Tamralipta : the Ancient Port in Odisha
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JUNE - 2013 Odisha Review Tamralipta : The Ancient Port in Odisha Akhil Kumar Sahoo Geographical situation of Tamralipta, Suham or meaning ‘beautiful, and from this name of the Suram, Lata, Varahi temple, Chaurasi, Radha, palace came the name of the kingdom. The and Bharukachchha or Baroch, and Gangaridae Buddha delivered the Janapada Kalyani Sutta in etc., points to one compact region, and their a forest of Sumbha, or Suram country, and ancient history is intimately connected with each Desaka town was near to it. other. The historical relationship between the According to Dasakumaracharita(6th kingdom of Lata, Suram, and Tamralipta can be AD), Tamralipta was in Suham or Suram, or traced in Buddhist literature as well as in puranic Sumha, kingdom, and temple of Bindubasini was contents .Tamralipta was on the mouth of the situated there. Noted historian Smith has rightly Ganges, and was formed by the united streams observed that Tamralipta was capital of Suham of the Silavati and Dvarikeswari rivers. It was the kingdom in 6th c AD, and it was a part of the capital of Mayurdhvaja, and his son Tamradhvaja Magadha under the Mauryas. In Mahabharata, who fought against Arjuna. According to Jaimini- and Matsya, Suhma or Suram, and Tamralipta Bharata, Mayurdhvaja’s capital was on the banks were shown as two different places. Here Suram of the river Nerbuda; and reference has been has also been mentioned as a port where Tapassu made there on Ratnapura, another name of and Bhallika, the two merchant brothers of Tamralipta, some say. Kathasaritasagara Kalinga, arrived. In Brihad Samhita, Suram is mentions Tamralipta as a maritime port, and also placed between Banga and Kalinga. Some as an emporium of commerce from 4th c AD to historians identified it with Radha, and others 12th c AD. identified Radha with Lata ( or Lada of Jain, or Lata is mentioned in Ptolemy’s Lala). Geography, as Larike; and Asokan Dhauli Behind naming of this Suham or Suram, Inscriptions mention Lata as Lathika. And Girinar reference can be made to Ceylonese Chronicles. Inscriptions take Lata as Rastika or Ristika. What In order to divert the attention of the Bodhisattva, is most important here is that Broach or Barygaza King Sudhodana made a seven storeyed beautiful of Greeks, or Bharukachha was the chief city of palace for him, and provided all sorts of comfort Lata. And importance of this place can also be and amusement here for the Prince to divert his traced in Buddhist and Puranic sources. Here Raja attention. The name of this building was Suram, Bali performed a sacrifice on the advice of 47 Odisha Review JUNE - 2013 Sukracharya after being deprived of his kingdom the river Nai-mo-to, reached Po-lu-kie-che-po by Vishnu in his Vamana Avatara. Olladesa has ( Bharukachha). The Pilgrim also mentions that it been described as identical with Lata, and the is Bhrigukshetra, or the traditional residence of Nagara Brhamins of this kingdom are said to have Sage Bhrugurishi. From Bharukachha, the pilgrim Nagari characters. According to Ptolemy, and went on towards Malava (Mo-la-po). other Puranas, it is situated between the river The Pilgrim Hiuen Tsang arrived at Mahi, and river Kim. Its name is also mentioned Tamralipti (Tan-mo-li-ti) after going 900 li from in Kamasutra of Vatsyayana. The source of the Samatata (San-mo-ta-cha). This 7th century river Chandrabhaga which was known as Lohitya, Chinese Pilgrim says that there was a Varahi and was also known to writers of the ancient temple in the country where the Tamralipta port texts of a river and of a sarovara in the same had then existed. I-ching, another 7th century name, and was famous in the age of the Ramayana, Chinese Pilgrim also visited Tamralipta, and belonged to this Lata kingdom. resided in its Varahi monastery. He says that According to Kathasaritasagara, Raja Tamralipta was 60 or 70 yojanas east from Satavahana of Pratisthana was a resident of Nalanda. In between Tamralipta, and Bharukachchha. And its other name prior to Bharukachha, the Pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited Buddha, perhaps, was Bhrugupura, indicating that places like : Karnasuvarna. Udra, Kanyodha, Sage Bhrugu, who was contemporary to, and was Kalinga, Kosala, An-to-lo, Dhanakataka, Chola, the first teacher of the Buddha, might be living Dravida, Malakuta, Simhala, Konakapura, and here. After leaving the palace, Surama, in the mid- Maharashtra. It is not at all difficult to observe night through its south gate, the Bodisattva along that names of towns and cities or villages are with Charioteer Chandaka, and horse Kanthak, completely different from names of countries and in his renunciation went to Anupiya, the mango kingdoms. Taking names of countries like Kosala, grove of the Mallas, where he met Sage Bhrugu, Kalinga and Magadha offers no meaning to the place being not too far