365bet娱乐

349
frontiers of the Vatsa kingdom, and it was well known for
specialization in Vedic learning."
It appears from the places mentioned above that in
the period when the poet flourished countries to the north
of the Narmada were well known and there was practically
no knowledge of the trans-Vindhyan southern region of
India. The southern places and mountains such as
Mahendra, Lank膩, Suvela, Malaya and Ki峁�kindh膩 are
simply copied from the R膩m膩ya峁嘺. This, of course, does
not in any way help us to fix the chronology of the poet,
as it has been shown that the whole of India was thoroughly
known to the Indians from very ancient times. It is always
unsafe to dogmatize on the strength of stray instances or
arguments ex silentia. Probably, after the era
adventurous merchants and colonizers was over, the general
populace fell in the dark as to the topography of the
country and the ignorance continued till the Maurya
emperors and their successors led their armies southwards
and annexed or subjugated the southern countries.
of
The separate mention of small states as separate
entities, however, definitely places the poet in the
pre-Mauryan period or in a period closely allied to the
Mauryan epoch when the memory of the separate states
was still fresh; for it would have been almost impossible
for a poet coming long after the period of their unification
and inclusion in the Mauryan empire and the loss of their
individuality, to mention the states, especially when we
take into consideration the scanty historical material the
ancients furnish us with, with all our historical research'.
So it can better be imagined how utterly impossible it
would have been for a poet of a late date to refer to such
details; to speak nothing of a southerner! Post-A艣okan
dramatists portraying southern countries exhibit a wide and
accurate knowledge of their topography.
1 Svapna, p. 27; Bhandarkar, Carm. Lect, p. 62.