Suktimati
Shuktimati (Sanskrit: शुक्तिमती, romanized: Śuktimatī) is the capital city of the Chedi kingdom featured in Hindu literature.[1] It lays on the banks of the eponymous river Shuktimati, which flows through the region. It is referred to as Sotthivati-nagara in the Pali-language Buddhist texts.[2]
Legend
Shuktimati is described to have been built by a Chedi king of the Chandravamsha (Lunar dynasty) known as Uparichara Vasu. The Mahabharata states that the river Shuktimati gives birth to twins (a boy and a girl) after being forced to make love with a mountain called Kolahala. After being freed by the king with a kick, the river gives the twins to him. Uparichara Vasu makes the boy the commander of his armies and marries the girl, Girika.[3][4]
Identification
The location of Suktimati has not been established with certainty. Historian Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri and F. E. Pargiter believed that it was in the vicinity of Banda, Uttar Pradesh.[5] Archaeologist Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti has proposed that Suktimati can be identified as the ruins of a large early historical city, at a place with the modern-day name Rewa, Madhya Pradesh.[6]
References
- ^ Walker, Benjamin (9 April 2019). Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism. In Two Volumes. Volume II M-Z. Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-429-62419-3.
- ^ Raychaudhuri, Hem Chandra (1923), Political history of ancient India, from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty, Calcutta, Univ. of Calcutta, p. 66
- ^ Hiltebeitel, Alf (17 August 2011). Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 354. ISBN 978-0-19-539423-8.
- ^ Ganguli, Kisari Mohan (2004). The Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa. Kessinger Publishing. p. 154. ISBN 1-4191-7125-9.
- ^ Raychaudhuri, Hem Chandra (1923), Political history of ancient India, from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty, Calcutta, Univ. of Calcutta, p. 66
- ^ Chakrabarti, Dilip Kumar (2000), "Mahajanapada States of Early Historic India", in Hansen, Mogens Herman (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures: An Investigation, p. 387, ISBN 9788778761774
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