Volume 16

The Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency.

Date:
1877-1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    NASIK. 629 into the Xth and Xlth caves. In cave XI. they carved images of Rishabhadeva the first Tirthankar, of the goddess Ambika, and of Yira Manibhadra; and in cave X. they turned a relic-shrine into an image of JBhaiTCivu or Viva and added a similar Bhairava in the court. These changes could not have been made had Buddhism been flourishing at Nasik in the eleventh century. Later, probably much later, the caves seem to have been used either as a Maratha fort, or as dwellings by the Pendharis. Gunpowder seems to have been freely used in breaking several of the caves, and an attempt seems to have been made to store as much water as possible. This attempt to store water suggests that the hill was used as a fort or at least as a gathering place for bodies of men, and the rope-rings for tying horses and cattle appear to belong to this time. The people in the neighbourhood have entirely forgotten that they are Buddhist caves, and call them Pandu Lena. Even Hindus of the Brahmanical religion, who come on pilgrimage to Nasik, visit the caves as a holy place, regarding the images of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas as the statues of the five Pandav brothers, Yudhish- £hira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva, and of Krishna, Bhishma, and Kama. A Gurav of Pathardi village at the foot of the hill attends daily at the caves to serve as a guide to visitors. Cave XX. is occasionally used as a residence by Vairagis. The Nasik inscriptions give an unusually large number of names of countries, mountains, rivers, cities, towns, and villages. The countries mentioned are Dakhmapatha, Asika, Susaka, Mudaka, Suratha, Kukura, Aparata, Anupa, Vidabha, Akaravati, and Malaya. Except Malaya (insc, 10, 1. 5) these names all occur in inscription 2. Dakhinapatha (Sk, DalcshiTicLpcitlMi) occurs in line 11 of inscription 2, where the donor of a grant to cave III., probably Vasishthiputra PuZumavi, is called lord of Dakhmapatha. The word means the Indian peninsula'south of the Narbada. In his inscription on the Allahabad pillar, Samudragupta, the fourth Gupta king (Gupta era about 60 or about a.d. 227) mentions among the kings of Dakshinapatha conquered by him the kings of Kanchi or Conjeveram, of Yengi on the east coast between the Krishna and the Godavari, and of Pethapur in the North Circars. The author of the Periplus (a.d. 247) calls the country to the south of Broach Dakhinabades and names Paithana and Tagara as its chief marts. And in the great Chapter XIV. Places of Interest. Nasik. P&ndu-Lena Caves. Asika, Susaka, and Mudaka are three of the countries over which fiautamiputra is said to have ruled. These countries are not men- tioned in the Purans, or in Varahamihir’s (a.d. 500) Brihat Samhita, or in any other Western India cave inscription. They appear to be the names of people rather than of countries. Asika or Arshika appears to correspond with Arsak or the Arsacidse, the name of the well known Parthian rulers of Persia (b.c. 250 - a.d. 250). So late as Geography. Dakshinapatha. Asika. Susaka. Mudaka, NAnighat inscription 1; McCrindle’s Periplus, 124-126 ; Ndsik inscription 2,