Dakshinapatha

Dakshinapatha is a important historical region (equivalent of present day South India) or a road in ancient India which may mean;

Historical background

Panini (500 BCE) in his 'Aṣṭādhyāyī' mentions Asmaka Kingdom in connection with Dakshinatya and Kalinga.[4].Dakshinapatha also finds mention in Junagarh rock inscription of Indo-Scythian king Rudradharman from 150 CE

...who by force destroyed the Yaudheyas who were loath to submit, rendered proud as they were by having manifested their' title of' heroes among all Kshatriyas; who obtained good report because he, in spite of having twice in fair fight completely defeated Satakarni, the lord of Dakshinapatha, on account of the nearness of their connection did not destroy him; who [obtained] victory . . . . . . . .; who reinstates deposed kings;

— Rudradaman I, Junagadh rock inscription

Description

The Dakshinapatha trade route was one of two great highways that have connected different parts of the sub-continent since the Iron Age. The other highway was the Uttarapatha or the great northern road that ran from Taxila in Pakistan, through the modern Punjab up to the western coast of Yamuna. Following the course of Yamuna it went southwards up to Mathura, from there it passed on to Ujjain in Malwa and to Broach on western coast. According to "Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography" by Sanjeev Sanyal, the trajectory of the northern road has remained roughly the same from pre-Mauryan times and is now NH2. However, the southern road appears to have drifted. Rama's route into exile in the epic may have been an early version of the road, but by the time of Buddha it started at Varanasi and ran through Vidisha in central India, to Pratishthana (Paithan). It probably extended all the way to Chola, Chera and Pandya kingdoms of the extreme south. By the Mauryan period there would have been a branch from Ujjain to the ports of Gujarat. This made Ujjain a major city by Gupta times. Today Dakshinapatha is known as NH7, which runs much further east of the old road but still meets NH2 at Varanasi.[5]

See also

References
  1. Singh, U. (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education. p. 289. ISBN 9788131711200. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  2. http://www.historytoday.com/historical-dictionary/d/dakshinapatha
  3. "Dakkhināpatha". palikanon.com. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  4. Gupta, Kalyan Kumar Das (1972). "The Aśvakas: an Early Indian Tribe". East and West. 22 (1/2): 33–40. ISSN 0012-8376. JSTOR 29755742.
  5. Sanjeev, Sanyal (2012-11-15). Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. p. 71-76. ISBN 9788184756715.

Further reading


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