Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Panini, Abhinavagupta, etc.

[Narayan S. Raja]

On Mon, 11 Jan 1999, DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA wrote:

> Let us be clear about some general commonsense points.
>
> 1. Because of the poor means of communication in the old days, normally
>    any thing that travels to tamilnadu has to go either through
>    Andhra or Maharashtra. This means that whether it is mahAyAna or
>    mahAbhAshyA, normally it will be communicated to tamilnadu after it
>    has been established in these two regions. The chances of a jump
>    right from north to tamilnadu is very very unlikely. Remember
>    there were no aeroplanes in those days and travel was by foot or
>    at the most by horse drawn carriage and very few people could afford
>    the latter.

However, sea travel was well-established
even in ancient days -- which means that
people could possibly have gone
directly between north and south India
without making an extended transit of
middle India.  A well-known example:
the Sinhalas of Sri Lanka are said to
have arrived -- by ship -- either from
Orissa, or from Gujarat, or possibly both.

Regards,


Raja.