northern and southern limits of Telingana proper, as exhibited in our best maps, will be found to coincide very nearly with the sites of these two temples.
In further confirmation of this tradition, it may be noticed that Ptolemy mentions “Triglyphon vel Trilingum regia”[1] but places it beyond the Ganges; and that Pliny, alluding to the same region, under its purer name of Modogalingum[2] makes it an island in the Ganges—“Insula in gange estmagncæ amplitudinis, gentem continens unam, Modogalingum nomine.”
Inaccuracies respecting situation are not uncommon in the writings of the ancients relative to Indian geography, and those which have just been mentioned, with some other similar inconsistencies, may perhaps be reconciled, by supposing that under the name of the Ganges, either the Ganges proper, or the Godavery, may occasionally be understood. In the Peninsula, each of these rivers is known by the name of the Gunga, and they are looked upon as sister streams.[3] The Godavery is here considered the elder of the two, perhaps from its being the first known to the inhabitants of these regions; and the Ganges proper is deemed the more holy, apparently from the present religion of India, having originated, or been more early established, on its banks. The ancient books[4] of the Hindoos, indeed, bear testimony that, even in the most remote times, these two rivers have occasionally been considered as one; for, in more than one place
- ↑ He adds, in hoc galli gallinacei barbati esse dicuntur, et corvi et psiltaci albi-శ్రీకాకుళము. The Sicacollum of Arrowsmith, which stands in the Masulipatam district, a little above the mouth of the Krishna, is the Sanscrit name for a peculiar red or whitish crow.
- ↑ It has been already stated that Tri and Modoga are synonymous terms.
- ↑ So intimate is the connexion between these two rivers, that those who carry the sacred water of the Ganges to the south of India, when they arrive on the banks of the Godavery, invariably replace the water of the Ganges, evaporated on the journey, by water taken from its sister stream the Godavery. The whole is notwithstanding considered to be the pure water of the Ganges, and this ceremony is never omitted. If it were, it is believed, and perhaps with reason, that the water would disappear before it could reach Rameswarum.
- ↑ In the Vayu Puran the course of the Ganges is thus described.—“The Ganges flows through the Ganᶁharvas, Cinnaras, Yacshas, Racshagas, Vidyaᶁharas. (Uragas or large snakes; these are tribes of demons god and bad in the hill.) Cálapagramacas, Paradas, Svigánas, Svasas, Ceratas, Pulindas, Curavas, in Guru about Tanehsar, Sam-Bharatas, Pnnchalas, C’asi or Benares, Matsyas, Magadhas (or south Hehar) Brahmottaras, Angas, Bangas, Calingas,” &c. Asiatic researches Vol. 8th. Essay on the sacred isles in the west.
