, and so on, and he also describes the reception of Balarām in these countries, thus mixing up things, ancient and modern. From Valmiki's place Balarānn comes to Piayaga, the holy places of which are given with some detail. Then he crosses over to Bharadvāja's grove and recrosses to Pratiéthāna, thence to Srngavera and along the north bank of the Ganges, he comes to Kāśi. From Kaši to Sarnath and the Buddhist remains. Thence following the route of Ráma as given in the Rāmāyana he comes to Gautamāśrama at the confluence of the Ganges and the Sarayu and then to Tādakā's place, and after that the hermitage of Chyavana and to Pataliputtra. Valmiki in his Rāmāyana does not mention Pataliputtra because it did not exist in his time, but Vidyāpati found Pataliputtra to be too well-known a place to be omitted altogether. Froin Pâtaliputtra he goes to Tirabhukti and thence to Mithilā, and here the patriotic poet tevels in the description of the ancient holy places, but alas, for me my manuscript breaks off here before even a third of the sixtyfive centuries are described. The age of Vidyāpati is well known. He belonged to the fifteenth century and he was a long-lived man. I have ascertained his date from a manuscript got in Nepal. While living in a jungle with his patron's family, perhaps fugitives, he got a copy of a Maithila commentary on the Kavya-Prakása, and he employed two scribes to hastily copy it out. They did it and the two hands are discernible throughout the manuscript. The post colophon statement gives the date as 291; reduced to A. D., it will come to 1406 or 1407. The fragment of Vidyāpati’s minuscript of the gazetteer contains a date in the post-colophon statement, namely, 1450. It is most probably the sëribe's date. So froin the fifteenth century the Bihar people are striving to know the countries around them. The next work in chronological order is the Vikramasāgara. It was also compiled by a member of the Vaijala family and was a work of some authority when Jagamohan wrote his work. In his colophon he often says that he quotes from Vikarma-Sāgra. We have no means of verifying his statement, but we are not wrong if we infer that in his time Vikrama-Sāgara was a wellknown work. It is by a mere chance that a very small fragment of Vikrama-Sāgara has fallen into my hands. It contains the Bangalácaraņa, the preamble and the chapter on Påtaliputtra. a It says that Pataliputtra had a king, named Sucandra, who had a Buddhist wife and had Buddhist tendencies. He conceived the idea of conquering fifty-six countries and going eastward he conquered Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Burma, Pegu and other countries. After this information is obtained the work gets mixed up with Jagamohan's work. In Jagamohan's work, too, the chapter on Pātaliputtra, though it comes in the middle, contains the accounts of the conquests of one Sugaticandra, who seems to be a mere translation of Sucandra. Who the Sucandra was, I don't know. It may be a faint memory of Chandragupta and the Mauryas. Sucandra is, however, a well-known name in the later Buddhist tradition. He looms large in the works of Kālacakrayāna and he is not unknown in the Pali and Burmese literature. The last work of this class is Pāndava-Digvijaya, cast in the form of the conquest of the world by the four brothers of Yudhisthira as given in the Sabhā-Parvan extended, enlarged and modernized by Rāmakavi, a favourite poet of the Rājā of Sekhara-Bhūmi during the eighteenth century. He draws profusely on his predecessors and enlarges upon them. He is always fuller than Jagamohan. His book is divided into four parts according to the conquests of four brothers. It is a vast storehouse of information from a Hindu point of view. But the condition of the manuscript fragments is deplorable. It is divided in four parts as Yudhişthira himself did not go out. He sent his four brothers to four quarters for conquests. He sent Bhima to the east, Nakula to the south, Sahadeva to the west and Arjuna to the north. In Nakula-Digvijaya is given an account of Salivahana, the reputed founder of the Saka era. It is a long story. He conquered the whole of India, and last of all he came in conflict with Babhru-Ghotaka, a descendant of Vikramāditya, the founder of the Vikrama era. S'alivahana was born of a potter's wife by Taksapati Nāgarája, the king of serpents. But he gained his victories by the grace of Siva. Much interesting description of countries and tribes is given in the course of the conflict with the king of Ujjain. Many Kşattriya tribes filed away from his prowess to distant countries on the banks of the Brahmaputra and Indus, took to other trades and callings and renounced the profession of arms. After the conquest of the whole of the Kumārikākhaņda or southern peninsula, Nakula went to Ceylon inhabited by a large Buddhist population. There is an account of Buddhism as known in India in the first half of the eighteenth century when the Pāņdava-Digvijaya kavya was written at Śekharabhūmi by Ramakavi. Folio, 124 B.: चतु: शतोत्तरे पक्षसहस्त्राब्दे गले को: । |