Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/55

Rh In the Brahmāṇḍa section of the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa, the whole tract lying to the north of the Dārukeśvara river and extending along the Panchkot hills, has been called the Rāḍha country and the temple of Baidyanāth has been mentioned as existing in that tract.

That the main portion of the Bhagalpur Division was designated as Anga country, is well established now, and there is no need of demonstrating it here. It has also been well ascertained that the Suhma country which had Dāmalipti or Tāmralipta for its capital, must be identified with a very considerable portion of the district of Midnapur. We get in the Mahābhārata, that the five sons of Bali were the progenitors of the allied races of the Angas, the Puṇḍras, the Vangas, the Suhmas, and the Kalingas (Adi, C. IV, 4217-21). All these tribes have been so described in the Mahābhārata, as to indicate that they lived in close proximity to one another. The Puṇḍras have been mentioned as Suhmottaras in the Matsya Purāṇa, and in the Mahābhārata too, the Puṇḍras and the Suhmas have been placed near to each other (Adi, C. XIII, 24, 53). No doubt the Puṇḍras proceeded northward subsequently, and founded Puṇḍravardhan in North Bengal, but their early distribution points to the fact, that they occupied the tract of Bengal which lies to the north of Midnapur.

The account we get of Bali Raja from the Dravidian source should interest us all. The Hindu account is that Śrikriṣṇa by resorting to a godly trick sent Bali, to Pātāla or Nether world. It is interesting that Bali, who was a Daitya, is worshipped in Southern India as an ideal Raja of the good old days, and there is a town by the sea-coast of the name Mahabalipuram over which Bali presides. Bali is called Mābali or Mahābali, and there is a religious festival of high importance to celebrate his memory in the Malayalam tract of the Madras Presidency; this 5