has been shown, the Âpastambîyas probably originated. Again, Baudhâyana, in his Dharma-sûtra I, 1, quotes some verses in which it is said that he who visits the Kaliṅgas must purify himself by the performance of certain sacrifices in order to become fit for again associating with Aryans. The same author, also, mentions distinctive forbidden practices (âkâra) prevailing in the south (loc. cit.). Further, Pânini's grammatical Sûtras and Kâtyâyana's Vârttikas thereon contain rules regarding several words which presuppose an acquaintance with the south and the kingdoms which flourished there. Thus Pânini, IV, 2, 98, teaches the formation of dâkshinâtya in the sense of 'belonging to or living in the south or the Dekhan,' and a Vârttika of Kâtyâyana on Pânini, IV, 1, 175, states that the words Kola, and Pândya are used as names of the princes ruling over the Kola, and Pândya, countries, which, as is known from history, were situated in the extreme south of India. The other southern nations and a fuller description of the south occur first in the Mahâbhârata[1]. While an acquaintance with the south can thus be proved only by a few books belonging to the later stages of Vedic literature, several of the southern kingdoms are named already in the oldest historical documents. Asoka in his edicts[2], which date from the second half of the third century B. C., calls the Kolas, Pândyas, and the Keralaputra or Ketalaputra his pratyantas (prakantâ) or neighbours. The same monarch informs us also that he conquered the province of Kaliṅga and annexed it to his kingdom[3], and his remarks on the condition of the province show that it was thoroughly imbued with the Aryan civilisation[4]. The same fact is attested still more clearly by the annals of the Keta, king of Kaliṅga, whose thirteenth year fell in the 165th year of the Maurya era or about 150 B. C.[5] The early
- ↑ Lassen, Ind. Alterthumskunde, I, 684, 2nd ed.
- ↑ Edict II, Epigraphia Indica, vol. ii, pp. 449–450, 466.
- ↑ Edict XIII, op. cit., pp. 462–465, 470–472.
- ↑ See also Indian Antiquary, vol. xxiii, p. 246.
- ↑ Actes du 6ième Congrès Int. d. Orient, vol. iii, 2, 135 seqq., where, however, the beginning of the Maurya era is placed wrongly in the eighth year of Asoka.
