Chhattisgarh - A Study in the Culture and Historical Geography (From Place Names in Inscriptions)

The region of Chhattisgarh, geographically encompassed with hills and forests all sides, is a compact unit and is drained by many rivers. This peculiar natural set up seems to have helped in developing its culture and civilisation with its own distinct characteristics. In ancient times it seems to have been divided into two parts. While some of its northern areas along with adjacent portion of modern Orissa state formed the part of Kosala or Mahākosala and some portion of Bastar district was included in Dandakäranya or Mahākäntara. We have sufficient evidence regarding its ancient culture when we come to the regime of Sarabhapuriya dynasty which was followed, successively and sometimes simultaneously, by the Panduvamsins of Mekalā, Pându vamsins of Kosala, Somavamsins of Kosala, Kalachuris of Ratanpur and some other minor dynasties. The present work is based on the evidence gleaned from place names mentioned in the grants of these dynasties, which have been classified in this study on the basis of prefixes and suffixes and are arranged under different heads such as Topography, Flora, Fauna, Settlement, Administrative divisions, Social, Economic and Religious conditions chronologically.

Dr. Malati Mahajan who retired as a Lecturer from the Post Graduate Teaching, Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Nagpur University is the student of the same department. She passed her M.A. examination in the first division and was awarded Motilal Nehru Centenary Prize for standing first in order of merit. She was recipient of U.G.C. scholarship while working for her Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. S.B. Deo. After obtaining Ph.D. she worked as research assistant with Dr. Deo and completed the work of translation of the topographical list of inscriptions of Maharashtra and Goa in Marathi. In the same capacity she worked with Dr. Ajay Mitra Shastri and completed the project titled Dictionary of Place names from inscriptions from Maharashtra and Goa.

Place names mentioned in the context of grants conferred upon Brāhmanas, Religious institutions etc. in the epigraphs form the important source for tracing the culture and historical geography of the particular region and period. Till recently place names were studied with the intention of tracing only the historical geography of the given period. Lately, however, this outlook towards the place names has been changed. While the scholars like Nandolal Dey, B.C. Law, Cunningham, etc. have studied the place names for tracing the historical geography many scholars of the day have traced the cultural history of Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujrat etc., with the help of place names mentioned in the epigraphs found in the regions. But most of these works seem to have been restricted to only one or the other aspect of place names. Further the data obtained has not been supplemented or corroborated with that of archaeological, literary, sculptural and internal evidence from epigraphs.

**Contents and Sample Pages**