Geographical as well as Geo-political unit of Zone I

This present geographical zone was variously known as Suhma and Rāḍha in the ancient time. The antiquity of the word Suhma may be traced back to the time of Patañjali, 2^nd century BCE (Puri 1957, Bhattacharyya 1977: 45). The Suhma is referred to as an eastern country in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā (X, 37; VIV, 5; XVI.1) and in Rājaśekhara’s Kāvyamīmāṃsā (Dalal & Sastry 1934: 93). The name Suhma had fallen into disuse since about the 12^th century CE, when it was last mentioned in the Pavanabadūta by Dhoyīka (Chakravarti 1905: 53-71; Chakravarti 1926; De 1971: 363-4). Bānabhaṭṭa, the author of the Harṣacarita (Cowell & Thomas 1897), was acquainted with the name Suhma (Chap. VI) in the seven century CE and it was also mentioned in the Kāvyamīmāṃsā in 9^th century CE (Dalal & Sastry 1934). The use of the name Suhma was gradually abandoned in favour of Rāḍha, which seems to have become more popular. In this context is should be mentioned that the Jain Ācārāṅgasūtra 1.8.3 (Jacobi 1884: 84f.) records that Mahāvīra’s itinerary included Lāḍha (i.e., Rāḍha) comprising Vajjabhūmi (Vajrabhūmi) and Subbhabhūmi (Suhmabhūmi). It may therefore be surmised that there were some followers of Jainism in Rāḍha area. Since this Jain text mentions that this geographical unit of Lāḍha (i.e., Rāḍha) had two sub-divisions i.e., Vajjabhūmi (Vajrabhūmi) and Subbhabhūmi (Suhmabhūmi) it may be assumed that Subbhabhūmi (Suhmabhūmi) is a corrupted form of Subbhabhūmi or Suhma (ibid.). It is not unlikely that Suhma originally denoted the southern portions of Rāḍha. The Ācārāṅgasūtra 1.8.3 mentions that the tract which Mahāvīra traversed was, to a considerable extent, covered with forests and jungles. It has been described as a pathless country, where “it was difficult to travel”. People lived in scattered villages and the speech of the people was non-Aryan (ibid.). The detailed description, in the Ācārāṅgasūtra, of the Rāḍha region reflects the nature of the geographical character as well as the diverse population of this zone. In the Jain Bhagavatī Sūtra Rāḍha is mentioned as one of the sixteen janapadas (Sen 1942: 46).

The development of sedentary agricultural society and the secondary state formation in this lateritic tract is attested by the Susunia rock inscription of Candravarman, son of Siṃhavarman, a worshipper of Caksvāmin, i.e. Viṣṇu. He ruled at a place called Puṣkaraṇa, identified with modern village of Pakhanna in the district of Bankura on the bank of river Damodar (Vasu 1895: 177-80; Sastri 1982: 133). This inscription indicates the existence of a kingdom in the Damodar valley or in the central-western West Bengal by the fourth-fifth centuries and the king Candravarman is generally identified with the king of the same name mentioned in the Allahabad inscription of Samudragupta (Sircar 1985: 139-40)^[1].

The discoveries of the sixth and the seventh century epigraphic records in the middle of Damodar floodplains, the Bhagirathi basin area and the extreme south-western tracts of the Rāḍha country are the major archaeological evidences concerning the existence of a ruling authority as well as administrative units. From the Malla Sarul Copper-Plate (Majumdar 1940: 155-61) we come to know that the trans-Damodar region formed part of a provincial-level administrative centre of Varddhamāna from as early as the sixth century CE. This Copper-Plate further reflects the existence of two distinct socio-political elements: the area of power and the area of activity which were connected with each other through the formation of agrarian Brahmanical settlements within strictly specified rural areas. The Copper-Plate refers to the Brahmanical settlements and the seal of this Copper-Plate bears an image of king standing in front of a twenty-spooked wheel. This particular image is much similar to the image depicted in the centre of the pedestal of the Tīrthaṅkara Neminātha image from Rajgir hill. This inscribed Neminātha image is dated fifth century CE (Chandra 1928: 121-127).

From the seventh and eighth centuries CE onwards we have numerous inscriptional evidences from this zone. Among these, some have highlighted the geographical features of the zone. The Bhuvaneswar Praśasti of Bhaṭṭabhavadeva refers to the Rāḍha as a waterless and arid region (Majumdar 1929: 35-40). In the first quarter of the 11^th century Rāḍha was divided into two parts, Uttara-R āḍha and Dakṣiṇa-Rāḍha. The Tirumalai inscription of Rājendra Chola (Hultzsch 1981: 229-33) clearly mentions two division of Rāḍha, the northern and southern. This record refers to the kingdom of Takkaṇalāḍam (i.e., Dakṣiṇa-Rāḍha) and Uttiralāḍam (i.e., Uttara Rāḍha). The present zone I was a part of ancient Dakṣiṇa-Rāḍha. The Gaonri inscription of Vākpati Muñja (Dikshit 1984: 105) also mentions about the Dakṣiṇa-Rāḍha. Daṇḍa bhukti, a territorial unit of ancient Bengal, located in the south-western part of West Bengal is analogous to present West Midnapur district. This geo-political unit was first mentioned in the two Midnapur copper plates of Śaśāṅka (Majumdar 1945: 1-9; Furui 2011: 119-30). On the basis of the available evidence Daṇḍa bhukti may be taken to have comprised the south-western part of Bengal, particularly southern and south-western region of the modern district of West Midnapur, and a part of the district of Balasore in Orissa^[2]. The memory of the name Daṇḍa bhukti survives in the name of the modern locality of Dantan/Datan in District West Midnapur. In this context it should be mentioned that during our exploration we were able to document some Jain antiquities from the Dantan region.

Earlier discoveries and the present extensive field study prove that the archaeological findings related to Jainism found in ancient Bengal are largely concentrated in this Rāḍha region (zone I of the present study).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

However, since efforts towards as archaeological corroboration of Puṣkaraṇa, the capital of Candravarman, has completely failed, the historical connection of this epigraph with the region of the present zone still remains unknown. However, it should be remind that the nature and spatial extension of the rich occupation deposits at Pakhanna, at the same time, the possibility of the existence of a local ruling authority in the western sectors of West Bengal during the Gupta period cannot be altogether ruled out. It has been regarded as the capital of a kingdom which was oriented towards southwest Bengal and was rich in “forest-produce, iron ores and some copper” (Chakrabarti 1998: 63).

[2]:

According to N.G.Majumdar the Daṇḍa bhukti or the Daṇḍa bhukti-maṇḍala (latter which belonged to the Vardhamāna-bhukti) “comprised at least the southern and south-western portion of the Midnapur district including the lower reaches of the Suvarnarekha river, if not a portion of the Balasore district itself (Majumdar 1984: 150-59).