away from Kapilavastu. identification of places when cities and towns But this Bharukachha was no other than the Bharu visited by the Pilgrim comes intermittently under kingdom of Supparaka Jataka. During the time different country heads, and at times keeping no of the Buddha, it was also known as order of their geographical boundaries. Moreover, Bhandagrama which was visited by the Buddha Kosala, Kalinga and Magadha etc are countries, before his last journey to Kusinagara. The and there were cities, towns and villages under kingdom was also a port town, according to them with defined boundaries. When the Buddhist sources. translated account of the Pilgrim deals with a separate chapter on Magadha, similar account is Fa-hien, the 5th century AD Chinese not seen in case of Kosala, and Kalinga, or on Pilgrim, visited Tamralipti. He came to this port any other Maha Janapadas. This makes more town from Champa after travelling 50 yojanas in confusion, and identification of places, thus suffers an easterly direction. from various irregularities. Scholars, however, Hiuen Tsang, the 7th century Chinese failed to notice its broad impact on regional Pilgrim , came to Bharokachha from Mo-ho-la- historical accounts. cha (Maharashtra) after travelling in a north-west One sees that Lata has been identified direction for about 2400 or 2500 li, and crossing with Gujarat, and Bharukachha with another of 48 JUNE - 2013 Odisha Review its city; if Tamluk is identified with one of the region became synonymous with South Kosala and of Bengal, and Madhupur in UP, Dwaraka in North Kosala. Gujarat, and Malla country in Punjab, what According to H A Giles, “the narratives happens to history when Pilgrim’s Varahi temple (of Hiuen Tsang) is continuous, without break and is covered under Magadha or in Bihar chapter of without punctuation”. Identification of places Pilgrim’s account ? Identification of places always visited by the Pilgrims as one notices in “Ancient demands that all the places visited by the Chinese Geography of India”, written by Cunningham, Pilgrims must be looked for within the boundary takes all the places out of “Madhyadesha”, and, of ‘Madhyadesha’, or the ‘Middle Country’ thus, many confusion occurs, persists, and hounds whose defined geographical boundary is the academics as before. preserved in the Ceylonese Chronicles. Fa-hien remained six years in “Madhyadesha”, and his King Vijaya, the first king of Ceylon, went place of visit must, thus, be looked inside that to Ceylon through this port, but it is also stated geographical boundary alone. And the river elsewhere that he was a resident of Radha. Silavati or Salavati, or Saravati, linked with According to Ceylonese Chronicles, King Vijaya Tamralipta, forms the southern boundary of the before starting on his sea voyage to Ceylon, he ‘Madhyadesha’. And river Mahi, and always was staying for three months at Madhupur. Chandrabhaga, were very close to southern sea Records of Sri Lankan Government, basing on shore. How they can be located elsewhere, and facts preserved in their Vamsa Gathas, clearly state far away from the coastal area. What the western in their text books, that King Vijaya migrated from scholars have done that they drew two parallel Kalinga; and the day he reached there, the Buddha lines on the political map of India, and named the died “here”. The Ceylonese Chronicles mention region as the “Middle Country” which later some other names of port towns, along with one became the “Mid India”, dumping this holy land Talada, and it may be interesting to see that all and its identification into oblivion. This mistake these ports can be searched for on a particular caused the wrong shifting of places from one coastal belt, not far from each other, and also not region to another region. Fergusson gives reasons far away from Tamralipta itself. for having dissenting views from the common King Asoka sent the Bodhi Tree to opinion that Tamluk is the modern representative Ceylon through Tamralipti port. It was a fourteen of Tamralipti. But he Rajendra Lal Gupta’s days’ journey to Ceylon from Tamralipti, out of identification again was accepted without taking which seven days ‘journey was spent from into historical consideration of Lata, and Suham. Pataliputra to Tamralipta on road. These are the Cunningham assigned Balabhi and Bharoch to information we have in history, that provides Western India forming a part of Saurashtra. But ample opportunities for scholars to look out where also agrees that these places belong to the really was this Tamralipti port. Dakhanos or to the Dhakhinapatha. This term “Dakshina’, is named to the route that the Vanga, Samatata, Suham, Tamralipta, Bodhisattva took when he fled on renunciation Gauda, and Pundravardhana, all these famous through the south gate of the Surama palace. places in history belonged to one compact Another concept arose for this land that lay to geographical and historical settlement.