Rarh Region - Accounts On Rarh and Gangaridae

Accounts On Rarh and Gangaridae

A chronological listing of account on both concepts:

6th century BC, Ladha is mentioned in the oldest Jain book of codes Acaranga Sutra:

Mahavira travelled in the pathless country of 'Ladha' in Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi in the sixth century BC in trying to propagate religion. During this period the settlement was 'pathless and lawless' and its people treated Mahavira harshly.

6th century BC, Lala is mentioned by Dipavangsha and Mahavangsha:

Sri Lanka was colonised by Prince Vijaya who hailed from Simhapura in Lala.

4th century BC, Gangaridai is mentioned by Megasthenes:

"Now this river, which at its source is 30 stadia broad, flows from north to south, and empties its waters into the ocean forming the eastern boundary of the Gangaridai, a nation which possesses a vast force of the largest-sized elephants. Owing to this, their country has never been conquered by any foreign king: for all other nations dread the overwhelming number and strength of these animals. [Thus Alexander the Macedonian, after conquering all Asia, did not make war upon the Gangaridai, as he did on all others; for when he had arrived with all his troops at the river Ganges, he abandoned as hopeless an invasion of the Gangaridai and India when he learned that they possessed four thousand elephants well trained and equipped for war."

"The least breadth of the Ganges is eight miles, and its greatest twenty. Its depth where it is shallowest is fully a hundred feet. The people who live in the furthest-off part are the Gangarides, whose king possesses 1,000 horse, 700 elephants, and 60,000 foot in apparatus of war."

1st century BC, Gangaridae is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus:

"When he (Alexander) moved forward with his forces certain men came to inform him that Porus, the king of the country, who was the nephew of that Porus whom he had defeated, had left his kingdom and fled to the nation of Gandaridae... He had obtained from Phegeus a description of the country beyond the Indus: First came a desert which it would take twelve days to traverse; beyond this was the river called the Ganges which had a width of thirty two stadia, and a greater depth than any other Indian river; beyond this again were situated the dominions of the nation of the Prasioi and the Gandaridae, whose king, Xandrames, had an army of 20,000 horse 200,000 infantry, 2,000 chariots and 4,000 elephants trained and equipped for war".... "Now this (Ganges) river, which is 30 stadia broad, flows from north to south, and empties its water into the ocean forming the eastern boundary of the Gandaridae, a nation which possesses the greatest number of elephants and the largest in size."

"Among the southern countries the first under the Kaukasos is India, a kingdom remarkable for its vast extent and the largeness of its population, for it is inhabited by very many nations, among which the greatest of all is that of the Gandaridae, against whom Alexander did not undertake an expedition, being deterred by the multitude of their elephants. This region is separated from farther India by the greatest river in those parts (for it has a breadth of thirty stadia), but it adjoins the rest of India which Alexander had conquered, and which was well watered by rivers and highly renowned for its prosperous and happy condition."

1st century AD, Gangaridae is mentioned by Quintus Curtius Rufus:

"Next came the Ganges, the largest river in all India, the farther bank of which was inhabited by two nations, the Gangaridae and the Prasii, whose King Aggrammes kept in field for guarding the approaches to his country 20,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry, besides 2,000 four-horsed chariots, and, what was the most formidable of all, a troop of elephants which he said ran up to the number of 3,000."

1st century AD, Gandaritai is mentioned by Plutarch:

"The Battle with Porus depressed the spirits of the Macedonians, and made them very unwilling to advance farther into India... This river (the Ganges), they heard, had a breadth of two and thirty stadia, and a depth of 1000 fathoms, while its farther banks were covered all over with armed men, horses and elephants. For the kings of the Gandaritai and the Prasiai were reported to be waiting for him (Alexander) with an army of 80,000 horse, 200,000 foot, 8,000 war-chariots, and 6,000 fighting elephants."

1st century AD, the people of Gangarides is mentioned by Pliny the Elder:

"In the final part of its Ganges course, which is through the country of the Gangarides.... But Prasii surpass in power and glory every other people, not only in this quarter, but one may say in all India, their capital Palibothra (Pataliputra), a very large and wealthy city, after which some call the people itself the Palibothri, (He talks about Prasii during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya)... In the parts which lie southward from the Ganges the inhabitants, already swarthy, are deeply coloured by the sun, though not scorched black like the Ethiopians.

1st century AD, Gangaridai is mentioned in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea:

"... Sailing with the ocean to the right and the shore remaining beyond to the left, Ganges comes into view, and near it the very last land toward the east, Chryse. There is a river near it called the Ganges, and it rises and falls in the same way as the Nile. On its bank is a market-town which has the same name as the river, Ganges. Through this place are brought malabathrum and Gangetic spikenard and pearls, and muslin of the finest sorts, which are called Gangetic. It is said that there are gold-mines near these places."

2nd century AD, Gangaridai is mentioned by Ptolemy:

"All the country about the mouths of the Ganges is occupied by the Gangaridai with this city : - Gange, the royal residence... 146- 19.15 degree."

3rd century, Gangaridai is mentioned by Dionysius Periegetes:

"Next come the wild tribes of the Peukalensians, beyond whom lie the seats of the Gangaridae, worshippers of Bacchus, ... the land here projects into the deep whirling ocean in steep precipices, over which the fowls of heaven in swift flight can hardly wing their way."

From 9th till 16th century:

• A Jain monk of Rara is mentioned in an inscription from Mathura.
• Radha's queen's imprisonment by Chandella is mentioned in the epigraphic records from Kajuraho.
• Radha is mentioned as being the ancestral settlement of Senas; in the Naihati Copper plate inscription of Vallalasena.
• Radha is mentioned as being a waterless, dry and woody region; in the Bhuvaneshvara inscription of Bhatta Bhavadeva.
• The division of Lada into North and South is mentioned in the Tirumulai rock inscription of Rajendra Chola. (11th century)
• The same division of Radha is also mentioned in the Gaonri Plates of Vakpati Munja (10th century), in Shridharacharya's Nyayakandali, in the Amareshvara Temple inscription of Mandhata (Nimar district in Madhya Pardesh), in Krsna Mishra's Prabodha-Chandrodaya and in Mukundarama's Chandimangal (16th century)