Vol. VI, No. 11.] History of the District of Hughli. 605 



[N.S.] 



native country of Bijaya, with Guzerat by some writers cannot 

 at all be correct. 



Prom the 4th century B.C. to the 5th century A.D., that 

 is from the time of Chandragupta's accession to the throne of 

 Magadha in 321 B.C., to the end of the imperial Gupta dynasty 

 in 480 A.D., Sumha appears to have formed a part of the 



Magadha empire. 1 The Purans, most of which were composed 



between the 2nd century B.C. to the 5th century A.D., very 

 rarely mention the name of Sumha. The Vishnu and the 

 Bhagavat Purans 2 mention it incidentally; the Brahma, the 

 Matsya, 3 and the Kalki^ Purans, however, include it in the list 

 of countries which appear to have been independent, though it 



ac 



not. In some of them the name of Sumha is mentioned as 



Sumbha or Saumbha, as Subba ( — bhumi), Surama( — bandara) 



and Suppa ( — devi) were the vicarious forms of the same name 



during the mediaeval period. During this period if Sumha 



ever attained independence, it must have been of a very short 



duration. The Raghuvansa 5 mentions it as an independent 



country. Fa Hian, who visited India in the 4th century A.D., 



went from the kingdom of Champa (Anga) to the kingdom of 



Tamralipta: he does not mention the name of Sumha at 

 all* 



In the 6th century A.D. we find Sumha mentioned again 

 as an independent country. It is mentioned in the Brihat- 

 sanhita 7 among the kingdoms which appear to be independent 

 by Barahamihira who died in 587 A.D. Dandi, who flourished 

 also in the 6th century A.D , mentions the town of Damalipta, 

 modern Tamluk, 8 as being situated in Sumha, 9 but at the time 

 of Fa Hian Tamralipta or Tamluk had been an independent 

 kingdom. Hence the inference is that in the 6th century Sumha 

 extended its southern boundary to the sea. 



But after the 6th century A.D., the name of Sumha dis- 

 appears altogether as the name of a country. The only Works 

 of any note in which the name of Sumha appears after the 6th 

 century are the Harshacharita by Bana and the Pavanaduta 

 by Dhoyi, one of the Pancha-ratnas or five gems of the court of 

 Lakshmana Sena of Gauda. 10 Henceforth it was exclusively 

 known by the name of R&da or Rada, a form of which was 

 Radaka. Most of the Tantras were composed between the 6th 

 and 12th centuries of the Christian era. Some of them, as the 



i4. 



ch. 



1 Dr. Bhandarkar's Peep into the Early History of India. 



* Vishnu Puran, pt. iv, ch. 18 ; Bhagavat Puran, ch. 9. 

 8 Matsya Puran, eh US. * Kalki Puran, pt. iii, oh. 

 6 Raghuvansa, iv, 35. 6 " Seal's Travels of Fa Hian, ch. xxxvii. 



Brihatsanhita, chs. 14, 16. 8 Hema Kosha. 



* m%F ^T^f^JTI^^^T •TJT^*iS I Dasakumaracharita, Uttara Khamla, 



VI. 



*0 Harshacharita, ch. vi ; Pavanduta, v. 27 



