CHAPTER II

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ANCIENT DIVISIONS.

[Ánartta.] From ancient times the present province of Gujarát consisted of three divisions Ánartta, Suráshtra, and Láta. Ánartta seems to have been Northern Gujarát, as its capital was Ánandapura the modern Vadanagara or Chief City, which is also called Ánarttapura. [11] Both these names were in use even in the times of the Valabhi kings (A.D. 500-770). [12] According to the popular story, in each of the four cycles or yugas Ánandapura or Vadanagara had a different name, Chamatkárapura in the first or Satya-yuga, Ánarttapura in the second or Tretá-yuga, Ánandapura in the third or Dvápara-yuga, and Vriddha-nagara or Vadanagar in the fourth or Káli-yuga. The first name is fabulous. The city does not seem to have ever been known by so strange a title. Of the two Ánarttapura and Ánandapura the former is the older name, while the latter may be its proper name or perhaps an adaptation of the older name to give the meaning City of Joy. The fourth Vriddha-nagara meaning the old city is a Sanskritized form of the still current Vadnagar, the Old or Great City. In the Girnár inscription of Kshatrapa Rudradáman (A.D. 150) the mention of Ánartta and Suráshtra as separate provinces subject to the Pahlava viceroy of Junágadh agrees with the view that Ánartta was part of Gujarát close to Káthiáváda. In some Puránas Ánartta appears as the name of the whole province including Suráshtra, with its capital at the well known shrine of Dwáriká. In other passages Dwáriká and Prabhás are both mentioned as in Suráshtra which would seem to show that Suráshtra was then part of Ánartta as Káthiáváda is now part of Gujarát.

[Suráshtra.] Suráshtra the land of the Sus, afterwards Sanskritized into Sauráshtra the Goodly Land, preserves its name in Sorath the southern part of Káthiáváda. The name appears as Suráshtra in the Mahábhárata and Pánini's Ganapátha, in Rudradáman's (A.D. 150) and Skandagupta's (A.D. 456) Girnár inscriptions, and in several Valabhi copper-plates. Its Prákrit form appears as Suratha in the Násik inscription of Gotamiputra (A.D. 150) and in later Prákrit as Suraththa in the Tirthakalpa of Jinaprabhásuri of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. [13] Its earliest foreign mention is perhaps Strabo's (B.C. 50-A.D. 20) Saraostus and Pliny's (A.D. 70) Oratura. [14] Ptolemy the great Egyptian geographer (A.D. 150) and the Greek author of the Periplus (A.D. 240) both call it Surastrene. [15] The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 600-640) mentions Valabhi then large and famous and Suráshtra as separate kingdoms. [16]

[Láta.] Láta is South Gujarát from the Mahi to the Tápti. The name Láta does not appear to be Sanskrit. It has not been found in the Mahábhárata or other old Sanskrit works, or in the cave or other inscriptions before the third century A.D., probably because the Puránas include in Aparánta the whole western seaboard south of the Narbada as far as Goa. Still the name Láta is old. Ptolemy (A.D. 150) uses the form Larike [17] apparently from the Sanskrit Látaka. Vátsyáyana in his Káma-Sutra of the third century A.D. calls it Láta; describes it as situated to the west of Málwa; and gives an account of several of the customs of its people. [18] In Sanskrit writings and inscriptions later than the third century the name is frequently found. In the sixth century the great astronomer Varáhamihira mentions the country of Láta, and the name also appears as Láta in an Ajanta and in a Mandasor inscription of the fifth century. [19] It is common in the later inscriptions (A.D. 700-1200) of the Chálukya Gurjara and Ráshtrakúta kings [20] as well as in the writings of Arab travellers and historians between the eighth and twelfth centuries. [21]

The name Láta appears to be derived from some local tribe, perhaps the Lattas, who, as r and l are commonly used for each other, may possibly be the well known Ráshtrakútas since their great king Amoghavarsha (A.D. 851-879) calls the name of the dynasty Ratta. Lattalura the original city of the Rattas of Saundatti and Belgaum may have been in Láta and may have given its name to the country and to the dynasty. [22] In this connection it is interesting to note that the country between Broach and Dhár in Málwa in which are the towns of Bágh and Tánda is still called Rátha.

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